Karin Goodwin
THE Ayrshire mining community of Cumnock is poised to get become Scotland’s
fully ‘Green Town’.
The plan is to make Cumnock carbon neutral town, creating a blueprint that
can be rolled out across the rest of Scotland.
The plans include proposals for the community to run its own hi-tech
renewable energy system – based on sun, wind and water power – and make use
of cutting edge digital and smart technologies.
The regeneration proposals which have been put forward by the Scotland’s
Towns Partnership, and received backing from the Scottish Government and
the local council. Energy and communications suppliers including Scottish
Power to BT are also supporting the plans.
The town, which is the birthplace of Keir Hardie – the first Labour MP –
and has a population of about 1300 is considered to be of perfect size to
test cutting edge renewable technologies on a mass scale, as well as smart
metres and devices, high speed communications networks, ‘passive buildings’
– which are carbon neutral – and the widespread use of electric vehicles
and cycle networks.
Phil Prentice, head of Scotland’s Towns Partnership, said that Cumnock,
which lies in a sleepy East Ayrshire backwater with poor transport links,
could be transformed as the most technologically advanced town in the
country, addressing issues such as fuel poverty and employment opportunities.
“The vision for Cumnock is to create Scotland’s first truly sustainable
energy town, a town which is carbon neutral and highly functioning but
which respects the environment,” he said.”Why not have Cumnock as the first
town that owns and manages it’s own renewable energy supply, where
education and business opportunities are improved through digital
deployment and where smart meters, passive buildings, recovered brown
space, cycling and pedestrianisation become the norm?”
He claimed that once systems had been put in place to make Cumnock carbon
neutral, lessons could be learned elsewhere helping the Scottish Government
meet its renewable targets, which have so far been largely met by shutting
coal-fuelled power station Longannet.
“There are a hundred Cumnocks, small towns across Scotland,” he said.
“These are the places that once were useful but then the industry left.
Cumnock provided Scotland with the coal to power houses and businesses for
generations. Now we are going to lead the way to show how energy can
transform our future generations.”
Last Thursday partners met for the first time to commit to the proposals
with more detailed delivery and action plans being put together in
collaboration with local community groups in the next six months. Prentice
said that though it would be a long-term project we hoped many of its
ambitious targets would be achieved in the first five years, with carbon
neutral status reached within a decade.
Graham Campbell, district general manager for Scottish Power Energy
Networks, claimed the town was ideally placed to embrace renewable energy
with rivers and burns running through it that could be harnessed for hydro
power and plenty of great sites to make use of wind energy. He pointed to
opportunities for anaerobic digestion to create even more energy – using
waste materials such as local grass cuttings – and said solar panels could
also be added to houses across the town, with adaptations made to create
passive – or energy neutral – buildings.
“It’s very exciting,” he said of the proposal. “The energy network is
changing and we are now seeing a bigger uptake of low carbon technologies
but that has been at a very local level. This is an opportunity to put
Cumnock back on the map.”
A community run energy network could not only supply energy for the whole
town’s needs but sell back additional energy to the grid, he claimed.
He added: “The reality is that this type of development is going to happen
anyway. If we don’t take the initiative and do it then the private sector
will leap in and reap the benefits. The community will be shut out. The
revolution is already under way.”
Councillor Douglas Reid, Leader of East Ayrshire Council, said: “This is a
hugely positive idea that could provide massive benefits for Cumnock and
indeed the whole of Scotland.
“Although the idea is still at a very early stage, many different agencies
including the Scottish Government and Scotland’s Towns Partnership have met
with Cumnock Action Plan steering group to discuss what they could do to
help Cumnock become Scotland’s greenest town.” All are committed to working
together to bring the plans to reality, he added.
“Becoming a fully green town would obviously be a long-term project, but
the opportunities it would present in terms of taking people out of fuel
poverty, increasing jobs and boosting tourism are exciting ones.”
A Scottish Government spokesperson confirmed it had discussed plans with
the Scottish Towns Partnership last week and said it would continue to work
with them to “support regeneration, develop a sustainable economy, improve
energy efficiency, tackle fuel poverty and consider how we can take this
forward in other communities across in Scotland”.
Note: James Keir Hardie was born on 15 August 1856 in a two-roomed cottage on the
western edge of Newhouse, North Lanarkshire, near Holytown, a small town
close to Motherwell in Scotland. He was not born in Cumnock. He did lead a miners strike in Ayrshire which is
probably why they have made the mistake in this piece.
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