AMCC thinking about renewables

Both John Richardson and I sit on the management committee for the Abbey Manor Community Centre, which meets roughly every six weeks ate the moment.

When AMCC was refurbished, the opportunity was taken to bring insulation up to current standards. Air source heat pumps were also fitted to both the new Parish Room and to the main hall. Although these are really powerful, the Committee now needs to optimise the settings to minimise our fuel bills.

Another “green” initiative has been to investigate Solar Cells for the roof to take advantage of the available Feed In Tariff and hopefully to make some money once the investment has been returned. Although the AMCC roof is well positioned, the Abbey Community Association decided it didn’t want to get into one of the “roof rental” schemes as the Centre would be unlikely to benefit much. ACA are now looking at other funding options.

When the Renewable Heat Incentive was confirmed by Climate Change Minister, Chris Huhne, we also decided to investigate whether solar panels could provide the hot water which the centre needs. As you can see, the plumbing is quite “dated” and with work it should mean a much better supply of hot water for the kitchens and washrooms. We think this is very easily done, watch this space.

You’ll notice Councillor Richardson is pictured doing a survey. John’s experience designing and installing solar systems for Soltrac has been invaluable to the Committee. Those who suspect a conflict of interests can rest assured that the Association will use an open tendering process in due course.

Into Somerset and the Paragon Story

Last year, I went to Ross-on-Wye to persuade the family running Paragon Laundry to invest here, in Brympton. I believe that creating employment opportunities is an important thing for local authorities to do, whether it’s by allocating land, promoting the area, building industrial estates or, as in this case, lobbying. Letting entrepreneurs create jobs relieves the misery of unemployment and drives the economy forward.

Throughout the downturn, I made sure that SSDC was supporting start-ups and helping existing business to grow … but these are both slow ways to create new jobs so we set up Into Somerset to find successful businesses like Paragon wanting to re-locate. Into Somerset is an “inward investment” partnership set up between all the councils in Somerset. It promotes Somerset to business leaders wanting to re-locate.

Paragon will start operating in Yeovil this summer with around 80 jobs including operators, engineers, drivers, sales staff and management. With a capacity of up to 600,000 items a week, the laundry will initially service hotels from Peignton to Pool and from Bristol to Andover. Next year the second phase will bring more capacity introducing their prestige brands to service “boutique” hotels. Eventually, the operation could see as many as 200 people here in Yeovil, and possibly spin-off businesses in the immediate area.

… and yes, I did claim the mileage!

Reporting Back

Election season will soon be under way. Coincidentally, John and I have been getting around to an “update” Focus (Click here to see it). Our MEP, Graham Watson produces a very effective “Reporting Back” leaflet at least once a year. We had fine ambitions to do the same, but time is very much against you when you’re trying to work and to be a councillor at the same time. Still, we have some very good news to share, so here it is at last.

The back-story is very interesting. People often assume that local government is a fairly sleepy enclave but in this case, a very switched-on officer spotted the faint possibilites and worked tirelessly to develop the remote possibility into what’s become a significant investment. Planning was always going to be an issue and by acting as an advocate I got the design improved a lot. We also had a very quick determination because the relevant facts were known (although I had to stand back from the actual decision making, having so strongly promoted the move). Working seperately is one of the strengths of having two councillors, we often have one of us pushing a change and the other sitting ready to represent Brympton residents in the actual decision making (and no, we don’t always agree!!).

If you would like to help during the election (which will probably be announced in 2 weeks), then there are buttons at the top right hand side of this page. We need people to fold and stuff envelopes, and people to help deliver. It’s only a half hour or so to deliver leaflets to your street, so why not …?