Community climate change projects benefit from grant funding

As part of its efforts to tackle climate change, the council made £480,000 available over three years to enable community projects across the district. The ambition of the Zero Carbon Communities Fund is to stimulate engagement within the community about climate change action and to share project ideas, success and learning.

Projects that met the criteria of carbon emission reduction, biodiversity restoration and enhancement, or community engagement, were successful in being allocated funding in this third year of funding. This follows the 27 projects that were awarded grants in years 1 and 2 of the scheme.

Cllr Neil Reeve, Portfolio Holder for Environment and Climate Change, said: "We are pleased to be able to allocate this significant sum of money to support yet more local climate change activities. This builds on the success of the first two rounds of funding.

"The applications this year were extremely positive - many of them not only covered carbon reduction but there were also projects delivering activities to engage the wider community, alongside actions to restore nature and clean up our rivers."

The successful projects in year 3 of the scheme are: 

·       Great Chesterford Parish Council - £10,000 - to replace streetlights with LED lights

·       Henham Village Hall - £7,995 - for the installation of solar panels on the village hall

·       Saffron Walden Town Council - £8,316 - for a heating upgrade and LED lighting in the greenhouses and storage rooms at Bridge End Gardens

·       Saffron Walden Town Council (joint application with Plantation Football Club) - £11,500 - for the installation of solar panels at Crabtrees clubhouse

·       Enterprise East CIC - £5,000 - to run community environmental education and outreach workshops and activities

·       Elsenham Community Association - £15,000 - for the installation of solar panels and battery storage system at the Memorial Hall

·       Thaxted Parish Council - £12,000 - for the installation of solar panels on a sustainable and eco-friendly community space

·       Thames 21 (Rodings Farm Cluster)- £20,000 - to engage the farming community and provide climate and nature themed events and programmes, and to support the cluster to deliver river restoration plans.

·       Hadstock Parish Council - £6,563 - to continue work on the Sustainable Hadstock project, including a rewilding trail on the community recreation ground and a low carbon community energy initiative

·       Sustainable Stansted - £3,160 - to continue work on habitat improvements in local parks and community spaces, and to deliver community engagement to help reduce energy consumption

·       The Sampfords Parish Council - £4,000 - for community energy surveys and biodiversity status investigation work

·       Great Easton and Tilty Parish Council - £6,300 - for exploratory ecology studies with a view to creating a new habitat and wildlife area

·       Hadstock Village Hall- £17,234 - for the installation of a solar panel system and insulation measures

·       Newport River Group- £20,000 - for feasibility study work as part of the Upper Cam Chalk Stream Restoration Project, including a community education project focused on reducing waste and pollution

·       Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group East CIC - £18,027.79 - for the restoration of the River Pant catchment at Grange Farm, Radwinter

The list of successful projects was approved by Cabinet on 13 February following an evaluation and selection process.

21 March 2025