Former Depute Director of Finance...
and my one-time neighbour features in the Oxford Mail in his new role.
Under the headline "Wind farm goes live"
Under the headline "Wind farm goes live"
The chairman of the co-operative which owns the wind farm is Mark Luntley, formerly Oxford City Council's director of corporate services.
And it turns out he knows a thing or two about wind - having previously lived in the Outer Hebrides while working for the Western Isles Council.
4 comments:
Former colleagues of Mark will not be surprised by his ability to generate large amounts of wind. Indeed one wonders if the turbines are strictly necessary...As for other denizens of Francis Street, it would be impolite to comment.
And yes he learnt to take the skills to where industrial blight is the norm
what did he eat while he was here?!
Angus - thanks for highlighting the Westmill windfarm and congratulations on an incisive and wide ranging blog.
I.m really proud of Westmill's work - most of which is actually the result of a 15 year fight by organic farmer Adam Twine and a local activist group .
Westmill is unusual in being a co-operative, our 2,500 members raised £4.6m (together with a £3.4m loan from the co-operative bank) which funded a scheme which will power 2,500 homes and displace 10,000 tonnes of CO2 a year.
We've been generating power since February and so far we are around 12% above our target.
We've had community groups, wildlife trusts, and lots of local people come to visit. Around half our shareholders are local and there's a real sense of pride in people having created something in their community.
We give 0.5% of our income to a local energy trust. At our AGM our members helped us work out how that trust could fund projects to make a difference in our community.
By the way - Westmill is part of a family of cooperatives, the first was in Barrow in Furness.
Other community windfarms are being launched - two of which are in Scotland.
One (the Great Glen Co-Operative) is currently raising funds. If people want to find out more, or possibly invest in sustainable energy they canfind out more at: www.greatglen.coop
with best wishes.
Post a Comment