Monk Fryston and Hillam Sustainability Project Update #10

Like London Buses, one comes along then several more seem to be not far behind it! We are really grateful this bus arrived and hope that the second one will be followed by a third, fourth and many more - in this case it is grants that we are talking about to support our Community Sustainability Project.

After the School’s recent brilliant news was reported in last month’s School Special Project Update no 9, we are pleased to announce that the Community Association has been awarded £29,532 from The National Lottery Community Fund, the largest funder of community activity in the UK.

It will fund a 2-year Community Sustainability Project to carry out energy efficiency work and replace the gas fired heating system with an air source heat pump at the Community Centre. In addition, the CA will show local people how it works, explain what they can do to reduce their energy bills and also reduce their carbon emissions at the same time.

Besides trying to make the Community Centre carbon neutral, the project team is gathering data and information about all its sustainability activities to create a knowledge bank to share their learning about renewable energy systems, energy efficiency and related topics with residents and others further afield. Over the next 2 years a series of free public meetings will be held in the Partner buildings, to show how renewable energy systems such as solar panels, electricity storage batteries and heat pumps work. Everyone who is interested is welcome to attend these meetings and ask questions. We will announce the dates of these public events on local social media and the Community Centre website www.mfhcc.com/sustainability-project/.

Save the date

To get the Project started we have arranged our first meeting on Monday 23rd May at the Community Centre with a 7.30pm for 8pm start. This will be a great opportunity for us to come together; especially those who have supported the project from the very first Community Survey in June 2020 along with anyone else who would simply like to know more.

We will share with you more details of the plans we have for the next 2 years and you can meet some of the key project partners who will be briefly explaining what is already underway along with a resident’s story of how he has significantly reduced his energy consumption.

We would like to hear what you would like to know more about and what you would or could share with others on your journey towards sustainability.

Perhaps, you have a suggestion about an aspect of sustainability which our current project is not addressing – come and share it at the meeting and let see what happens – ‘from acorns oak trees grow’.

Making a Difference: Sharing our learning and data

The Lottery Grant will also fund a new dedicated website which will become our Knowledge Centre to share our learning, case studies and data. This will supplement the regular project updates which we issue to subscribers. Finally, we will issue annual reports to all households in Monk Fryston and Hillam.

Ray Newton, The Monk Fryston and Hillam Sustainability Project Manager said: ‘Thanks to National Lottery players, this grant means that we can take our Sustainability Project forward with certainty at a time when more and more people recognise they have to reduce their dependence on fossil fuels and cut back on their own energy consumption to address rapidly rising prices. However, we also know there is great uncertainty about the performance of replacement energy systems and there are many myths about what they will and will not do. We will have ‘house size’ systems installed in our Community Buildings and collect performance information which people can trust. We also want to show people how they can reduce their household energy consumption. Our Community Partner Buildings are of various ages and build types and so present similar challenges to those which families face. If we can solve these problems and share the learning, our project will make a big difference to people’s lives.’

Robin Parkin, Chair of the CA said, ‘We are very grateful to the Community Lottery Fund for their support and for showing their faith and trust in us by providing the grant. We started our journey towards Carbon Neutrality in 2014 when we redeveloped the Community Centre and despite doubling its size and increasing its usage, we reduced our electricity consumption. In 2019 we confirmed our commitment to sustainability by making it one of the Association’s aims – ‘that everything we did in the future should be done as far as possible in a sustainable manner’. The Community Buildings Project over the past two years has shown what can be done when people pull together. This Community Lottery Fund grant has given us the opportunity to do much more, helping to futureproof our Community Centre, which is visited by over 100,000 people a year and to share our learning with many more people. We have already learnt lots about what we have done to date… and we are just starting on learning more – ‘you don’t have to make mistakes to acquire knowledge!’

‘We will gather and share our information and data, let people see the systems and ask the questions and assess for themselves whether they work or not. There is a lot we still don’t know but we do know we have to progressively wean ourselves off fossil fuels and stop carbon emissions.

During the pandemic, in 2020 alone, The National Lottery Community Fund distributed almost £1 billion to charities and community organisations across the UK. To find out more visit www.TNLCommunityFund.org.uk

For Your information

The Community Centre website now has a section dedicated to the project, our embryonic Sustainability Information and Energy Advice Centre – where you can find the full Interim and Final Feasibility study reports www.mfhcc.com/sustainability-project/news-about-us/

If you have any feedback or comments to share or require further information, please contact Ray Newton on 01977 682084 or 07706 795334 or via www.mfhcc.com/sustainability-project/news-about-us/contact-us/

Thank you for your support.

The Steering Group and Project Partners

220419_MFH_CSP_Project_Update_10.pdf
PDF (290 KB)
Download