On Monday 23^rd August an exemplar Low Impact building was opened in the Wyre Forest by local ‘rock royalty' Robert Plant.

The building is the physical ‘flagship' to the Forestry Commission's ‘Grow With Wyre' Landscape Partnership which MEA have been significant partners in. Heating and hot water to the building will be provided by burning ‘a dozen or so trees' every year from the Commission's own surrounding estate in a modern high-tech automatically-fed wood chip fired boiler.

Over the past year both our Low Carbon Enterprise (LCE) and Low Carbon Communities teams have been undertaking respective wood fuel feasibility studies and householder energy efficiency workshops in the Wyre as part of the £1.8m Heritage Lottery funded project to restore and enhance the Wyre Forest landscape encompassing all sorts of aspects from nature conservation to archaeology to orchard planting and local produce marketing schemes. MEA played a key role in the development of the project proposal and also have an ongoing strategic role on the Technical Working Group for the ‘Re-Energise the Wyre' aspect of the programme which these two activities in particular, as well as the heating system and fuel supply for the new building itself have been funded under. The idea of incorporating the ‘low carbon' aspect of the project is to ensure that it is sustainable in the longer term and to recognise that creating a viable wood fuel market stimulated by local demand is one way of economically sustaining the forest landscape.

Tristan Haynes, Technical Adviser for the LCE team at MEA said "the opening was great to meet all the people involved in such diverse activity and to celebrate the opening of the new centre and all the activity going on around it with local celebrity Robert Plant and his ceremonial sawing of a branch. Whilst clearly genuinely impressed with the outcomes of the project as a whole and interested in the preservation of such a large area of important forest habitat in the area where he grew up he joked that the ceremonial act itself was "one of the sillier things I've been asked to do"!

Fantastic Home has received funding from Shropshire Council's Aggregates Levy Sustainability Fund to go on the road and visit 10 communities around the county. 

Our first event is in Cleobury Mortimer on September 11^th in Cleobury Country Centre car park between 9am and 5pm.

We'll be visiting Market Drayton, Wenlock and Ellesmere too and will be looking for more places soon.

• Bulbs distributed: 110
• Shower timers distributed: 30
• Savaflush distributed: 40
• PowerDowns distributed: 160
• Shower Saves distributed: 60
• CO2 saved (annual): 16,138 kg
• CO2 saved (lifetime): 101,922 kg
• Water savings (annual): 425,790 litres
• Water savings (lifetime): 4,981,950 litres
• £££ savings (annual): £10,159
• £££ savings (lifetime): £70,940

We enjoyed a very blustery day in Ludlow last Sunday (29^th August). The event itself was very busy with stalls selling local foods and crafts as well as several energy related stalls (including us) providing information on renewables; wind generators would certainly have been a popular topic of the day! There was also a solar powered band providing the entertainment and an electric car on show to get people talking about the possibilities of renewable energy. 

We took with us a wide selection of freebies which meant that most people who visited our stall went away with at least one item and most people went away with several. The TV Powerdowns proved to be useful for more than just saving energy and money. One lady was very happy to hear that she could use it to switch her TV and all other peripherals off using her remote control as her television did not have an off switch so she was resorting to leaning around the back each time.

People also showed a lot of interest in the new Fantastic Home posters which were put to the test for the first time. These really helped to brighten up our stall and make it look appealing to people of all ages. Unfortunately their debut was cut short when the wind blew our information boards off the table and they had to be safely packed away.

Items given away:

• 141 TV Powerdowns
• 167 Savaflush Bags
• 49 Showersavers (Eon ones)
• 100 Showertimers

to a total of 129 people

The event was busy and there was a constant stream of people wanting the freebies. People were quite discerning though and turned down freebies they didn't think they could use (e.g.: some said they turned their TV off at the plug and so didn't need a powerdown). Having four freebies meant there was at least one item suitable for almost everybody who stopped at the stall. Around half had been directed to the stall by Melanee and Lynda from their stall. The others were passerbys and the stall was well situated for this as it was on a pavement which people used to enter and exit the market.

It was hard to attract people to the bike as I was on the stall on my own, but some children and teenagers did use it and at a quiet moment in the middle of the day I was able to chat with some of those using it about how many people would have to pedal a bike to power their home.

The rain limited the number of factsheets I was able to hand out as I put them all away in the middle of the day to stop them getting soggy! Still, around half a dozen people took sheets before I put them away and the ones on lighting, renewables and feed-in tariffs were most popular.

• Bulbs distributed: 240
• Shower timers distributed: 53
• Savaflush distributed: 75
• PowerDowns distributed: 81
• Shower Saves distributed: 19
• Insulation referrals: 6
• £££ saved (lifetime): £58,328
• CO2 saved (lifetime): 150,467 kg
• Water saved: 2,267,925 litres

We had a very busy day in Shrewsbury Square; even the changeable weather did not put visitors off visiting the Light Fantastic trailer. We were glad to have three sets of helping hands as we were giving away energy saving devices quicker than we could put them out. When we got a break from explaining the benefits of a TV PowerDown or the cost savings of installing low energy lighting we answered questions on Feed-in-Tariffs and solar panels above all else, clearly a hot topic at the moment.

We had some great discussions with visitors about the challenge of the ominous 4 minute shower (for which we were giving away Shower timers) as well the best type of low energy bulbs for an antique chandelier. Some visitors were so impressed they returned later in the day with friends/neighbours to make sure they didn't miss out on this great opportunity to get some energy saving freebees!

The new Fantastic Home posters were also displayed, brightening up the trailer and providing people with information on how to run a low carbon home, renewable energy, low energy appliances, low energy lighting and much more.