More than £56,000 given away for climate action projects
Buying water butts for Watchfield residents, restoring neglected woodland in Hinksey and insulating Littleworth Village Hall are just a few of the projects offered financial support by Vale of White Horse District Council through its Climate Action Fund this month.
A total of 14 organisations including parish councils, climate community groups, a pre-school and a drama group were collectively offered more than £56,000 to help with a wide variety of projects which aimed to save energy, help nature recovery or educate residents on how they can help tackle climate change.
Cllr Bethia Thomas, Leader and Cabinet member for Climate Action and the Environment, for Vale of White Horse District Council, said: “This is the third year we have offered the Climate Action Fund to groups across the Vale and we have been so pleased with the great response we have received. Some groups are using the funds to develop existing projects, while others have new ideas that they are looking pursue with our help.
“The breadth of types of projects show that all kinds of community groups are looking at their own operations and are finding clever ways they can make changes to help tackle climate change and in many cases save money and energy too.
“Just as importantly we have seen a focus on nature recovery and resilience with some fantastic projects designed to enhance and protect our natural environment and wild spaces and increase biodiversity.
“The Climate Action Fund will reopen again next year, and we hope even more groups will come forward with inspiring ideas that we can turn into reality as we are doing for this year’s applicants.”
Climate Action Fund awards – offered October 2023
| Location | Organisation | Description of project |
| Abingdon | Abingdon Carbon Cutters | Draught busting project for Abingdon to make free simple adaptations or repairs to people’s homes to reduce heat loss. |
| Blewbury | Blewbury Parish Council | Installation of at least two electric vehicle public charging points at Blewbury Village Hall, to assist EV users to charge their vehicles in the village. |
| Goosey | Goosey Parish Meeting and Goosey Green Limited | A project to reinstate Goosey mere and create a wildlife habitat with reedbed plant succession and native species planting. The intention is for the mere to once again be a natural feature of the village. |
| Harwell | Little Pippins Pre-School | Installation of solar panels on Little Pippin’s pre-school building. |
| Harwell | The Harwellian Club | Project to set up and install interactive displays showing information and advice about the Harwellian Club’s energy usage and the recently installed solar panels at the Harwellian social club. |
| Hinksey | Hinksey Trail Regeneration CIC | Providing public access to the existing Hinksey Heights Nature Reserve, by taking on the lease of an additional 2.5 hectares of woodland. This has been identified as a Priority Habitat in the UK Biodiversity Action Plan, but which has been neglected for the past 30 or 40 years. |
| Hinton Waldrist | Hinton Waldrist Village Hall | Replacing the hall’s existing rotten and original window frames with new double-glazed units. This will improve energy efficiency and comfort for users – as the current windows no longer open. |
| Kingston Bagpuize | Kingston Bagpuize Drama Group | Replacement of the old, inefficient lighting system for our theatrical productions in the village hall with a new system that will support LED lighting. |
| Littleworth | Littleworth Reading Room & Playing Field CIO | Project to thermally insulate the Reading Room – Littleworth’s village hall. |
| Shrivenham | Sustainable Shrivenham | A new Community Hub and Events Manager role, to support the next phase of Sustainable Shrivenham’s community hub, located in Shrivenham High Street – extending opening hours and increasing the number of events. |
| Wantage | Sustainable Wantage | Biodiversity baseline survey for Wantage and Grove – the results of which will inform future activities for Wild Wantage and assist local landowners with their land management. |
| Watchfield | Watchfield Parish Council | Purchasing water butts to give to local residents to fit to their homes and store rainwater, reducing pressure of fresh water during summer droughts and hosepipe bans, ensuring gardens and ponds can be kept alive, protecting local garden biodiversity. |
| Vale of White Horse-wide | Bible Reading Fellowship | Holding two ‘train the trainer’ events, for Messy Church Goes Wild. Messy Church Goes Wild’s focus is to get children and families to embrace the nature on their doorstep, highlighting the ecological issues and advising simple ways everyone can play their part. |
| Vale of White Horse-wide | Fusion Arts | Delivery of online Carbon Literacy Training to local cultural organisations, community groups, artists, and activists. |
Notes to editors
The Climate Action Fund will be available for applications again in the next financial year.
Since its inception in 2021 the Climate Action Fund has provided around £150,000 to a wide variety of projects.
For previous successful applicants and more information please see the Climate Action Fund web page
