A COMMUNITY group is driving ahead with plans to power part of Oxford by wind, sun and water after generating almost £1m in funding in two years.

Low Carbon West Oxford’s latest windfall of £100,000 means the residents’ group has amassed £930,000 from Government grants and its own community share investment scheme.

The group, which was set up in the wake of the July 2007 floods, will use the money to install solar panels at the King’s Centre, in Osney Mead, and the Aldi supermarket, in Botley Road, and to build a 50ft-tall wind turbine on Harcourt Hill. It still needs to raise another £400,000 to install a hydro-electric turbine generator at Osney Weir, on the River Thames.

Members learned last week they had won £100,000 from Nesta (the National Endowment for Science, Technology and Arts) for finishing fourth in the Big Green Challenge, after 36 households pledged to live greener lifestyles and saved 314 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions in a year.

The group toasted the win with Champagne at West Oxford Community Centre, in Botley Road. Mother-of-two Lois Muddiman, of Harley Road, said: “We’re absolutely delighted to have raised so much money.

“But this couldn’t have been achieved without the support of the rest of the community who joined in to cut carbon emissions.

“This shows what can be done at grassroots level by a community if we’re given the funds to make things happen.

“We can solve global warming and climate change with grassroots action and Government commitment – but it’s going to take everybody working together to solve it.

“The hydro-electric scheme is very much still going to happen but we need support from people across Oxfordshire to join our share scheme.”

Low Carbon West Oxford formed West Oxford Community Renewables to sell £1 shares in blocks of 10, 250, 1,000, or 20,000 to finance its green energy schemes.

The company plans to sell electricity to the National Grid, with investors beingpaid interest on their stakes once the scheme has been running for five years.

Since starting the scheme six months ago, the group has attracted a total of 70 investors, who have ploughed in £30,000.

Nesta chief executive Jonathan Kestenbaum said: “Low Carbon West Oxford exceeded our expectations of what communities can achieve in reducing carbon emissions and for this they should be congratulated.”

cwalker@oxfordmail.co.uk For more information about the group, see lowcarbon westoxford.org.uk