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Kent County Council News Release
Ref No: 602/08
2 December 2008
£10,000 Christmas cracker for low carbon communities
Four Kent communities which are taking action to reduce carbon emissions have scooped a share of Kent County Council’s £10,000 Low Carbon Challenge Fund.
The villages are being rewarded for ideas including a doorstep campaign to encourage energy-saving in the home and a grow local initiative to decrease food miles.
The cash awards are being announced as KCC publishes two bumper documents online to help even more communities and schools across Kent go for low carbon. This is part of KCC action on climate change.
The 90-page communities toolkit and schools climate change action pack are being launched on Thursday 4 December at Eastchurch Primary School, Warden Road, ME12 4EJ, a flagship Eco-School on the Isle of Sheppey, from 10.30am.
All four communities which have pioneered low carbon will benefit. Elham and Hadlow will receive £4,000 full funding for their projects. Eastchurch and St Margaret’s-at-Cliffe, near Dover, will each get £1,000.
Elham Going Green will use their share to train volunteers to visit homes in the community and offer money–saving energy measures. Hadlow is going to develop a grower group to cultivate fruit and veg on land owned by the agricultural college.
Eastchurch is going to put its share towards providing low-energy street lights, while St Margaret’s is looking again at the feasibility of using renewables.
KCC Cabinet Member for Environment, Highways and Waste, Keith Ferrin said:
“I know there are many Kent communities and schools in Kent that want to take action to reduce their carbon footprint. The pilot project has produced the most comprehensive and practical guides to setting up a low carbon community.
I would encourage others to follow their excellent example.”
KCC Cabinet Member for Education Leyland Ridings said:
“Children are very good at grasping the importance of taking action to improve their environment. The schools action pack will help them learn how to create a better place to live and work.”
The low carbon communities project was developed with the non-profit Kent Energy Centre. The centre’s County Co-ordinator Mike Bundy said:
‘It is refreshing to work with communities that have a real understanding of the urgency to reduce carbon emissions and save energy. In the short term energy costs will fluctuate up and down but in the medium to longer term the cost of energy will invariably increase as availability of supply reduces. If we can start now to both save energy and develop the market for alternatives to fossil fuels we have an opportunity to both make existing supplies last longer and protect the environment from the damaging affects of climate change.’
To download your free copy of the communities toolkit or the schools action pack, go online to www.kent.gov.uk/climatechange.
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