Alternatively, go straight to the Bulletins page using this link: https://greenergreatcoxwell.com/community-energy-blog-page/
Any feedback gratefully received to: [email protected].
Great Coxwell Village Website |
The two Feasibility Reports and Summary for the Community Energy Project are now available to view and download on the Greener Great Coxwell Website, please go to : www.greenergreatcoxwell.com and choose 'Bulletins' from the menu.
Alternatively, go straight to the Bulletins page using this link: https://greenergreatcoxwell.com/community-energy-blog-page/ Any feedback gratefully received to: [email protected]. Please come along and meet our consultants who are working to produce a feasibility study into connecting all our houses in the village to low carbon hot water for heating and hot water. Known as a Heating Network, it is very standard in Scandinavian countries but pretty innovative in the UK. I’m sure you have lots of questions and Monday’s meeting is set up for you to have them answered.
This will be their only visit so please join us. 7pm in the Reading Room. Best wishes Annabelle (Chapel House) and Ken (Danes Court) web: www.greenergreatcoxwell.com mail: [email protected] Greener Great Coxwell Limited is registered in England as a registered society under the Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act 2014. Registration number: 8761 The consultants working on our community heat network project, Locogen, are coming to visit the village on Monday 12th and Tuesday 13th September. We will welcome David Lindley-Hood (Consultancy Director) and Senior Consultant Jack Byres who will come down from Edinburgh.
Anyone interested is invited to meet the consultants on Monday the 12th at 7:00 in the reading room. Their final report is currently due at the end of September. Please come along to hear progress of their energy modelling activities and discuss their work comparing different possible Community solutions. There are many issues to discuss - I am sure we all have probing questions for them. This will be their only visit so please make the most of it. If you have any other questions please email us. Regards Greener Great Coxwell web: www.greenergreatcoxwell.com mail: [email protected] Greener Great Coxwell Limited is registered in England as a registered society under the Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act 2014. Registration number: 8761 Come and visit us at two forthcoming events to see some of the work Greener Great Coxwell have been involved with on Wilding and Natural History and get the latest on the Community Energy Project, Queens Green Canopy and Village Pump Restoration: NT Eco Summit this coming Sunday - 3rd July at Coleshill Faringdon Folly Fest - on 9th and 10th July
Promoting a wildlife-friendly garden – advice from Greener Great Coxwell:
Every domestic garden space has potential to become a resource for the wildlife living in its immediate setting and even those living in its wider landscape. If you want your garden to be more wildlife friendly there are a few simple guidelines to follow. Focus on the plants that grow well on your soil. Look at the native trees and shrubs in you locality and plant some of these or their near relatives. Choose bee and insect friendly herbaceous and annual flower plants. Use herbs in borders. Nectar rich garden centre plants and seed packets now show a bee logo on the label. Transform part of your lawn into a wildlife meadow by letting it grow uncut from February to October. Plant spring bulbs into it in October and wildflower plants in March. When you cut it in October, remove the spoil. Provide water, including a birdbath regularly cleaned and replenished, daily when fledglings are around and/or a small pond planted with native water plants and with a “beach-end” to allow safe access. Provide shelter for amphibians, and insects by creating an undisturbed pile of rocks and another of wood and twigs for nests and hedgehogs. Allow weeds to flourish in a chosen area. Provide insect and bird boxes. Choose bird feed according to the birds you can see in your area. Do not overfeed Pigeons or Corvids. Clean your feeders weekly when in regular use. Place your feeders near a tree or bush for quick cover. The small birds will be more relaxed. Compost as much of your vegetative material as possible letting very little go off site. Then watch and wait! Anne Hardcastle (Greener Great Coxwell) Amphibians in and around Great Coxwell
Have you seen any frogs or newts in your garden or around the parish recently? You may remember this recent post in the Parish newsletter: ‘Greener Great Coxwell (GGC) is concerned about the apparent decline in the number of these fascinating creatures in our village over recent years. There are likely to be a number of reasons for this including loss of habitat, environmental pollution and predation. GGC would be pleased to hear from people in the parish with their perception of whether numbers of these animals declined, or even increased, over recent years. Have you seen any newts or frogs in your garden pond or anywhere else in the parish recently? Do you plan to encourage these animals to your garden by establishing a wildlife pond?’ Replies received (anonymised where necessary)
Thoughts and observations Anecdotally we seem to have fewer of these creatures in our local environment. Without robust rigorous research we can’t be sure as to the reasons for this. There are grass snakes in the village but there are other predators which feed on frog spawn and tadpoles such as fish and newts. Snakes are protected and it is illegal to kill or harm them. It is inadvisable to put pet goldfish in wildlife ponds as they will eat tadpoles. Separate ponds for wildlife and ornamental fish are advised. The pond next to the barn is regularly tested (monthly) for water quality and has been sprayed with selective herbicide to kill the pennywort. This would have had no impact on the fauna in the pond and in fact should improve the viability of the pond. There are fish in the pond and they may have contributed to the decline of the numbers of amphibians. Greener Great Coxwell is working with the owner, the National Trust, to improve this important local feature Although it is not illegal to move frogspawn and tadpoles from areas with high populations of amphibians to ponds which lack them, this is discouraged as it may spread disease and other non-native plants. See the following quote from the BBC Countryfile website: ‘Don’t move spawn or tadpoles into a different pond, as this can spread non-native plant species and amphibian diseases. Ponds that already contain spawn may not be able to support the increased population, and ponds that don’t have any spawn are unlikely to be suitable for frogs — if they were suitable, the spawn would already be there. There are many reasons why a pond may not contain frogs, and one of the most common explanations is newts.’ Ian Mason (Greener Great Coxwell) Help us Bring Affordable Green Heating to Great Coxwell
