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Richmond upon Thames Liberal Democrats:Covering the constituencies of Twickenham and Richmond Park |
Ham and Petersham win £100,000 for low carbon zone
October 30, 2009 6:16 PM
• RICHMOND Council's project to turn Ham and Petersham into a Low Carbon Zone has received a significant boost from British Gas, which has given £100,000 from its Green Streets fund to support the work.
The Council successfully bid for the money in partnership with Richmond Environment Network and Ham United Group. In September the Mayor of London gave the Council £200,000 from City Hall's Low Carbon Fund for the same project.
Cllr Geoff Acton, Richmond Council's Cabinet Member for Environment, said: "We're very pleased to receive this Green Streets funding, which will help us to realise our ambition of developing a showcase low carbon community. We look forward to working closely with British Gas to make this vision a reality.
"In Richmond upon Thames we're already making progress in cutting carbon emissions and this grant will make more advice freely available to householders and businesses on how to cut their energy usage. In the recession that's even more important as it will help people shave money off their bills as well."
The Council's plan to transform Ham and Petersham into a model community promoting new green technologies beat a number of other bids put to the British Gas Green Streets fund judges. In total almost 100 projects from across the UK applied for the British Gas Green Streets initiative, where a total of £2 million will be invested in innovative community energy projects across the UK. The project seeks to bring together schools, a library, and community buildings to show renewable technologies in action. It will give groups in the area the funding, support and technical expertise to generate their own energy, improve energy efficiency and bring the community together to address climate change in a practical way.
The work in Ham and Petersham will include installing micro-generation and energy saving technologies at schools, community halls, churches and pubs, as well as curbing running costs. The most successful methods will be shared with other towns and cities in the UK.
British Gas director Catherine May, one of the judges on the panel, said: "Richmond upon Thames' bid was a worthy Green Streets winner in a strong field. The team has already made great strides in proving how energy usage and carbon emissions can be cut within the community. They have outlined an ambitious vision to engage everyone in Ham and Petersham in energy saving, from school children to pensioners." The Richmond upon Thames project is one of 14 from across the UK which will receive a share of the £2 million fund. Next year, the projects will go head-to-head in a number of challenges to reduce energy use, generate local energy and increase support amongst members of their community. Progress will be monitored for a year by the independent Institute of Public Policy Research think-tank and the project crowned Britain's greenest community after a year stands to win a further £100,000 in funding from British Gas.
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