Residents in a Welsh village are celebrating after winning £100,000 and taking the title of the greenest community in the UK in the process.
Designed to encourage neighbourhoods and communities to save and generate as much electricity as possible, the British Gas Green Streets Community Challenge recognised the 1,300 residents of Llangattock in the Brecon Beacons National Park for their environmental awareness.
Residents expect to shave around £62,000 off their combined energy bill over the next five years and has high ambitions, aiming to become a carbon negative community by 2015.
Over the past 18 months, a number of measures were implemented in homes and community buildings to help residents cut their energy use and reduce carbon emissions. Homes in the village have installed cavity wall insulation, solar photovoltaic panels, loft insulation and biomass boilers to improve energy efficiency. Llangattock Primary School now boasts a solar power electricity system and the village hall has an air-source heat pump.
“The people of Llangattock have shown some amazing levels of commitment to cutting carbon emissions, changing their behaviour and educating the wider community about what can be done, ” said Gearoid Lane, the managing director of British Gas new markets.
Michael Butterfield, project leader at Llangattock, added: “We’ve all worked really hard to get this far. We’re committed to building on this, and to helping neighbouring communities develop their own sustainable vision.”
Llangattock was chosen from 100 nationwide projects to be one of the final 14 communities who would go head-to-head over 14 months, before emerging as the UK’s greenest community.
