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Community leaders set new direction for oldham’s transition to zero carbon

After 18 months of diagnostic, learning and action today, the Oldham Energy Futures community leaders are releasing two ground-breaking Community-Led Energy Plans (CLEPs), are setting out the priorities and actions local people believe are needed to initiate the transition to a zero carbon Oldham.  With decisive action on climate change failing to emerge and further … Read more

A new Energy Advice service for Westwood

After months of hardwork, the Westwood pilot group are gearing up to launch their new energy advice service for Winter 2022. The idea for setting up a local energy advice service came directly out of the workshop conversations. The process unveiled a pressing need to address the poor energy efficiency of local homes, high levels … Read more

Solar energy dreams in Sholver

Over the past five months, the Sholver group have been pursuing their ambitions to support new community-owned solar projects to emerge in their neighbourhood and wider Oldham. Here they share an update on what they’ve managed to achieve during their time working on the pilot project and plans for the future. Getting started During discussions … Read more

Kickstarting community-led activity

Reading time: 5 mins The groups have settled on three priority community-led projects aiming to initiate a local low-carbon transition. Energy advice in Westwood The Westwood group has set its sites on setting up a weekly one-to-one energy advice drop-in based at the Millennium Centre. Three pressing issues for the local community influenced the decision … Read more

Crunch time: The closing workshops

With the pilot projects selected, conversations turned to how best to share the lessons learned with the wider community. The Westwood and Sholver groups have between 10 – 14 members with new knowledge of energy issues and how change could happen. How could they build on this base to skill up, involve more local people and increase their influence?

Workshop 6: The Westwood way of doing things

Workshop 6: Imagining Westwood Reading time: 7 mins As we move deeper into the imagine phase of the workshops, we learn from others, refine our ideas, and identify specific projects for the community. Building on our previous workshop in Westwood and delving deeper into the ‘imagine’ phase, the group divided into two to focus on … Read more

A community wealth building energy transition

News #1 By Eleanor Radcliffe & Laura Williams Reading time: 5 mins On the eve of COP26, and with the challenges we face in tackling the climate crisis becoming ever more apparent,  Carbon Co-op and CLES released a major new toolkit for councils, a community wealth building energy transition.   The toolkit shows that councils have a vital role to play in addressing the climate … Read more

LIVING IN WESTWOOD OR SHOLVER?

SURVEY: SHAPE THE LOCAL LEAPS! Reading time: 1 mins In our workshops we’ve heard from our group members on what they’d like the future of energy to look like The group members told us that… Now we want to open up the floor to other living in the neighbourhood… How do you think that can … Read more

Workshop 5 Westwood: “Crafting a hundred year vision”

Three early themes began to emerge on the need for improved sustainable transport, a central hub providing advice on energy efficiency at home and increased renewable energy generation that could be located within and power the neighbourhood. Transport measures were top of the list with ideas for improving the cycle and walkability within the neighbourhood and connecting to Oldham, an e-scooter scheme, cheaper public transport options, traffic calming measures and a one-way Featherstall Road all shared.