Lichfield District and the environment
Green Developments and Initiatives
www.chasewatergreenpark.org
Climate change will have far reaching effects on the UK’s people, places, economy, society and environments.
Craig Jordan (Development Executive, Lichfield District Council and Councillor Dr. David S. Smith (Leader of Lichfield District Council) receive the prestigious Green Apple Award.
Lichfield District Council is passionate about its role as a community leader, in tackling the causes and impacts of climate change, both locally and further afield. The council took its first step towards tackling climate change when it signed the Nottingham Declaration on Climate Change in November 2001. Later in June 2008 the council also signed up to the Staffordshire Declaration on Climate Change. The council's commitment was first demonstrated through two very significant initiatives; the early championing of kerbside recycling, and the sustainable design of the new theatre, the Lichfield Garrick. Then, in March 2008 the council launched the Warmer Homes Greener District initiative which has helped hundreds of homeowners to cut their energy bills by making their homes more energy efficient. Today, the initiative continues to deliver a coordinated programme of heating and insulation advice, as well as grants and measures to improve residents’ home energy efficiency. The council firmly believes local businesses and public partners, as well as residents, need to come together to tackle climate change. To this end, in 2008 the council
joined forces with a host of local organisations, including the University of Birmingham and Staffordshire County Council, through an initiative called Chasewater Green Park Projects. Projects included in the initiative range from researching greener ways to energy manage historic buildings, such as Lichfield Cathedral, looking at ways to create carbon neutral business parks, through to demonstrating how to harness unused energy from coal fired power stations. In November 2009, the initiative was awarded a prestigious Green Apple Award at the House of Commons. Cllr Smith explained: "The Green Apple award firmly cements the initiative's role at the forefront of helping to cut carbon emissions and reduce consumption of non-renewable energy sources across the district and further afield. The work of the initiative will also help to boost our local economy by providing opportunities for new green businesses and products." Through this range of measures, as well as a series of emerging projects and initiatives, the council and its partners will firmly establish, and continue to play, a pivotal role in mitigating the effects of climate change.
"I firmly believe that by joining forces with businesses, through partnerships like Chasewater Green Park Projects, local councils can translate high level thinking on climate change, into local solutions that deliver." Councillor Dr. David S. Smith Leader of Lichfield District Council
A partnership approach University of Birmingham
Councillor Dr. David S. Smith Leader of Lichfield District Council
Our mission statement Local government is often accused of not actively tackling national challenges. At Lichfield District Council we aim to combat this by working in partnership with prestigious organisations to address the very national issues of climate change and green energy.
Staffordshire County Council Professor Nigel Weatherill
Professor Richard J Green
Dr Mark Gaterell
Head of College of Engineering and Physical Sciences
Professor of Energy Economics
Director of Research for Sustainable Engineering
Lichfield District Council
What I want to see is how as partners we can create functioning businesses out of research that centre on intelligent uses and production of alternative and renewable sources of energy. The project also includes schools and local climate change action groups across the district, who are working with us on the aim of reducing our carbon emissions as a community.
Councillor Mike Maryon Cabinet Member for Highways and Environment
Councillor Alan White
Councillor Neil Roberts
Richard King
Chairman of Environment & Development, Overview & Scrutiny Committee
Cabinet Member for Development Services
Strategic Director of Democratic, Development & Legal
Advantage West Midlands
Chasewater Green Park Projects presents a unique opportunity to galvanise existing organisations and structures to explore these concepts and deliver tangible outcomes. I would like to highlight the research involvement from our partner, the University of Birmingham, and the support and cooperation of Advantage West Midlands and Staffordshire County Council.
Dr David Brown Emrys Jones
Craig Jordan
Lichfield District Venture
Development Executive
Deputy Chair of AWM Chief Executive of the Institution of Chemical Engineers
Our approach Identify local authority demand and influence
Research to a purpose
Project funding
New business opportunities Education & community engagement
A greener cleaner community
Chasewater What is Chasewater: Chasewater Country Park is a delightful park steeped in industrial heritage. Bordered by Burntwood, Norton Canes and Brownhills, it is home to a Site of Special Scientific Interest. Once an industrial wasteland, thanks to the work of Lichfield District Council and its partners, it is now a popular country park that welcomes over 150,000 visitors every year. From extreme watersports, to relaxation, thousands of people now visit Chasewater every week. Over recent years, land has been cleaned up and reclaimed, trees have been planted, roads, footpaths, cycletracks, visitor and sporting facilities have been built. The country park is home to an innovation centre, cafe and play area. It also boasts Chasewater Railway, a heritage attraction that is equal to many highly regarded tourist railways. Chasewater is also home to one of the largest reservoirs in the West Midlands that is used for a variety of watersports. British Waterways regularly draws water from the reservoir whenever it needs to maintain the water levels in the Birmingham Canal Network. The reservoir covers an area of 108 hectares and holds approximately 3.7 million cubic metres of water. Overall the site encompasses 750 acres.
