Ashton Hayes Going Carbon Neutral Project Update,
July 2006 – Ashton Hayes Parish Council

Sorry it’s been a little time since the last bulletin. We’ve been holding off issuing this notice until we had firm confirmation of our DEFRA grant and completed the analysis of our recent house-to-house survey (see below).

• We are pleased to report that the project has been awarded a £26,500 grant by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) to help us fund project events and to ‘spread the word’ about the need to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and stem climate change.

 The funding is being provided by DEFRA’s Tomorrow’s Climate – Today’s Challenge campaign and covers the next two years. The Ashton Hayes Going Carbon Neutral Project is one of about 80 projects to have secured funding – out of 507 entries. The part-funding must be spent on communicating our experiences in Ashton Hayes to other communities around the UK through a film, the web and a practical ‘toolkit’ for other communities to use. DEFRA has also asked us to earmark £5000 towards organising a national conference of like-minded communities in the coming year. We are hoping to organise the meeting at the University of Chester in spring 2007.

DEFRA is also keen that we examine the use of carbon offsetting as part of our carbon neutral ambitions. They are encouraging people to look at websites such as http://www.climatecare.org that will offset your carbon dioxide emissions by funding sustainable development programmes. This is not the ideal answer, as reducing emissions is better than offsetting – but you might like to consider this and, if you begin offsetting, let us know your savings during next year’s student survey.

• Baseline survey results: Thanks to everyone who took part in the household survey in May. We have now completed our initial analysis of the information collected and estimate that the total carbon dioxide output from the village is 4,765 tonnes per year.  With about 370 houses in the village this gives an average of 12 to 13 tonnes per house per year, slightly above the UK average of about 10 tonnes per house.  To provide a clearer picture we have calculated an individual carbon footprint for every household that took part in the survey and the average output by house type. This will be hand delivered to each household along with ideas for how more savings might be made. Since we launched the project in January our energy saving actions have already resulted in us reducing our emissions by about 40 tonnes/year. This amounts to a saving of almost 1% of the village emissions.

The amount of data we have collected from a wide range of homes will also enable the University of Chester to begin working on a toolkit that will enable other communities to make a rapid estimate of their emissions according to their housing stock. We hope to experiment with the use of the toolkit with our friends and neighbours in Tattenhall and Kelsall. Have a look at the table overleaf to see the approximate emissions from your home.

Table:  The average carbon footprint calculated for each house type. This could act as a ready reckoner for other communities to use.

• Cred ‘first’ for Chester to help all residents take personal steps towards reducing their carbon footprint:The Ashton Hayes Going Carbon Neutral Project has been instrumental in encouraging Chester in Partnership to join forces with the University of Chester to bring a Carbon Reduction Programme - known as CRed Chester - to the Chester District. This is an educational tool that gives practical guidance and support to anyone who is keen to take steps to combat climate change.

CRed Chester will firstly seek to raise awareness of the importance of tackling climate change and help participants understand the profile of their own CO2 emissions. Individuals/organisations are then encouraged to pledge actions to reduce their carbon footprint. Personal contact is maintained throughout and the actions over time will be monitored to evaluate their impact at the individual and community level.
The system has been developed at the University of East Anglia and is due for launch in Chester on 5 October 2006. Thanks are due to Andrea Mageean of Chester City Council and Dr Roy Alexander for coordinating the action. Local environmental consultant, RSK ENSR is also providing key business sponsorship for this project, which we believe, could make Chester the first city in the UK, if not the world, to provide all citizens with a personal pathway toward carbon dioxide emissions reductions.
For further info visit www.cred-uk.org 

• A few houses in Ashton Hayes have now installed solar thermal water heating systems. This is proving to be a reliable form of renewable energy at a time when our fossil fuel energy bills are rocketing. Anyone who wishes to see an installation should contact us (details below). We also hope to have the demonstration wind turbine on the school roof in Autumn and everyone will be invited to inspect the device.

• Our ‘carbon neutral’ twinning arrangement with the community of Castlemaine in Australia is almost complete and we shall be telling you more about this in the next bulletin. We are also talking to organisations in South Island New Zealand about possible twinning. By sharing our ideas we learn more rapidly about the best ways to promote and tackle climate change issues.

• The Parish Council is now setting up a more formal project team and is looking for anyone who would like to join us in running the project from September 2006 onwards. See the full team on the project website and please email us if you are interested.

See more on all these stories on http://www.goingcarbonneutral.co.uk/ 
Garry Charnock, Project Coordinator. 01829 752714 or Charnock@t-e-s.co.uk

Here are the current team members and advisors:
All Ashton Hayes Parish Council
Garry Charnock, Project Coordinator
Dr Roy Alexander, Technical Director
Rob Ford, Head of AshtonHayesPrimary School
Tracey Todhunter, Administration support and Brownies
Jane Kinsley, Public Relations and media
Dr Jacqui Malpas/John Gittins, Cheshire Landscape Trust,
Eric Whitworth, Energy Saving Trust (Energy Saving Advice)
John Pearson, Cheshire County Council
Andrea Mageean, Chester City Council
            Plus support from
                        The Women’s Institute
                        The Village Hall Association

Business Sponsors
RSK ENSR, Helsby (Alan Ryder)
Technical Editing Services (Garry & Anne Charnock)
M&M Communications (Richard & Lyn May)
Legat Owen (Peter Johnston)
Okells Nurseries (Gary Okell)
Plus technical support from
Dept. of Geography and Development Studies, University of Chester
Solartwin Chester
Euro Tree Services Alvanley
CRed, University of East Anglia
EA Technologies, Capenhurst
Shell Global Solutions