On Saturday 22nd of June, we launched a new community champions project in Stockport with an event held at Staircase House in Stockport. An introduction from Councillor Stuart Bodsworth was followed by a presentation on the technical aspects of retrofit from Marianne Heaslip of URBED and a lively discussion on plans for Carbon Co-op in Stockport.
The event started bright and early at 10am and many interested householders from the Stockport borough attended even despite the windy weather.
Cllr Bodsworth opening introduction created the perfect basis for discussion throughout the event on what we can do, at household level, to reduce our carbon footprint by improving our home’s energy efficiency and thus reducing our energy bills, making us more resilient as gas and electricity prices keep rising.
Householders from the Heatons, the Cheadles, Marple and Mellor and Romiley attended. Across the borough similar issues and questions reoccurred, fo example like knowing who to trust for advice, finding a cost effective way to improve/retrofit our homes, what is Green Deal and how it works and does it work? Understanding the extent of the inconvenience that domestic retrofit works may bring and how to manage it well so that the disruption is compensated by the overall improvements.
We were also delighted to welcome Cat Jessop, a talented artist who created some wonderful visual minutes for us, which we very much hope will be on display at Stockport Council soon.
We’re still looking for community champions in Stockport, if you are interested please contact our project worker Lorenza Casini at: lorenza@carbon.coop