Rose Hill and Iffley Low Carbon win big!

Oxford Community Action Group (CAG) Rose Hill and Iffley Low Carbon (RHILC) won the Green Heart Hero Community Inspiration award at The Climate Coalition’s award ceremony at the House of Commons last week. Huge congratulations are in order! Eleanor from the group told us a bit about the prestigious award.

Rose Hill and Iffley Low Carbon CAG were nominated for the Community Inspiration award by Anneliese Dodds, our MP. Cathy Gibb and Eleanor Watts went up to the House of Commons to receive the award on behalf of the whole group, which has been running for five years. It was an honour to share a platform with Caroline Lucas, who was, unsurprisingly, chosen as the greenest MP. While it was interesting to see the the Speaker’s Chambers with their oak panels and grand portraits, it was most inspiring to talk to members of other groups who were clearly doing wonderful work right across the country. We had a lovely surprise when we saw Robin Morris, from Low Carbon East Oxford. He was picking up an award on behalf of Energy Local, a scheme which shares hydro-electricity between over a hundred households in North Wales. We also had an interesting chat to the representative of an RSPB reserve in north-eastern Scotland. This is working to preserve the mud flats from the effects of rising sea levels, which have already breached sea walls.

Cathy and I were sad that only two of us were allowed into the House of Commons, since everything we have achieved so far has been down to cooperative team work. Thank you to all who work so hard for RHILC – and to all the other 60 CAGs in Oxfordshire who could equally well have been nominated, many of whom have given us ideas and inspiration. Thank you also to the CAG Network, without which we would not exist. Long may it continue.

In making the award, the Climate Coalition said: “Since its creation in 2013, RHILC has been hugely successful in working towards its vision of making Rose Hill the first zero-carbon council estate. They encouraged the council to install 190 solar panels on the community centre, generating 57,000kWh of electricity a year, and the car-share club now has an electric car powered by solar. They also run bike and electric goods repair workshops, swap shops, and organised a thermal imaging campaign to advise residents on minimising heat loss.Recently, they have worked to install PV panels and battery storage systems in social housing.”

RHILC’s award was also covered in the Oxford Mail.

RHILC aren’t resting on their laurels either! Straight after winning the award, the group have been making progress with their campaign for segregated safe cycle lanes on Iffley Road. You can read more about that in this Oxford Mail article.