The Westhall community came together on Saturday morning to discuss ideas for community owned energy projects with an interactive presentation by the Centre for Sustainable Energy.
Attendees were grouped onto tables, and presented with maps of the parish area. With guidance from the CSE team, those groups were tasked with identifying possible locations for community owned solar and wind turbine installations within the parish, as well as highlighting areas where such installations would be inappropriate. This then led onto room wide discussions to share which areas various groups had identified. After the presentation had concluded, attendees sat down for lunch together to unpack the morning’s events and have a chat.
We await a full report from CSE once the data has been collated.
Thank you to attendees
Many thanks for coming along to the first Future Energy Landscapes (FEL) Workshop, held at Westhall (hurrah) last Saturday. It was a good turnout from the village (as well as further afield) and we hope you found it useful. The Workshop was part of a weekend of events organised by Halesworth ASH, who have secured support for the FEL programme of engagement initiated by East Suffolk Council to help local groups develop community-owned renewable energy projects. This is about villagers coming together to do something positive for themselves, with both economic and environmental benefits of moving away from the volatile fossil-fuel market – something that’s especially relevant to Westhall with its reliance on oil for heating. You can find out more information about the FEL project as well as how to access a whole range of resources to find out more about community energy here; you’ll find access to a good range of resources including webinars on successful community energy projects and more information about the possible models. There’s also information on the Halesworth ASH website.
There will be further engagement from the team who are delivering the project on behalf of East Suffolk Council, so do spread the word to friends and neighbours in the village; once we have more details of the next Westhall engagement, we’ll let you know and will share on the Westhall Facebook page. The report on the community energy possibilities for Westhall – for solar and/or wind – and the (theoretically possible) sites etc will be published in the early part of 2027. In the meantime, if you have questions or want to know more, do check out the resources available. It’s also important to keep the conversation going, so if you want to make contact with others who were there, or have questions, just let me know.
Thanks again for engaging with the project and do please spread the word!
Best wishes
Kim (a Director of Halesworth ASH)
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