Chasewater Innovation Centre Through our partnership with Staffordshire County Council we will be incorporating the Chasewater Innovation Centre into the overall Chasewater Green Park Projects' delivery plan. The centre, built of Green Oak, houses an exhibition space which will become a dedicated visitor destination, research facility, educational resource, and green enterprise and innovation centre. From a visitor perspective, people will be able to find out about the progress of initiative through revolving displays and modern interpretation, focussing on the generation, reuse and saving of energy. From a research perspective, students and partners, such as the University of Birmingham, will use the centre to carry out research activities. From an educational perspective, the centre will host workshops and exhibitions targeted at local and regional students of all ages. It will also promote further education opportunities available within the fields of science, engineering and green technologies. From an enterprise generation perspective, the centre's nearby sister buildings house business starter units that will provide the ideal springboard for new company development and green enterprise.
A greener cathedral : Research project Location: Lichfield Cathedral Partners: Lichfield Cathedral, Lichfield District Council, University of Birmingham Project Vision: To identify new technologies capable of lowering the costs associated with heating, lighting and water management at Lichfield Cathedral and buildings in The Close. Delivery Summary: Like many historic buildings, Lichfield Cathedral and those in The Close are suffering from major increases in energy costs. The Cathedral is currently undertaking a major refurbishment and restoration programme, so this presents an ideal opportunity to develop new techniques and approaches. The project has two graduates from the University of Birmingham working, in partnership with the Dean and Chapter, to identify new technologies and processes capable of providing more efficient and cost effective energy management of both the Cathedral and buildings in The Close. Commercial Benefit: Managing historic buildings is a nationwide problem. Any solution will need to be sympathetic to the significant commercial and historic constraints posed by such buildings. Should the project produce workable solutions, the market potential for commercial development is vast.
A sustainable crop : Research project Location: Chasewater Partners: University of Birmingham, Lichfield District Council, Staffordshire County Council Project Vision: To work with a leading food retailer to develop an experimental salad production unit, within a large greenhouse complex. The unit will use a combination of solar energy and a lake based heat pump to supply warm water to a hydroponic network. Delivery Summary: The greenhouses will enable exotic salad crops to be produced, with a continuous 52-week production cycle. This is equivalent to four crops every year and tomatoes cropping at double their yield. Most large food retailers offer funds for developing projects of this nature. During the project, links with potential local and national partners will be explored. A first stage evaluation of this project has been completed by a graduate from the University of Birmingham. Commercial Benefit: This project offers an opportunity to change the commercial landscape of food production by combining eco-friendly processes and new technology. Together these have the potential to lower the cost of manufacture and positively impact the transport linked to food distribution.
Hot water from steam : Research project Location: Rugeley Power Station Partners: International Power at Rugeley Power Station, University of Birmingham, Lichfield District Council Project Vision: To research the concept of creating local energy networks at coal fired power stations to serve both residential and commercial properties. Rugeley Power Station will be used as a test bed for the research. Delivery Summary: Over 70 years ago steam produced by Battersea Power Station was re-used to provide hot water to the famous Dolphin Court apartments. Local energy networks are highly economical as they heat new homes by reusing existing and otherwise lost energy sources. They could also free up land being used by cooling towers for alternative uses. From a developer's point of view, this type of energy supply into new houses means they will be able to market low-energy homes and meet the green agenda, without the need for eco-towns. This project, led by University of Birmingham, is working to update and extend this concept and associated technologies for potential future use. The concept will be modelled as part of an undergraduate degree course at the University of Birmingham. Commercial Benefit: Local energy networks, whether from surplus electricity, ground source heat pumps, wind turbines, or other sources, must be seen as one of the ways forward for domestic power supply. If successful, this project could influence future plans for local energy networks nationwide.
Energy efficient business parks : Vision Partners: University of Birmingham, Lichfield District Council, Lingfield Assets LLP Project Vision: To investigate ways of adopting decision-support tools which enable the feasibility of different technologies or approaches to create more energy efficient business parks. Delivery Summary: Lichfield District Council will identify and work with local partners during the development phase of business parks. The aim will be to provide a toolkit for brownfield development that enables the efficacy of adopting sustainable energy and water supply options. These new methods and approaches will be capable of substantially reducing energy costs, and could include dispersing concentrations of contaminants to provide clean drinking water, creating hydro-electricity from an aquifer, developing an aquifer thermal energy storage system, or breaking down raw materials, such as methane reserves, to provide on-site renewable waste management systems. Commercial Benefit: These cost effective solutions will limit the impact of new business park development on the environment to carbon neutral. This panacea for environmental technologies will mitigate risks for wider application in the UK on brownfield land and have significant commercial benefits for developers and occupiers alike. Such projects will also take account of the precedents set by the Climate Change Act 2008 and encompass the policies and visions of the ‘Communities and Local Government Department’ together with embracing local planning policies and regional spatial strategies for delivering long term sustainable development.
