Westwood Energy Community: Online hub

Taking action on climate change is big challenge for Westwood. Re-imagining the communities relationship to energy is a key part of the solution.

Westwood’s existing heat, power and transport systems currently rely on dirty fossil fuel energy and are in need of an upgrade.

By reducing the amount of energy that is consumed, switching to electrically powered heat, power and transport and generating green energy locally, Westwood could make a big contribution towards reducing locally produced carbon emissions, helping to combat climate change.

As the first Green New Deal Council in the UK, Oldham has set two ambitious targets; for the council to become carbon neutral by 2025, followed by the whole borough by 2030. The strategy focuses on tackling both climate change and economic recovery together with plans to invest in the local green economy, estimated to be worth £338m and employ around 2,300 people. You can read more about the Councils’ hopes for Oldham Energy Futures on our about page.

Within this context the decisions made now for Westwood’s future energy system really matters.

But what are the options for transforming Westwood’s energy system? What would those changes really look like? And how could they benefit the local community?

No one individual has all of the answers. It will take everyone, local citizens, Councillors and technicians alike, to bring their knowledge and experience of energy past and present, to help us to imagine what the future could be.

How to use this page

This page brings together a series of data sources to help Westwood Energy Community to reflect on the topics covered in the workshop sessions.

In those the workshops the group will work together to diagnose the local energy challenges and opportunities , understand what impact it has, imagine what the future could look like and define community-led solutions.

Below you’ll find a range of maps and data visualizations including open data on housing, travel, energy, and emissions. Datasets include statistics on fuel poverty, air quality, buildings emissions, cycle routes and more.

We will update the community map with insights gained during the workshop and provide a summary document showing the groups key findings towards the bottom of the page.