ROSE HILL AND IFFLEY LOW CARBON

Rose Hill and Iffley Low Carbon (RHILC) is an Oxford Community Action Group. We started in 2013 and plan our work around Bioregional’s One Planet Living principles:

Culture and Community
We can only beat climate change if we ALL work together, so at our 2021 tree planting, we included representatives from fifteen local community groups including five different faith groups, the school, football team, youth club, running group and community centre - as well as our Councillors and MP. When we promoted our Clean Heat Streets heat pump project (2022-2025), we promoted energy-saving at Junior Youth Club, Asian Women's Voice group, Rose Hill Community Centre Fun Days, Creative Lights Festivals and community meals. We have sent a rep to Rose Hill Community Network every month since it started in the 2020.

Zero-carbon Energy
We have successfully lobbied for 190 solar PV panels, four batteries and an EV charger in our Community Centre, 109 solar panels and a zero-carbon classroom in our primary school (through the Low Carbon Hub) and solar PV on 76 social homes (through Project ERIC). We worked with the Low Carbon Hub on a micro-grid trial during Project LEO (2020-2022).
We have thermally imaged over 200 local homes over the past twelve years and organised seven expert-led insulation advice sessions. We promote Cosy Homes Oxfordshire, the Low Carbon Hub’s retrofit scheme, and in 2023 promoted group discounts on insulation. From 2022-2025, we worked with the Clean Heat Streets project, liaising with Oxford and Oxford Brookes Universities, the City and County Council, Samsung and others to enable 109 free energy surveys and the installation of 32 air source heat pumps in five streets of Rose Hill and Iffley.

Zero Waste and Sustainable Materials
We run a repair café every two months on the first Saturday of the month at Rose Hill Community Centre. Our volunteers mend electrical items, clothes, jewellery and bikes alongside a café and toys and toiletries bring-and-take. We also offer teas and cakes so that people can socialise at the same time. We also organise regular community litter picks, usually during the OxClean Week in March and in the autumn.

Travel and Transport
In 2018, we collected 1,982 signatures for continuous, segregated cycle lanes to the town centre and organised a cycling festival. In 2022, the Council finally agreed to put continuous cycle lanes from and to town from Rose Hill, partly as a result of our campaign (we like to think). In 2025 we supported the introduction of a congestion charge in Oxford so as to make public transport and cycling quicker and to reduce air pollution in the city. We have worked with Broken Spoke and Dr Bike to provide free cycle repair workshops for the public, youth club and Year 6 at Rose Hill Primary School.

Local Sustainable Food
We’ve had two events on the importance of eating less meat and buying local produce. We also hold regular seedlings shares. In 2021 we planted an orchard of 31 fruit and nut trees in the grounds of Rose Hill Primary School. From 2024-2025, Year 3 and 4 children took responsibility for each of the trees, helping to fertilise, mulch and water their own trees in groups of 2-3 children. Volunteers have regularly watered these trees during dry spells since 2021.

Land and Nature
In 2015, 2019 and 2020 we planted 800 trees on our local recreation ground. In December 2022, we were awarded a Tree of Trees from the Queen's Green Canopy which was planted by the Lord Lieutenant of Oxfordshire and many community representatives. The twelve apple trees in the woodland started to give fruit in 2023. In 2024 and 2025, we held successful apple picking and juicing events and ran five tree identification walks with the youth club and interested people. In 2024, we started to document the trees, plants and local wildlife through i-naturalist.com at: https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/rose-hill-community-woodland> in 2025, we raised £6,000 to install a bench with plaque, bin and two tree information boards and make the woodland more accessible to local people. We plan to use these for tree identification workshops with the youth club and school over the coming years, in collaboration with Oxford University Arboretum.

Sustainable Water
During dry spells in 2020, 2021 and 2022, we watered all our hundreds of saplings and our fruit trees. We have watered the orchard several times every summer from 2021 - 2025. In 2021, we donated a water tank to the Youth Club allotment. Some of our members are campaigning for cleaner water in the Thames and an end to sewage dumping in the river.

Health and Happiness
Climate change is frightening, but working and eating together makes us feel better! We often eat and socialise with each other.

You can read back copies of our newsletter here: https://us5.campaign-archive.com/home/?u=004953d9a67229340003b0f83&id=d282bf4258