Following news of Peter Atkinson’s appointment as Project Coordinator for the Chale Community Project, he now tells us about the celebrations that took place last weekend. Ed
Chale was celebrating last Saturday with an event to mark the successful completion of Phase One of the Chale Community Project – the installation of renewable technologies – solar PV panels and air source heat pumps – on 67 homes in the village.
Residents were able to talk with members of the Project Team – which includes representatives from The Ellen MacArthur Foundation, Southern Housing Group and The Footprint Trust, as well as local volunteers known as ‘Community Contacts’ – about progress so far.
Ellen MacArthur welcomes community
Ellen MacArthur and Will Routh, Sustainability Officer at Southern Housing Group welcomed everybody and took the opportunity to thank them for enabling the project to achieve so much in such a short period of time.
They were followed by Vincent Wedlock-Ward and Mark Meredith of the Southern Housing Group who gave an update on the first phase explaining that, apart from a few minor issues that needed to be ironed out, the works had progressed well and that the two remaining air sources heat pumps were being fitted this week.
Phase two on the horizon
They also reported that the housing association hope to be able to give definite start dates for the next part of the upgrades, new windows and water saving devices for bathrooms, within the next two weeks.
Ray Harrington-Vail of the Footprint Trust explained the importance of being on the right electricity tariff for the new heating systems to ensure that the maximum savings are gained from the new technology.
The Project Team would like to thank the following people who made the event a great success; Loren Cave and family for producing a wonderful buffet; Choice Mobile Christian Ministry for the loan of the marquee and Stubbings Bros for providing a lawn mower (and Paul Cave and Matt Davey for cutting the grass!)
