Winners of Green Neighbourhood Challenge announced (From York Press)

Pickering and Kirkbymoorside team win Green Neighbourhood Challenge

10:22am Wednesday 8th February 2012 in Ryedale news

A CARBON-cutting campaign to make Ryedale a greener community has been given an award.

A team from Pickering and Kirkbymoorside, headed by environmental champion Mike Potter, was named as the winner of the Green Neighbourhood Challenge at a ceremony in York recenty.

The team was picked to take part in the campaign in January last year – competing alongside six other groups from York and North Yorkshire to make lifestyle changes that will create greener communities for themselves and for future generations, helping them to save money at the same time.

The Green Neighbourhood Challenge’s aim was to see which group could do the most to save, and even generate energy, cut emissions and encourage local people in their area to foster a low-carbon lifestyle. The Pickering and Kirkbymoorside team, which achieved a 11.9 per cent carbon reduction and showed evidence of strong grass roots activity within their neighbourhood, received £500 to invest back into their community.

John Brown, Ryedale District Council’s environmental co-ordinator, said: “We’re so thrilled that the Pickering and Kirkbymoorside team has won the Green Neighbourhood Challenge. We’ve monitored their progress throughout this challenge and their fantastic efforts will no doubt be used as a catalyst to creating a more sustainable community for themselves and others.

“We applaud their award and hope it will encourage more communities in our area to partake in low-carbon living.

“The team has laid the groundwork for any local community to take up the Green Neighbourhood Challenge – which is a very worthy way of greening your community, having fun, learning and saving money at the same time.”

Denise Hall, the Green Neighbourhood Challenge project co-ordinator, said: “The groups have created a blueprint for other communities to follow suit and discover the challenge for themselves – and I’m incredibly proud to be a part of this successful project. Congratulations to everyone taking part.”

Supported by local councils across York and North Yorkshire, the project was funded by the Yorkshire and Humber Improvement and Efficiency Partnership (YoHR Space). It was managed by Yorkshire Energy Partnership and the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) at the University of York.

For more information visit www.greenneighbourhood.co.uk