We held our AGM on Thursday March 27th, in Queen’s Mill, Castleford. It is such a good venue, and so welcoming. Thank you Castleford Heritage Trust.
We had a great evening, re-electing trustees, approving accounts and approving our Annual Report. You can watch a video of our annual report, with extra photos, below.
More importantly, we had a long and detailed discussion on the theme of “Future Proofing Our District”, initiated with a talk from Wakefield Council’s Climate Change lead, Helen Grayshan.
The full report is now here, below. Thank you Cath!
The AGM was much more than a business meeting reporting back on progress, electing officers etc as required by the constitution, it was also an important social event with invited speakers. Unlike our monthly meetings which are a mixture of virtual and in person attendance, and with a very broad agenda, the informal part of the AGM began before the main business with tea and cakes, and gave people the chance to talk on a one to one basis. Members shared information leaflets and made connections about the different projects that are ongoing. They were able to delve more deeply and increase their understanding and hear about the progress of various projects in a way that is not possible at the monthly meetings.
The first of the speakers was Helen Grayshan, the lead climate change officer at Wakefield Council. Helen took us through the vision and many of the actions that the Council is undertaking to meet its goal to be a carbon neutral organisation by 2030 and for the District to reach net zero between 2030 and 2038. The task is immense, but the bare bones of the vision are in the Climate Change Action Plan. The Council is taking actions to visibly demonstrate its commitment to net zero and enable and encourage businesses and residents to do the same. For example, it has established community grants for climate action.
The Council is leading the way in its own business through energy efficiency by retrofitting its buildings, ensuring new builds are sustainable and investing in rooftop solar panels. It is also transitioning to electric vehicles and investigating the use of mine water heat as low cost, renewable heat for the city.
Faced with such an enormous task Helen talked about various schemes from other areas which could be replicated in Wakefield and how the Council should shout about quick wins with obvious benefits which would help engender change. She stressed that the Council could maximise the impact of schemes through facilitation and genuine partnership working.
Two further speakers talked about the process they had been through to obtain grant funding for solar panels for their community centres.
Jo Robinson told us how in July 2024, Wrenthorpe Community Association Ltd received grant funding from West Yorkshire Combined Authority’ s Community Climate Grants programme to install 18 solar panels on the roof of the community centre. These can generate up to 8kW of electricity and are paired with two 5kWh batteries to store surplus generated power. In the 8 months since installation, the Community Centre has saved nearly £1000 on electricity bills, sold over £100 of surplus electricity to the grid and saved nearly 800kg of carbon dioxide emissions, which is like driving a petrol car 4,000 miles.
Sarah Cutts from Portobello Community Centre received grant funding from the Better Neighbourhoods Fund, Community Grants for Climate Activity which provided nearly £9000 for solar panels and battery storage.
In both cases, even though the source of funds was different, they received help with their bids from Nova Wakefield District which is the support agency for voluntary and community organisations in Wakefield and works closely with the Council in genuine partnership.
After a series of questions and a vote of thanks, talking continued and networking continued until the venue was closing.