Local renewable energy project
In very exciting news, Wellow and Peasedown have been identified as a potential site for a renewable energy project. Funding has been made available to help our parishes explore and develop a renewable energy project that will eventually bring our communities direct benefit – both in sustainable energy, and in the form of community grants. There may even potentially be lower energy costs, as well as the ongoing security of community owned energy production.
However, in order for this project to get off the ground, there needs to be community interest and engagement. After recently attending our village show in the pavilion for informal chats, a consultation process is formally beginning with a launch event on Saturday 8th November at The Hive in Peasedown 10am-1pm. Please do make the effort to drop in, speak to one of the team there, ask questions and make your views known. The aim of this consultation process is to shape whatever project gets developed, but that won’t happen without our input, so do pop in to the event and make sure that Wellow’s views are heard.
There will also be tea and cake, children’s activities, and other home energy advice available. See you there!
This event is part of the “Energy in Your Community” programme, run by the Community Energy Network – a partnership between Bath & North East Somerset Council, Bath & West Community Energy, the Centre for Sustainable Energy, and the University of Bath.
WeCOF contribution to Village Shop Heat Pump fund
Our village initiative to offset air travel and/or oil purchasing by funding local carbon reduction projects has been able to make a generous donation of just under £400 to the Village Shop heat pump fund. This has been match funded to bring the total sum contributed to about £800, just about a tenth of the total sum needed. This significant benefit to our community has been made possible by your donations to WeCOF – thank you for looking after our community’s future.
WeCOF research into Community Electric Vehicle Charging
Following on from the village survey carried out by the Parish Council last year, which identified climate change as the 2nd most important issue to parishioners, communal electric vehicle (EV) charging ports were proposed as a point for community action. WeCOF has done a huge amount of groundwork into exploring this, with help from the National Grid and a local reputable car charging port installation company.
Three potential sites were identified, with pros and cons for each. The village hall/pavilion car park is the cheapest site at £10000 for one EV charging port (2 cars) utilising existing cabling, but with limited ability for further expansion. The Station Road car park would cost at least £25000 and require the consent of private landowners to install electric cabling across fields, but has the potential for up to 5 ports (10 cars). The lay-by on Mill Hill was identified as another potential site, which would cost at least £20000 and require the consent of the Highways Authority, for a maximum of 1 port (2 cars). There would need to be a baseline commitment to usage of the charging ports in order to cover their ongoing annual costs of about £2-3000 after the initial installation.
The hope on founding WeCOF was that village air travel or oil purchase offset contributions could directly fund these kinds of projects within our community. If you would like to contribute, or to learn more about the EV charging research, please contact Chris Wordsworth on WeCOF@future.wellow.org.
Future Wellow and WeCOF finances
An open village meeting was held on October 14th to discuss this issue. The Parish Council has held the community funds on behalf of Future Wellow (donated from Village Show proceedings a few years ago) and WeCOF since its inception. Recently, they have stated that they are no longer willing to manage these funds. This is disappointing as they were supportive of the founding of WeCOF, and previously suggested that Future Wellow should act as the working party for issues of climate and the environment as the PC do not have capacity to take action on such matters themselves. They have given us until March to find alternative ways of holding the funds. The group is looking into ways of doing this without forming yet another village committee, and will provide further updates once a sustainable way forward has been decided.
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