Sustainable Parish Energy Partnership – SPEP
The Sustainable Parish Energy Partnership (SPEP) is a project established by South Cambridgeshire District Council in 2009 and run in partnership with parish councils. SPEP is aimed at helping households to save on their energy bills and reduce carbon emissions. Its all about sustainability.
Membership of the Sustainable Parish Energy Partnership is open to parish councils and community groups in South Cambridgeshire who wish to play a part in helping their communities use energy efficiently, or who wish to generate energy locally. There are about 27 parishes that have signed up for this project tackling the issues of climate change, sustainability and energy in varied and innovative ways.
What are the benefits of joining SPEP?
SPEP offers a comprehensive programme of assistance to any of the district’s parish councils that have decided to commit to helping their residents live more sustainably and manage their energy usage.
The district council provides a ‘menu’ of support measures from which the parishes select which options they feel will work locally in their areas to cut fuel bills and reduce carbon emissions. Examples of the options on offer include:
- specialist energy advice, including loan of electricity monitors which can help you save electricity
- training workshops, on subjects such as Improving the Energy Efficiency of your Community Buildings, Promoting Lift Sharing in your Village and Making the most of Feed in Tariffs
- grant support, providing information on and helping to access grants and subsidies
- car sharing database, helping to reduce the number of car movements and carbon footprint
- purchase options for insulation and renewable energy technologies
- thermal imaging, by the loan of a thermal imaging camera, and training, to do home surveys
- bespoke parish energy booklet, e.g. Living Sustainably booklet with an easy-to-use template and free printing for you to fill with helpful information, photos and local examples of what really works to save energy and save money
- energy mapping
- support for setting up and running village ‘energy events’ to bring people together
- Visits to sustainable initiatives, eg to the Rampton Drift Retrofit project and to the Gamlingay Ecohub, and further afield to the Hockerton Housing Project and the Beddington Zero Energy Development.
What are the costs of joining SPEP?
Joining SPEP is free of charge, and Parish Councils join SPEP simply by recording a minute of the decision to do so, and appointing a contact person to facilitate communications. Parish councillors are encouraged to get involved and organise events and activities as much or as little as they wish. However, anyone can get involved.
In many parishes those most closely involved in organising activities and events are not on the parish council. The district council encourages anyone accessing SPEP support to report regularly on their activities to the parish council.
What should I do next to join SPEP?
If you want to get involved, contact the Sustainable Parish Energy Partnership:
by email sustainability@scambs.gov.uk, or
visiting the website at:
http://www.scambs.gov.uk/content/sustainable-parish-energy-partnership-spep and completing the online form.
You can also read more about the project from the newsletters.
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