As part of the Golden Bridge project, it was agreed that a current environmental project within the village would suit the ethos of sharing with our twinning partners a community led project. Hartley Wintney had agreed to launch a Greening campaign, a movement that encourages communities to think on an environmental scale.

Greening Hartley Wintney was launched at the Festival in June, to a lot of active participation and enthusiasm. This community-led scheme aims to reduce CO2 emissions and at the same time save all households money on their energy bills. Challenge cards were distributed to all households in the village during July, and the team of volunteers who have been supporting this scheme surveyed every house and business in the village. The results were a disappointment. For a variety of reasons, few cards were actually displayed, with an average of only 3% in each street (the range was from zero to 30%). However, even with this 3%, villagers had committed to saving 38.8 tonnes of CO2 and 16.1 tonnes of water. 

I shared with our twinning partners the campaign ethos and the challenge cards. The cards were shown to the pupils at the village schools and they discussed how they could achieve the challenges. We also asked pupils to write a poem or draw a picture to encourage as much participation as possible and the results were displayed at the Festival.

The Parish magazine ran a number of articles explaining the Greening campaign and the Parish Council were active in supporting it.

Although the results were disappointing, I feel that the campaign has raised environmental awareness within the village. It is hoped to reinvigorate the campaign at a later date and we would encourage our twinning partners to spread the word.

The Parish Council will continue to support the challenges and encourage residents to do so too by publishing reminders and promoting the use of emission reducing initiatives where possible.

Cathy Roberts
Project Manager – Environment