By Shaun Hughes, Climate Leader, Hardwick
Hi Climate Champions,
Congratulations to _ for organising the first meeting to kickstart the Fields of Grace project on Monday 11th November (7:45 in the Community room of the Hardwick School). Who’s next?
On 22nd October many of us attended the Parish Council meeting to hear a presentation for a housing development on the Green Belt land opposite the school, to build 400-500 houses. Compared to the 2011 census figures, this will be a 40-50% increase in the size of the village and will release about 30,000 tonnes of CO2 just in their construction. To make it carbon neutral the developers will need to plant 30,000 trees. Green Belt boundaries should only be altered where exceptional circumstances are fully evidenced and justified. As the three developments approved since 2011 will already increase Hardwick’s housing by 30% I can’t conceive of any exceptional circumstances for such a large urbanisation of our village. So I’m writing to South Cambridgeshire District Council asking them to instead allocate this land to a new forest.
Although the planning decision lies with SCDC, the views of the village are normally received via the PC. If you are enraged by this proposal, then I would encourage you to fill one of the two current vacancies on the PC so that voices of reason may be heard.
I’m currently investigating the most viable options for generating sustainable energy locally. If funded by us it will cost about £7000 per household, but you can expect that to be paid back over 10-20 years, (depending on electricity feed in tariffs) with profits being generated thereafter. Not a bad investment! Unfortunately, apart from roof solar energy, these schemes require land to build wind turbines, solar farm or an eco-gas generator. Anyone know of a local eco-friendly land-owner?
Attached is an updated spreadsheet with corrected emails (sorry _, _ and _) and a new member of the group. Welcome _, whose interests are Vegan recipes and a Clothing swap.
While our own efforts are important, they’ll be magnified if we encourage others to join us.
Spread the word, talk about your interests with friends and neighbours, get them involved!
Regards,
Shaun