Regrettably in the original article published in Bollington Live! I wrongly named the rivers. Here is the corrected version.
Bollington Civic Society - Carbon Neutral Bollington
At their last meeting of the winter season two dozen members of the Civic Society enjoyed a very constructive and wide ranging discussion which began on the subject of recycling. This quickly developed into environmental matters in general and the carbon footprint of Bollington in particular.
A village close to Chester, Ashton Hayes, has recently received publicity for its work in ‘Going Carbon Neutral’. Indeed, they aim to be England’s first carbon neutral village. See their web site at www.goingcarbonneutral.co.uk
. The question arises – could Bollington do something similar?
The Civic Society committee have since discussed it and have agreed that it would be well worth investigating the subject further. So may I encourage those of you with an interest in such a potential project to make yourselves known – come and talk to us and tell us what you think the town could achieve through such a project.
What would “going carbon neutral” mean for Bollington? Well, it seems to encompass all the obvious environmental objectives of the day – such as more recycling, reduced usage of hydrocarbons (oil, coal, gas), more insulation of houses, local power generation, more trees to soak up carbon dioxide, etc. Of course each of these headings covers a huge range of possible actions, some highly beneficial, some practical, some less so.
Here is an example. The River Dean in particular was once used to drive several mills through waterwheels. The mills included Ingersley Clough, Rainow, Higher and Lower mills. Harrop brook provided power for Oak Bank and Defiance mills. Together they powered Bollington corn mill and Lowerhouse mill. So we can see how many times the same water was used to provide power. The water is still there today but just running away. Perhaps we could intercept the rivers in a number of places as in previous centuries but this time, instead of putting it through waterwheels, feed it into modern high-tech water turbines and generate electric power, which can be fed into the grid.
Now if that were to be practical what better way of reducing our carbon footprint? Just one of many ideas and there are many grants available for appropriate projects.
If you have an interest in a carbon neutral Bollington please email revolution@happy-valley.org.uk or phone Tim Boddington on 574888 and if there is sufficient interest we will call a meeting of all interested parties and see where we go from there.
Tim Boddington
The illustrations used in Bollington Live! have been omitted from this page.
