Vote For Tutbury Eco Power In Energyshare’s competition and help a Primary School Cut Costs

At the weekend I told you all about the exciting project I’ve been asked to be involved in, where I am supporting Tutbury Eco Power in Staffordshire, in their bid to win £75,000 in the competition hosted by Energyshare (whose founding partners are River Cottage and British Gas).  If you are a fan of Three Hungry Boys on Channel 4, then you’ll have seen the competition being kicked off on their television show.

Tutbury have done really well so far to go from 1 in a thousand to 1 in a group of six.  But now they need your help!

You’ve got until Dec 3rd at 5pm to vote!

(Remember when you vote, that you need to make sure you have voted by trying again; some people are only subscribing and forgetting to vote.  Check you have clicked on the activation email, and test it by trying to vote again, or read their description of how to vote here.).

What will they do with the money?  They are going to put solar panels on local community buildings, so that important buildings for the community can cut their costs and spend more money on things that the community can gain from.

The first 3 buildings to gain from this project will be:

1. The local primary school – well you can imagine what they will be able to spend the money on, as schools always need more money to help the kids learn.
2. The old school building – where they have the pre-school and scouts/guides
3. The village hall – where they run fab things like Tai Quan Do, Yoga classes, and the Women’s Institute.

I had a chat with the local primary school head teacher (a fellow mummy blogger too!) and she had this to say …“I must say I am very passionate about the project. The idea of solar panels saving us money was good enough, but then I thought of the economic teaching and learning aspect for the older children. I see that part being a Young Enterprise project – the children would work out the savings; they could work out price per unit, etc. The costing type exercises, I believe would benefit our Y6 children tremendously.    The actual solar panels would generate much speaking and listening and lead to learning about renewable energy – what other sources there are, etc. There is a lot of educational value behind this project, so I dearly hope we get many more votes.”

So why vote for this project and not the others?  Because …

• These guys are Passionate about their local community with a capital P.  It’s not just about Eco-ness for them.  It’s about giving back and helping their community.
• You could win a River cottage cookery book, as 5 are being given away each day
• They are going to be helping the local primary school.  In all of these buildings, there will be Mums and kids gaining.  So these people have clearly got their priorities right!
• They will be able to help more than one building and community project, whereas other competitors are only helping one group.
• Their logo was designed by the local kids, which is an example of how they are constantly engaging with the local children and getting them interested in community and eco knowledge and has a big ‘ahhhh’ factor.
• They have a proven track record and are already developing a hydro project for the community
• This solar power project is both practical and effective, without affecting the community’s beauty or having some of the downsides of the other types of renewable energy.  It’s considered the most financially efficient as well, so you will definitely be making sure that your vote gives the most KW’s for the competition prize money.
• They’ve found a way to combine a beautiful old village with renewable energy by being really sensitive to their surroundings.  So they won’t be affecting the beauty of the village, but will be making one of the villages from the Doomsday book leap into the future with the use of renewable energy.
• There are no problems in the way; they’ve got all the necessary local groups/organisations involved, like the council, housing association etc, etc, so they are ready to rock and roll and you can be sure of their success.
• They’ve got the whole community behind them by listening to all the concerns that have been voiced and making sure that it was done thoughtfully.  For instance, they have purposely decided to not consider wind (massive great big turbines) or anything that would require a big unsightly building.
• They meet in the pub; another sign they are a good bunch of people!
• By voting in this energy share project we are showing British Gas that we are interested in renewable energy
• Other organisations have shown their belief in them by giving these awards: Trent and Dove Housing Association Impact On Community 2011 and Heart of England In Bloom Environmental Award 2011, and been registered with the FSA as an IPS.
• In a way they need you more, because they are a well established group, but have been focussing on connections with the local community, so they haven’t got the social media influence going yet  (i.e they are just learning about twitter, Facebook and blogging!).
• They are all volunteers and none of them are being paid for all this work that they are doing for the community.
• Because I asked you too ;o)

Feeling cynical still?  I met with Gary Rowe from Tutbury this week and any concerns I might have had about this project purely being to promote Energy Share have flown out of the window.  They are a really inspiring, lovely group of people, who have a massive commitment to their community.  They have done so many things, I’m gobsmacked by them.  After reading so much depressing stuff in the media recently, you would never know that there are people out there who give so much of their time and expertise for people that they haven’t actually met.  He really worries about Tutbury, the people, the elderly and the kids.  He explained to me about fuel poverty and how they are working closely with the local Housing Association to make sure that they can start to reduce or remove it totally by using schemes like this solar panel one.  They won a grant and made a pile of eco friendly toys (like solar powered helicopters) which the school looks after and then lends back to the group for shows.  They go to shows to share what they know and have learnt about renewable projects, without expecting anything in return for their knowledge and consultancy.  They are packed full of ideas for the future.