Village distributed heat networks : Vision Location: To be confirmed. Partners: To be confirmed. Project Vision: To explore the possibility of village heat networks, that utilise existing underground infrastructure, possibly through foul water drainage networks, and thereby minimise new infrastructure cost and time to develop. Delivery Summary: Work is underway within many companies to develop mini community based power stations within new developments, using a wide variety of fuels - from bio-mass to wind and ground source heat pumps This project will explore how this type of power station can be successfully established within existing housing developments. It will investigate how the power generated (steam) can be distributed to nearby homes, using existing infrastructure, with the minimum of new infrastructure development. Commercial Benefit: Will enable mini community power stations to be installed at a more cost effective level and within existing housing developments. Overall it will make local power generation a more widespread option.
Recycling household and commercial waste Partners: Lichfield District Council Project Vision: Lichfield District Council recognised, as early as 2001, that there was an urgent need to reduce the amount of residential waste it disposed of in landfill. A program to increase levels of recycling was launched, which continues to this day. Delivery Summary: The introduction of a five stream kerbside recycling service resulted in a 44% recycling rate and the authority becoming the best performing recycler in the UK in 2003/2004, and Beacon Council status for the waste management service being awarded in 2004/2005. The latest changes to the scheme are the replacement of a weekly dual stream commingled kerbside box collection, with an alternate weekly single stream commingled kerbside wheeled-bin collection. Early indications are that this is very popular with residents, and expectations are the changes will increase our recycling rate close to 61%, which would again be the best in the UK. The changes also improve the efficiency of the service, reducing our transport emissions by around 20% and generating savings, which are being reinvested in service delivery. Residents in Lichfield can recycle glass, all types of plastics (excluding polystyrene), steel and aluminium cans, green waste, food waste, paper, cardboard, and textiles. The recycling service is complemented by an alternate weekly wheeled bin residual waste collection service. Feedback from residents is extremely complementary on the entire service. Latest comments being that there is now often very little left to go into the residual waste bin. Indeed, many residents are now voluntarily swapping their residual waste bins for a smaller version.
Community action for climate change in Lichfield District Partners: Whittington and Fisherwick Environment Group (WFEG), Lichfield District Council, Low Carbon Lichfield (LoCaL), University of Birmingham. Project Vision: To combat climate change by fostering and creating low carbon community action groups in parishes across Lichfield District. Delivery Summary: Lichfield District is already home to one of the region’s leading low carbon initiatives - Whittington and Fisherwick Environment Group (WFEG), an award winning group of active local volunteers. In 2009 the group received the C+ Carbon award for the most successful community in reducing its carbon emissions, and the RegenWM prize, for the best People and Environment project in the region. WFEG has undertaken a series of campaigns and initiatives to raise awareness and encourage residents to take a series of steps to reduce energy use, while saving money - low energy light bulb promotion, cavity wall & loft insulation and ‘eco-refurbishment’. An annual Big Green Fair has quickly become an established feature of village life, and a lots of other events have been organised including an ‘Open Homes’ day where villagers could visit homes with low energy usage. LoCaL (Low Carbon Lichfield) has also now been established with help from WFEG and is planning an exciting project to train volunteers to carry out energy auditing, initially in a small area of North Lichfield, but eventually to be rolled out across the area, and beyond. They are also lending out energy monitors to help people check and understand their electricity usage better. WFEG, LoCaL and Lichfield District Council are committed to spread the message, help other local groups get started, and encourage organisations and businesses across the district to reduce carbon. With this in mind they have recently joined together with Lichfield District Council to launch LiDACC Lichfield District Action on Climate Change.
Education Go Green Conference As part of our community engagement, we are encouraging climate change action groups to form across Lichfield District. This came together in our Go Green conference in 2010. A sell-out event, it featured guest speakers including: BBC2’s recycling champion Penney Poyzer, Malcolm Harbour MEP, Michael Fabricant MP, Professor Corinne Le Quéré, Birmingham Chamber of Commerce’s Kishor Pala and many local leaders.
Chase Terrace Technology College One of the jewels in the crown of the district, Chase Terrace Technology College is leading the charge on school sustainability projects. Sustainability has been worked into every area of school life from education, to student voice, through to the buildings. Education: Lessons on green themes include recycling, sustainability and global citizenship. Student voice: A sustainability committee, made up of students, meets every six weeks to work on how they can make their college more energy efficient and use their resources better. Building: Using energy saving light bulbs, making sure recycling bins are available in every room, only heating rooms in use, and putting computers on auto power down, is helping to save energy across the college.
Lichfield Garrick One of the greenest theatres in the world, the Lichfield Garrick was built by Lichfield District Council using state of the art air flow technology to cope with the challenges of heating and air conditioning the venue. This system controls the temperature across the whole theatre, keeping it at a comfortable level.