EEDA - East of England Development Agency

Communities battle for low carbon funding

1 July 2008

Nine communities from across the East of England have been shortlisted to battle it out for a share of £500,000 in the first round of Cut your Carbon, a regional competition to find innovative and inspiring ways of cutting carbon emissions.

Cut your Carbon is an awareness-raising campaign and funding competition, led by the East of England Development Agency (EEDA), with £2.5 million available over its three-year lifespan. 

The nine communities shortlisted are:

• Brickendon Liberty, a Hertfordshire village, who want energy monitors for everyone taking part in their new 'Watt Watchers' scheme, which mimics a typical slimming club and invites villagers to attend meetings, clutching their electricity bills to compare readings. 
  
• Cranfield, a Bedfordshire village that hopes its dream of a safe, attractive route for cycling and walking between Cranfield village and Cranfield University will become a reality.
  
• Flitton and Greenfield Carbon Challenge group in Bedfordshire, who want to win funding towards their school solar energy project and ultimately sell electricity back to the National Grid.
  
• Highwood, a village in Essex which has applied for funds towards the £1 million it needs to replace its village hall, demolished in 2004. Highwood intends to build its new hall meeting the Association of Environmentally Conscious Building (AECB) Gold Advanced Energy Standard.
  
• Holt Area Partnership, a group of villages in North Norfolk who have applied for the funds to change existing street lights to solar powered alternatives.
  
• Othona, an open community in Essex grounded in Christian values, who want to replace a condemned building with a low-carbon, straw bale construction.
  
• Reepham, a Norfolk town which intends to become carbon neutral, that wants to develop a car club, which they hope will reduce car ownership and emissions among members.
  
• Sproughton, a Suffolk village that intends to use the funds to breathe new life into its tithe barn, making it the flagship of their award winning carbon reduction project.
  
• Wenhaston Energy Support Group (WESG) who have applied for funds to generate energy for their village hall, which provides vital facilities for this rural community in Suffolk with poor access to local services.

EEDA brought together a range of specialists in the field of carbon reduction, including the School of Environmental Studies, University of East Anglia and Renewables East, to decide which of the original 24 entrants should make the shortlist. These communities will now present, on 8 July, in a friendly "Dragon's Den" to a panel of expert judges, including: Edward Hyams, chairman of the UK  Energy Saving Trust, Dave Hampton the well known 'carbon coach' and Fay Mansell, chair of the National Federation of Women's Institutes. As well as the carbon cutting potential of the projects, the communities will have to demonstrate a sound business plan, to win funding of up to £200,000 per project.

EEDA chair Richard Ellis, commented: "Cut your Carbon is an exciting campaign, which has the potential to help make a difference to the region's carbon footprint over the coming years.  We hope the impact will be much wider than simply those who win funding, as other communities will be spurred on and inspired by the campaign and the actions of those communities who win funding."

Campaign manager Alex Menhams said: "It has been a tough job narrowing down this shortlist as there were lots of excellent entries, but I believe these final nine are a diverse collection of projects that can offer real carbon savings. I certainly hope that those communities who didn't make it to the judging panel will continue in their efforts and make use of our Community Support Officers and all the resources available on our website www.cutyourcarbon.org.uk."

On the campaign website, www.cutyourcarbon.org.uk, community groups can come together and measure their carbon emissions by using a unique community carbon footprint calculator. The system allows individuals and groups to chart their success over time and find ways of cutting even more carbon from their daily lives.

The successful communities will be announced on 9 July.

• Cut your Carbon

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