// news & events

23rd Feb 70's & 80's Fund raising Party Night

Click HERE to for information & photos of the revellers!

Feb 2008 grant application accepted for reusable shopping bags

South Lanarkshire Council have just accepted our grant application for £1000 to help us produce a supply of reusable jute shopping bags for BIggar. Watch this space.

Feb 2008 Approval of our Energy Savings Trust Grant

This grant will be utilised to pay a team of consultants from Fintry, to assist us with negotiations with Wind Farm developers in our area. The aim being to eventually purchase a turbine for BIggar and sell the power generated back into the grid. Thus raising an anticipated £50,000 to £70,000/year for the first 10 to 11 years, (after repayment of the loan, insurance & maintenance) rising to around 10 times that amount from year 12 onwards. THis money will be spent on Energy Efficiency projects within the town.

Jan 2008 Confirmation of our Lottery Grant

We are delighted to have secured a lottery grant of just under £10000 to assist us to carry our out a feasibility study into collecting organic waste (including food waste) from local businesses and homes, for composting. This will avoid this wsate going into landfill where it produces methane, 21 times stronger than CO2

Climate Change March Dec 8th in Glasgow

A rally is planned to coincide with other International Climate Change Rallies, in advance of the United Nations Climate Change talks in Bali in December. We need to get the message over to our politicians that we are rapidly running out of time to take positive action to avoid a 2 degree rise in world tempertures. They MUST listen to the scientists and stop delaying taking action. There will be some interesting speakers and it should be a good fun day, so come and join us if you, like us, are concerned for the planet's future. For details of the march, click HERE.

Talk by Ben Brangwyn of Totnes Transition Town, 7.00pm 10th Dec, Elphinstone Hotel, Biggar

We were lucky enough to secure a talk on Transition Towns on 10th Dec 2007 in the Elphinstone Hotel by Ben Brangwyn, from Totnes in Devon . These are towns like ours across the UK that have started to look at ways to reduce their reliance on fossil fuels, because of the pending threats of both Climate Change and Peak Oil. He explained all about their various projects and experiences along the away and has encouraged us to apply to join their network, so we can learn from each other. For more info click HERE or go to www.transitiontowns.org .

Concert of the Decade

In aid of Carbon Neutral Biggar

With guest appearance by Aubrey Meyer Director of the Global Commons Institute "The MAN with the PLAN to save the planet" & accomplished viola player.

6.00pm on Sun 17th June, in the Municipal Hall, Biggar

Don't miss the amazing line up of musical & dance talent. Click here for full details

Australian Carbon Neutral project makes contact

On monday 30th April, Bronwen Machin from the Mount Alexander Sustainability Group emailed us to wish us luck and to see if we would like to exchange ideas and experiences. We of course said YES and are currently trying to link up the schools to start a dialogue. 

Stop Press news : 17th May 2007...Castlemaine Primary school has just emailed us to set up some ongoing communications with Biggar Primary and tell us all about their carbon reduction project.

Build your own solar panel

If you fancy building your own panel, sign up for Kerr MacGregor's solar panel workshops, where for £150, he will bring all the materials you require and will show you how to build your own DIY solar panel. Dates & times still to be confirmed but expected to be in August.

Please email: info@carbon-neutral-biggar.com or Tel John Riley on 01899 229429.

Eco Forum

To see photos from our Eco Forum & launch of "Carbon Neutral Biggar"on 21st April  HERE

Ashton Hayes Confrence and Bike Ride

Ashton Hayes had their National Conference at Chester University on the 14th April. The idea was to show people what has been achieved at Ashton Hayes and to encourage others to do it in their own towns & villages across the UK. This was followed on the 15th April by a Bike Ride (expertly organised by Caroline Butterfield) linking Ashton Hayes to Riverside in Stirling, via other Carbon Neutral communities in the North. They stopped off in Biggar on 18th April and enjoyed the hospitality of Biggar residents, after sampling the delights of the Taj Mahal restaurant and treating the staff to a Carbon Neutral Wrap song. They were a great bunch of people, who we thoroughly enjoyed meeting and hope that a similar event will be organised every year.

To see larger photos of the cheery cyclists in Biggar (despite the rain), click on the pictures opposite

An Inconvenient Truth

Al Gore's Climate Change film is now available to rent from Spar in Biggar High Street. We would highly recommend that you try and get this film, as it should be a MUST SEE for everyone on the planet. It shows us very clearly why we need to take action on Climate Change, sooner rather than later.

To learn more about the film, click HERE