The CAG project in Oxfordshire began in Sept 2001 as a partnership project between The Recycling Consortium (now Resource Futures) in Bristol and Oxfordshire County Council. The project is supported by all District Councils in Oxfordshire and was initially funded by Viridor Waste management through Trust for Oxfordshire's Environment (TOE) and Oxfordshire County Council.

Since the ToE funding finished the project has been fully funded by Oxfordshire County Council.

The CAG project provides support and funding for community groups holding events and intiatives that help to reduce the amount of resources wasted in Oxfordshire.

CAG Officers work to support exisiting CAGs in their events and initiatives and to promote the idea of 'resource sustainable communities' to other areas in Oxfordshire.

Simon Kenton - CAG Project Manager

Simon has a background of working with community and environmental groups in places as far flung as Manchester, Israel and Nepal. He spent a number of years setting up permaculture, alternative technology and composting initiative in Central France. Most recently he has been coordinator of the Worcestershire Resource Exchange, Worchester’s ‘scrapstore’, Community Repaint and timber recycling project. During 2008 he is planning to create strong links between the CAGs and other organisations, to help the network create a greener Oxfordshire and a model for other counties.

email Simon: simon.kenton@resourcefutures.co.uk

Frances Buckel - CAG Project Officer

Frances started work on the CAG project in August 2007. She lived in Africa for a number of years and while in Malawi was very involved with the Lilongwe Branch of Wildlife and Environment Society of Malawi. She had a year in Kenya and took part in many community projects, including a number of clean ups in Mombassa. On returning to the UK she has lived for nine years in Oxfordshire working part time for the UK Overseas Territories Conservation Forum. She has spent the last four years working on waste related projects. She is also a voluntary member of the Chipping Norton News team.

email Frances: frances.buckel@resourcefutures.co.uk