Update May 2023
At this year’s annual Parish Meeting we welcomed Brian Watson, the Domestic Carbon Reduction Officer from Community Action Northumberland.
Brian gave a brief summary of his role at CAN and how he worked with the County Council. It was clear from his overview that there was no easy solution when trying to reduce carbon usage in older properties and that resources e.g. people able to give advice or undertake energy assessments, were insufficient.
Brian recommended that residents watch a video presentation produced by the Haltwhistle Partnership – click to watch video. It features residents who have carried out renewable energy projects in their homes as they share their experiences.
He also brought with him a number of helpful leaflets which can be downloaded by clicking the links below:
Domestic_Carbon_CAN_A5_Leaflet_March_2023
Following the meeting, Brian provided a number of useful contacts/websites which are detailed below:
Grant funding for insulation and renewable grant support
Thrift Energy Ltd, Unit 2, Ninth Avenue East, Team Valley, Gateshead, NE11 0EH
0191 284 24 24/ 0800 689 3415
sales@thriftenergy.co.uk
UK Energy Management (NE) Ltd
6 Crown Road, Quay West Business Village, Sunderland, England, SR5 2AL
0191 466 1185 / info@ukem.co.uk / https://www.ukem.co.uk/eco-4-funding
PHS Home Solutions Ltd t/a 0800 Repair
The Venter Building, 3 Mandarin Road, Rainton Bridge Business Park, Houghton Le Spring,
County Durham, DH4 5RA / 0800 737 247 / atp@0800repair.com
Support available to help people with the following conditions:
- A cardiovascular condition,
- A respiratory disease,
- Limited mobility, or
- Immunosuppression.
(If people do not feel confident taking this forward Brian would be happy to help, especially those not on mains gas)
The Banker report reinforces the problems we face in making our homes more energy efficient without a massive increase in grant funding and a huge increase in the number of tradespeople capable of taking on such works.
Northumberland County Councils’ Warm homes team can be accessed by going to the NCC website and searching warm homes, this links to an online application form
The Energy and Climate Information Unit (www.eciu.net ) daily bulletin is an excellent source of up-to-date information on issues on climate change and linked topics
pv magazine (www.pv-magazine.com) gives a more technical and global view of emerging issues, initiatives and technologies. It is much more technical but has lots of interesting insights.
Summary of presentation: CAN will provide free home energy advice and information about funding and grants to Northumberland residents. Anyone wishing to access this service should contact CAN on 07715 408343 or email renewables@ca-north.org.uk.
Update April 2023
Electric Car Guide is a guidance site for new EV owners. It supports owners with educational guides and resources to help them transition from petrol cars to electric cars. The site is non-commercial and free to use.
Update January 2021
Two useful websites to explore about local energy generation:
Update May 2020:
Climate Change in Green Riding Mill
The necessarily postponed Annual Meeting of the Parish Council planned for 14th May was earmarked as the ideal opportunity to review progress since our village open meeting in the autumn of 2019.
A lot of people responded to the initiative and some excellent suggestions were made – and circulated -to the group members.
Briefly, commitments were made to look closely at three key areas:
- Sustainable transport
- Green energy sources
- Carbon capture measures
Our overriding principle remains as: think global, act local.
Presentations to the Annual Meeting were in preparation from the Village Halls Trust, St James’s Church, the Parish Council and Broomhaugh First School. These will doubtless be presented in due course, once we are able to hold the meeting.
The coronavirus crisis, whilst requiring a hold on our plans to meet, has nevertheless engendered some interesting discussion points.
Although it is clear that this worldwide pandemic is top priority for the moment, the climate crisis has not gone away. Whilst Greta Thunberg may be in lockdown, the ice caps are continuing to melt.
Despite the marked improvement in the quality of our atmosphere when cars were absent from our roads and the skies devoid of aircraft, we are now heading back to ‘the new normality’, which clearly encompasses what will doubtless become the same old traffic choking up our roads and our lungs. Whether we will as a nation and a world learn to appreciate and even replicate the positives which have emerged from the pandemic and apply them to the climate change crisis remains to be seen.
What we in Riding Mill can do, in tandem with like-minded people across the globe, is hold on to what has been shown to be possible in terms of protecting our planet through global action and do what we can to encourage the decision makers to do what is difficult, painful but undoubtedly right. This means acting locally, in whatever way we can, but thinking globally and holding our politicians to account.
It is important simply to keep the dialogue open……..
