Merry Christmas

Belper Goes Green bids for lottery funding

The Belper Goes Green organisers are applying for lottery funding to help a number of amazing projects see the light of day. These include:

• help to get primary school children involved in designing a Belper and Transition mosaic to be made at Belper Goes Green and subsequently sited at the station
• bringing Groovy Movie's Solar Cinema to the festival to show a whole range of relevant local art, history and eco themed films
• getting primary school children working with Fleet Arts to make musical instruments from scrap, rehearse a piece of music with their instruments and them perform at Belper Goes Green
• bringing ECO Centre staff to the festival to build a cob bread/pizza oven at the Rugby Club as a permanent feature
• help with planting fruit trees and bushes at the Rugby Club as a community asset

• Soular Shack - open air solar powered stage, sound, lights and cider bar
• Greenpeace
• Sophisticakes Patisserie
• DKMY Architects Ltd
• Yew can't cedar wood fir the trees (wooden toys)
• Leafbone Pizza - mobile pizza oven including make your own
• Derbyshire Wildlife Trust
• Hillside Permaculture
• Juicy Bikes (electric bikes)

Belper Gardening Club

The next meeting of the newly formed Belper Gardening Club will be held on 22nd January at 19:30 at the Strutt Centre, Belper. Any ability - from total beginners to advanced gardeners - all are welcome. Gardening workshops/discussions/plants, seeds, produce swaps, speakers, garden visits etc are just some of the activities on offer. For further information email Kathy or ring her on 07779412702.

ECO Cuts are a disaster for Belper

Now that the Government has caved in to the big energy suppliers and given them more time to meet reduced energy savings targets the prospect of any Energy Company Obligation funding coming our way has all but vanished.  This means there will not be any subsidy for solid wall insulation locally - at least not in the short term. Householders will still be able to take advantage of the Green Deal to pay for energy saving measures through their electricity bills but the 'Golden Rule' will only allow for lower cost measures such as cavity wall and loft insulation.  Before the Autumn Spending Review Transition Belper and ADVyCE (Amber and Derwent Valley Community Energy) had held some preliminary discussions with an energy supplier with a view to initiating a scheme to insulate solid walls but this now seems dead in the water.
 

ADVyCE bid for £50k Cabinet Office Grant

Amber and Derwent Valley Community Energy working with Nottingham Energy Partnership have submitted a bid for funding from the Community Energy Peer Mentoring Fund. The fund is only open to relatively new organisations such as ADVyCE who would be mentored by an established organisation such as Nottingham Energy Partnership. Part of the bid would assist in moving the hydro project to the point of seeking investment and members once a legally binding agreement has been signed with the landowners but it would also be used to help Transition Belper better understand local carbon footprints and how we can go about reducing them. NEP have produced a Smart Energy Community Plan for Nottingham and the ambition is to produce something similar for DE56 that could feed into the Energy Descent Action Plan. This could also be used as a fully costed shopping list to apply for funds from the likes of the Local Economic Partnership, D2N2. A further action would see Energy Expert Neighbours get some refresher training and reaching out to help vulnerable households.
 

Transition Groups to meet Energy Saving Co-op

The Energy Saving Co-op will be meeting representatives of Transition Belper, Wirksworth, Matlock and Chesterfield on January 22nd to discuss the potential for working together for our mutual benefit and to the benefit of our residents. The ESC have worked well in Nottingham as well as other towns and cities to bring in energy saving measures on a large scale. We'll learn more in January and will report back before any decisions are taken.
The above 3 items are extracts from our Energy Group News which also introduces and links to articles about energy from the lest few weeks. If you would like to subscribe to this please email David

Next year's dates:

• Monday 6th January - social evening at the Black Swan, Market Place, Belper from 7.30
• Thursday 9th January - Core Group and Trustees meeting from 7.30
• Friday 10th January - meeting with other local groups, Pauline Latham MP and Tesco
• Tuesday 14th January - Transition Meeting at Strutts, Derby Road with guest speaker, Jerome Baddley from Nottingham Energy Partnership. Climate Change, Peak oil and how everything connects up.
• Tuesday 21st January - Belper Goes Green Meeting at the Queen's Head, Chesterfield Road at 7.30
• Wednesday 22nd January - Belper Garden Club at Strutts at 7.30
• Wednesday 22nd January - Transition Groups meeting with the Energy Saving Co-op 
• Thursday 23rd January - Travel and Transport Group meeting at the Old King's Head, Days Lane at 7.30
• Monday 27th January - Energy Descent Action Plan meeting at the Old King's Head at 7.30
• Tuesday 4th February - social evening at the Grapes, High Street, Belper from 7.30
• Wednesday 12th February - Transition Belper meeting at Strutts at 7.30
• Tuesday 25th February - Belper Goes Green Meeting at the Queen's Head at 7.30
• Thursday 27th February - Travel and Transport Group meeting at the Old King's Head at 7.30
• Wednesday 5th March - social evening at Arkwright's Bar, 5 Campbell Street from 7.30
• Thursday 6th March - Core Group meeting at 7.30 
• Thursday 13th March - Transition Belper meeting at Strutts at 7.30
• Monday 17th March - Energy Descent Action Plan meeting at the Old King's Head at 7.30
• Tuesday 25th March - Belper Goes Green Meeting at the Queen's Head at 7.30
• Thursday 27th March - Travel and Transport Group meeting at the Old King's Head at 7.30
• Thursday 3rd April - social evening at the King William IV, Milford from 7.30

Transition Belper Facebook Group

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