Changes on our Board
Since the last newsletter in October, three trustees (Kevin Mann, Peter Walton and Brian Hebron) have resigned from the Board after many years of service. Three trustees (Noel Mayes, Richard Rowlatt and Alison Claimp) have rejoined or joined us. So we are in fairly good shape but still have four vacanies and definitely need more people to come along to help. Please contact us on wirksworthtclt@gmail.com if you want to know more or can suggest someone else we can approach.
Peal District Rural Housing Association
Youlgreave CLT /PDHRA houses
We are aiming to strengthen our position for being offered building projects by entering into an agreement with PDRHA. Most CLTs have a partnership with a housing association, with the CLT ensuring that local residents get first choice of any housing and that ownership of the housing remains with the CLT in perpetuity. But responsibility for managing the properties and tenants is held by the housing association, which has long experience of such work.
It would require their board to extend their area of work to Wirksworth, which so far has been considered too big a community. The Wirksworth Neighbourhood Plan (2015)) includes an aspiration for social housing to be undertaken by a Community Land Trust for the reasons above, so forming a partnership between our CLT (created after the Neighbourhood Plan was agreed) and the PDRHA would strengthen our hand.
We are fortunate that Alison Clamp has joined our Board after retiring from her long career with the PDHRA earlier this year. She brings a wealth of experience of "the system" and of securing funding.
When the Tarmac Middleton Road development gets going again, we want to bid for taking on any social housing that is agreed. We understand that the discussions between Derbyshire Dales District Planning and Tarmac regarding the viability of the scheme is taking place now and should be completed around the end of November.
2 October Eco Fayre a Success
We had a stall and displays of information at the event on "How to make our houses fit for the future" - all about good practice in retrofitting home energy efficiency measures. We were surrounded by interested residents as soon as we set up. We plan to make the display posters into a Power Point  Presentation on our website and Facebook pages, and to go into our next newsletter (January - February).
Around 11, the heavens opened and folk ran for cover, but shelter was available in The Maltings
(restored Parish Rooms) and at 2pm we held a session for about 12 people on Air Source Heat Pumps. Residents who have a heat pump exchanged information with residents who are considering installing one. A list of residents willing to be contacted about a range of energy efficiency measures they have undertaken is available by contacting us at wirksworthtclt@gmail.com
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HOW ABOUT A THERMAL IMAGING SERVICE IN WIRKSWORTH?
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Such a service would offer residents a thermal survey of their house to find out where heat loss is taking place and what remedies are available.
We are aware that many residents want to improve the energy efficiency of their houses but don't know  where to start or who to believe. If we can get a few members or residents willing to help us, our charity could raise the money (about £650) to buy a thermal camera and create a service similar to others that have been started around the country.
Do you want a thermal survey? Do you want to set up a service for doing thermal surveys? Please complete our short questionnaire so we know whether there is a demand and whether there are people willing to help set it up. Thanks.
QUESTIONNAIRE
Find out more about C.H.E.E.S.E. in Bristol:
https://cheeseproject.co.uk/
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AT LAST!
THE UK HEAT & BUILDINGS STRATEGY
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Was it worth the wait?
The Strategy was published just before COP26 at the end of October. It had been promised since last summer, and everyone involved in housing had been waiting for it to give more clarity for the construction industry . The expectation was that the strategy would include incentives and a degree of regulation to drive change, coupled with improvement targets and the detail of how to upgrade buildings at a national scale – including how to train up enough people to do the work.
Thomas Lane provides a useful summary in Building, a website for the construction industry.
CLICK HERE
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Post-COP26 - Finance for insulation is needed now.
The New Economics Foundation points out that £1 in every £4 we spend heating our homes leaks out through poor insulation.
They are mounting a campaign to push for £11.7 billion to be invested in the Spring Budget, which is enough for 7 million homes to be upgraded over the next 3 years. Can you help them with their campaign? CLICK HERE.
Retrofitting will be big business!
A Lithuanian who moved to Liverpool in 2011 was shocked at the antiquated infrastructure. He is now working as a retrofitter, specialising in flooring insulation. Read more in the Guardian article. CLICK HERE.
The retrofitting business has to grow by ten times to get to net zero.
Edie Sustainability website CLICK HERE.
Manchester Carbon Coop's "People-powered Retrofit" is selling shares in its business.
£250 per share for a 5% return. Find out more, CLICK HERE.
Watch a video on retrofitting an old social housing Glasgow tenement to Passivhaus EnerPhit standard!
(Ads at the beginning can be turned off.) CLICK HERE.
A National Data Warehouse is being developed for recording for future reference all retrofitting work o future referenc done on your house.
CLICK HERE
(Photo is of a Glasgow tower block retrofitted to Passivhaus EnerPhit standard in 2012.)
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DERBYSHIRE DALES UPDATES US ON ITS CLIMATE ACTION
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Derbyshire Dales gives a report on its progress with climate action. CLICK HERE
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ABANDONED COAL MINES CAN HEAT HOUSES!
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To find out how, CLICK HERE
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Marches Energy Agency
Marches Energy Agency (MEA), working closely with the Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Local Authorities Energy Partnership (LEAP), is a registered charity and social enterprise, specialising in the delivery of practical, effective and creative ways of promoting and enabling energy reduction and renewable energy solutions. They are a great source of useful information on their website and publish an e-newsletter that you can easily sign up for. Click here.
Centre for Sustainable Energy
Packed with useful information on home energy. Click here.
Edie.net - on the sustainable road to zero carbon
This is an excellent source of information about what businesses and the government are doing (and not doing in the case of the government) to get to Net Zero. It also has e-newsletters you can sign up for.
Click here.
Centre for Alternative Technology
CAT, which started back in 1973 in a disused Welsh quarry to learn how to live without fossil fuels, is now an educational charity dedicated to researching and communicating positive solutions for environmental change. Click here.
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OUR BOARD
Noel Mayes (Secretary)
Mary Ann Hooper (Chair)
Alison Clamp
Ivan Dixon (Treasurer)
Mike Whittall
Richard Rowlatt
Vacancies: 4
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