The Ham United Group from England
The Ham United Group (HUG) is a small, local award winning charitable group founded early in 2006. Its purpose is to improve and enhance the environment and the quality of life for the community in Ham, which is part of the London Borough of Richmond Upon Thames in England .HUG has five trustees and a wider circle of volunteers and participants in projects. The trustees and other members meet regularly at Redknap House.
HUG has strong ties with the Richmond Housing Partnership and support from Richmond Environment Network in addition to communicating / coordinating with the Ham & Petersham Association and the Ham Amenities Group.
During 2007/08 HUG operated an organic community allotment in the grounds of Ham House, with kind permission and support of the house staff, a National Trust property with delicious fresh, local, organic vegetables being distributed to local residents who do not have the opportunity to ‘grow their own’. You may be aware that the National Trust is now rolling this out at many of their properties in the UK .
Due to expanding needs, the group is now in process of moving the community allotment to Grey Court School where it will continue to work within the community but also linking into the school. The site has been cleared and volunteers will be working over the summer holiday of 2009 to build raised beds and prepare the soil ready for planting. The school is also embarking on an ambitious project to develop a school farm, an educational and extra curricular resource to pupils of Grey Court School, members of the local community, other schools and youth organisations. HUG are actively involved in this exciting project.
HUG is also in the process of setting up an industrial and provident society to take forward a hydropower project which would see electricity being generated from nearby Teddington weir using ancient technology called Archimedean screws. It is expected that enough power for several hundred homes will be generated and profit from the scheme will be fed back into projects to improve life in Ham.
HUG has also supported a bid in August 2009 by Richmond Borough Council for money from the Mayor of London to "low carbonise" local homes.
This bid, and a similar bid to British Gas, was successful. As a consequence, Ham and neighbouring village Petersham will be designated as a "Low Carbon Zone" and about £500,000 will be released to install smart meters and solar panels, among other technologies, on 500 homes in the neighbourhood from February 2010.
Happy New Year and best wishes for 2010 from HUG in England .
Peter Rixon
More info and website - click here
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