The current energy crisis has highlighted the need for the UK to move towards a secure, decarbonised energy system. To achieve this, carbon emissions from buildings need to be reduced to a minimum and the replacement of gas-fired heating systems with low carbon heating is vital. What is Greener Great Coxwell Energy Group doing? Greener Great Coxwell Energy Group is investigating decarbonising our heating systems by using low carbon technologies and replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy. We have contracted Locogen to explore the feasibility of installing a low carbon heating scheme within the village of Great Coxwell, as well as the potential opportunities for renewable energy generation in the surrounding area to produce clean electricity for the village. What can you do? We’re asking residents of Great Coxwell to complete this survey and help us collect energy consumption data. This information will allow us to carry out detailed energy modelling and costing exercises to generate financial and carbon assessments of the preferred energy system(s). It’s the first step towards a more secure, cleaner energy future for Great Coxwell. Many thanks for those of you who have replied to the survey. We now have over 40 responses if you can please complete the energy survey at : https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/L9HZBGX we need Energy use figures to model demand. Thank you Greener Great Coxwell web: www.greenergreatcoxwell.com mail: [email protected] Greener Great Coxwell Limited is registered in England as a registered society under the Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act 2014. Registration number: 8761 Many thanks for those of you who have replied to the survey. We now have over 30 responses but our consultants need more! Can we ask anyone who can to please complete the energy survey at
https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/L9HZBGX we need Energy use figures to model demand. Apologies if you have already replied. Completing the questionnaire implies no commitment and the information will be strictly confidential to the energy team and the consultants. We are arranging for a fact-finding visit by the Consultants there will be a chance for anyone available to meet with them. We will let you know the details. If you are not already signed up for our Community Energy Bulletin, you are still welcome to complete the survey and you might like to go to the website: greenergreatcoxwell.com to sign up or e-mail [email protected]. Thank you Greener Great Coxwell mail: [email protected] Greener Great Coxwell Limited is registered in England as a registered society under the Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act 2014. Registration number: 8761 Can we ask anyone interested to please complete the energy survey at
https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/L9HZBGX Apologies if you have already replied. Completing the questionnaire implies no commitment and the information will be strictly confidential to the energy team and the consultants. We need data from a representative sample of properties to enable a better estimate of our energy requirements to be made. This will allow the consultants to model different heat demand profiles for Phase 2 of the study. Time is limited so we would appreciate a quick response - apart from the information on energy use (from your energy bill) the questions are very simple and wont take more than a few minutes. There is also space to add comments. Our consultants, Locogen, have completed the Phase 1 Report - the desktop assessment of benefits and risks of potentially technically feasible energy schemes. We will make the first report available on the website as soon as possible - they concluded "there is potential for a heat network in Great Coxwell - hot network solutions are potentially viable". However, in order to continue this work we now need more detailed information on the energy requirements of the village. If you are not already signed up for our Community Energy Bulletin, you are still welcome to complete the survey and you might like to go to the website: greenergreatcoxwell.com to sign up or e-mail [email protected]. Thank you Greener Great Coxwell web: www.greenergreatcoxwell.com mail: [email protected] Greener Great Coxwell Limited is registered in England as a registered society under the Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act 2014. Registration number: 8761 Have you seen any frogs or newts in your garden or around the parish recently?
Greener Great Coxwell (GGC) is concerned about the apparent decline in the number of these fascinating creatures in our village over recent years. There are likely to be a number of reasons for this including loss of habitat, environmental pollution and predation by snakes. GGC would be pleased to hear from people in the parish with their perception of whether numbers of these animals declined, or even increased, over recent years. Have you seen any newts or frogs in your garden pond or anywhere else in the parish recently? Do you plan to encourage these animals to your garden by establishing a wildlife pond? Please let us know. Email to: [email protected] Many thanks Ian Mason (on behalf of Greener Great Coxwell) |
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