A SOUTH Oxfordshire village has won a Government grant of £10,000 to promote efforts to cut household waste.

Dorchester has been chosen as one of six new Zero Waste Places, after a campaign by a voluntary group to reduce the amount of waste generated by the 450-home village.

The Dorchester Carbon Project already runs weekly fill-up sessions at the town hall, letting villagers top up bottles of cleaning and laundry liquid instead of buying new products.

Now it wants to run classes teaching people how to darn socks, sew and cook tasty meals from leftover food.

Secretary Laura Bristow said the group also wanted to promote a real nappy scheme and a swap shop for unwanted household items.

A wormery will be built at the primary school to educate children about composting.

Mrs Bristow added: “It’s about a small community looking at what we can do and what difference we can make in taking on climate change.”