The Low Carbon Community Challenge – Parish Power June 2010 Educate, conserve, sustain: farm as if we‘ll live forever
Chris Jones • Local organic livestock farmer • Born near Truro (NOT Redruth) • Have been involved in a range of work over the years – policeman, soldier, forester, mud engineer, farmer and teacher. • Today involved with running the family farm/study centre and Groundswell and Transition Ladock.
Woodland Valley Farm is a working organic farm, but more importantly an outdoor classroom An outdoor classroom where people can take part in farming and countryside management in order to promote an awareness and appreciation of land use, conservation, human survival, sustainability, self sufficiency and environmental studies and education Educate, conserve, sustain: farm as if we‘ll live forever
It is a family farm Mixed organic farm In production ‐ 63 Ha Woodland – 8 Ha Organic Suckler Beef herd Rare breed organic pork 5 ‐ 10 Ha organic cereals / protein crops Educate, conserve, sustain: farm as if we‘ll live forever
The outdoor classroom Why? Outdoor education is vital An awareness of where food comes from An appreciation of the natural environment Educate, conserve, sustain: farm as if we‘ll live forever
The change in direction we have taken enables us to experiment, try new things, or re ‐ try old ones. Educate, conserve, sustain: farm as if we‘ll live forever
Such as using waste materials to turn hard space into growing space... Educate, conserve, sustain: farm as if we‘ll live forever
Or using waste to build new structures... Educate, conserve, sustain: farm as if we‘ll live forever
Ladock Parish 1530 people Two villages – Ladock c100 houses Grampound Rd c 500 The remainder scattered around Farms and hamlets, 670 dwellings in total Each village has a school, pub, shop, village hall and cricket club BUT, Grampound Road has many newer houses built on estates since the 1970s, and has less sense of community than Ladock. Grampound Road is a dormitory for TRURO and ST AUSTELL. Both villages have allotments, started in the last 2 years. Educate, conserve, sustain: farm as if we‘ll live forever
Background To Low Carbon Community Challenge Aim: to transform the way that communities use and even produce energy and build new ways of supporting more sustainable living. This against the background of 80% GHG reduction by 2050 Government, for once thinking laterally , decided to see what real people might do to realise this, if given the opportunity. Educate, conserve, sustain: farm as if we‘ll live forever
The Most Important thing A government department using the taxpayers money to let taxpayers work out their own future ‐ £500k per community that won... Whatever next. Educate, conserve, sustain: farm as if we‘ll live forever
Where we are now • 20kWp of Solar PV • 28kW Air Source Heat Pumps • 26kW Ground Source Heat Pumps • 46kW Biomass heating • 20kW Wind Turbine • 10kW Solar Thermal • 6.5 Acre Edible Woodland • Total installed capacity 150kW • Total combined (electrical and thermal energy) annual output of around 215MWh • CO2 Saving of 123 tonnes annually of which 17% is from the woodland (3% OF THE COST!!) • Estimated income from FITS £20 ‐ 25,000 from year 1 (and growing)
Where we are now • These installations cover 16 dwellings, 4 businesses, two village schools and two public building. • At the launch a further 25 people signed up to be kept in touch with the development of the community fund and future project actions. • So far additional 51 completed Home Energy Checks by post as a result of the parish ‐ wide mail shot (670 homes). • And we are on Facebook (whatever that is).
Upsides Community working together, for common goals. Building on the other work our transition group has been doing and bringing more people out of the woodwork. Providing an economic opportunity for the community – and a fund that can be spent on more low carbon installations for parishioners in the future. Educate, conserve, sustain: farm as if we‘ll live forever
Downsides Divisive nature of the project – ie some people did not get picked... Can we build resilience dependant on technologies and public subsidy. Most of this work depends on the functioning of the grid (with the exception of the nut trees) Educate, conserve, sustain: farm as if we‘ll live forever
The Planning Regime The Planning regime MUST change if we are to make significant inroads into our carbon budgets. Sadly we have been subject to a series of broken promises and have had to really fight with the planners to achieve what we have, and have ongoing fights to get the support we need for ourselves and for the wider community. Eg Green Bank. Educate, conserve, sustain: farm as if we‘ll live forever
Community Energy Plus If you are in Cornwall, make use of this charity. It has outstanding knowledge of renewables and low carbon living in general, and its staff are second to none. Without CEP and in particular Neil Farington and Russell Geake this project would not have reached this stage. If you live somewhere which is not served by such a charity, get one. Educate, conserve, sustain: farm as if we‘ll live forever
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