Free raffle tonight - veg men and shop donate hampers

To support the 10-year anniversary of the Going Carbon Neutral Project (tonight 28 Jan), the veg men have kindly donated a veg box for the free raffle tonight. Everyone attending the meeting at 7pm in the school will be entered.

The community shop is also celebrating its 6 year anniversary and is donating a lovely hamper to the raffle.

So come and have a drink, get your free memory stick with the new film loaded and enter the raffle.

Mayor of Nøtterøy, Norway sends his congratulations

We've had a lovely letter of congratulations on our 10 year anniversary from Mayor Roar Jonstang and The Climate Advisory Committee in Nøtterøy, Norway. Here is a short extract..

..."We were therefore delighted that Garry Charnock, Roy Alexander and Kate Harrison agreed to pay us a visit in October 2009. In the course of three hectic days the advisory council, the municipal administration, neighboring municipalities, residents' associations, businesses and schools had the opportunity to hear about the enormous engagement in Ashton Hayes regarding climate matters.

The visit inspired, amongst other, the establishment of a climate activist group in the small village of Torød (around 1000 inhabitants) which has since held a wide range of climate-related activities.

In November 2010 it was time for a reciprocal visit. The Climate Advisory Council, represented by Janet Gullvåg, and journalists from the local newspaper spent three eventful days in Ashton Hayes where they were well received by Roy Alexander and Kate Harrison. Numerous planned visits were paid to Sustainable Blacon, Ashton Hayes Primary School, the Parish Church and the village shop, just to name a few"...

Read the full letter here

Movie premiere on Thursday 28 January at 7pm - Primary school

End of decade celebrations

28 January 2016: End of Decade celebrations with the launch and world premiere of our new film 'Our footprint, our journey' that examines the past decade of the Going Carbon Neutral Project through the eyes of residents. Primary School 7pm. The Mayor and Mayoress of Chester will open the event.

More solar panels for the school plus end of decade celebrations for GCN

Many thanks to all those who completed our 'end of decade' survey in May/June. A quarter of village households took part, providing us with a lot of very useful information. Data analysis is well under way and we will publish the results in November as a report to the Parish Council and as a poster. We will also provide individual feedback to each participating household. 

We are also pleased to report that Ashton Hayes Community Energy (AHCEC) is now in the position to invest the money earned so far from Feed-in Tariffs, talks and village visits in more solar PV for the school. While we await the outcome of negotiations with ScottishPower about the grid connection we have taken advantage of the opportunity to pre-register with Ofgem to get a guaranteed tariff for the next 12 months. This required an Energy Performance Certificate for the school, which the energy company has funded.

To celebrate a decade of the Going Carbon Neutral Project we will hold an event on Thursday 28th January at the school. We plan to show a new film that looks back on 10 years of the project, provide highlights from our survey findings and outline our future plans. All are invited and further details will be published later in the year.

Interest in our project beyond the village remains high and Roy Alexander was invited to share what we have learned at three events during Community Energy Fortnight; as a panel member for a Community Energy Question Time event at CWaC HQ in Chester, as a speaker at the Milesecure2050 (a European research project examining community sustainability) conference in Salford and as a workshop contributor at an event at Nesta in London examining the support needs of community projects. Garry Charnock also sits on the Department of Energy & Climate Change Community Energy Contact Group and ensures our views are heard at the highest levels of Government.

Follow us on Twitter @ashtonhayesCEC.