23 students visit Ashton Hayes from Georgia, USA

08 March 2017. Sarah Winget, Associate Professor in the Department of Chemistry at Agnes Scott College, Decatur, Georgia, USA and her colleague Matt Ruby, brought 23 students to Ashton Hayes today to learn about our Going Carbon Neutral project. They had heard of us from the New York Times article last August and were keen for the students to learn more about our project as part of their Global Challenges course. The visit began with a tour of the sports pavilion followed by a short slide show and a discussion session, during which Kate and Maria provided hot drinks and pastries. After a few minutes in the play area the group visited the community shop where they purchased a range of goods from souvenirs to meat pies. We ended the tour at the village school, where Matt Hover, the headmaster, told the group about our solar panels. 

AGM Meeting minutes

The Ashton Hayes Community Energy Company held its AGM at the parish rooms on Thursday 2 March and the Chair, Professor Roy Alexander, gave a review of the year and David Wilson ran through the finances. Plans for the coming year were discussed with the Board and members of the public. 

Come to our AGM on 2 March, 7.30pm, Parish Rooms

Everyone is welcome to come to our AGM on 2 March in the Parish rooms at 7.30pm. You can chat to the directors of the Ashton Hayes Community Energy Company, hear stories about activities in the village and volunteer to help. Hope you can make it.

Supporting solar PV in Bangladesh

St John's Church in Ashton Hayes is raising money for the Lamb Hospital in Bangladesh that is supported by Tearfund. Our village has a long standing connection with Bagladesh, having hosted a special climate change delegation brough to the village by Oxfam around 9 years ago. At that time we agreed to provide support for PV arrays that will power solar lighting to help children and others study after dark. The Community Energy Company is now in a position to provide £250 of funds towards this excellent cause.

Here is our report from 2008:

6th March 2008: We had an extremely interesting visit today from Oxfam who brought along two people, Sahena Begum and Farid Hasan Ahmed, from Bangladesh. They wanted to know what we are doing as a village to help stem climate change but the most interesting part of the visit occurred at the Primary School where they told the 5-7 year olds about life in flood stricken villages where they live. The children were enthralled and asked some very insightful questions (through an interpreter for Sahena - Fariyah Rahman), for almost an hour. They were amazed to hear that Sahena and fellow villagers had no electricity, gas or lighting and had their houses completely destroyed by freak floods every three years or so. Sahana, who prior to this trip had never been on a bus, plane or train, told us that things were getting worse each year and that Oxfam

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Welcome to our new Director, Maria Lindley

We are delighted that Maria Lindley has agreed to become a director of the Ashton Hayes Community Energy Company, taking up the place left by Dr Mary Gillie. Maria is and active member of the community and has accountancy and other skills that will be really useful to the team.