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Following the presentations, a lively debating session was held with questions from members.

The subject for debate was: ‘Are we making the most of our resources?’ and the panel members were:-

Chairman: Derek Phillips

Professor Michael Winter OBE (Exeter University Centre for Rural Policy Research)

Michael Smith (The Venus Company, Food & Drink Devon)

Anthony Gibson OBE (National Farmers Union Media Strategist)

Mary Talbot-Rosevear (Small Farms Association)

Jonathan Johns (Director, Climate Change Matters)

Andrew Butler (National Farmers Union Senior Food & Farming Advisor)

Various topics were raised as part of the session and these covered local food, the Common Agricultural Policy Reform 2014 and renewable energy.

To view some short films of coverage of the key points discussed, please go to www.ruraldevon.org/video-dr-key-event-2011/

Since starting out as Devon Renaissance in 2005, our private sector not-for-profit company has grown in both reputation and experience.  Our original aim was to deliver Rural Renaissance funding successfully across rural Devon but the company has since developed other services such as project management, business support, environmental services, monitoring and evaluation and research and survey work.

As the company has grown, so has the area we cover. We now work across the South West from the Forest of Dean to the Isles of Scilly and we feel that the time is right to change our name and brand to reflect our broader reach.

We launched ‘The DR Company’ and our new logo at our Key Event and hope that it will bring new opportunities to work with more partners in the future.

We are still the same organisation and will continue to deliver services to partners old and new with the same levels of expertise, energy and professionalism that we are already known for, and we will continue to build on the legacy of Devon Renaissance.

Phillip Smart, General Manager at Killerton Estate explained the work of the National Trust and how, since 2009, they have aspired through ‘Appetite for Change’ to make the food produced and served more enjoyable, sustainable and with better connection to the places and properties entrusted to the care of the Trust.

In the village of Broadclyst, at the heart of the Killerton Estate, in East Devon, the National Trust has facilitated a new Community Supported Agriculture project (CSA), whereby a partnership develops between farmers and the local community, providing mutual benefits and reconnecting people to the land where their food is grown.

This scheme has involved a farm of around 35 acres which came back to the National Trust and has just completed its first full year of operation with excellent support coming from the local community along with a bountiful supply of vegetables and produce.

As well as the community farm, Phillip explained that the Trust has also provided some additional land for allotments with over 50 new allotments being taken up within the first two weeks.

The Killerton Estate now produces its own cider, apple chutney, honey, apple juice, lumpwood charcoal, and firewood as well as Clyston Mill flour which is grown, milled and baked on Estate land.

Dunster Castle in Somerset was the Trust’s first renewable energy project on a Grade I listed building, and runner-up in the Micropower Awards in 2008. The 24 photovoltaic panels are part of a plan to turn Dunster into the most energy efficient castle in Britain by generating 5,500 kilowatt hours of electricity annually, thereby saving almost 3,000 kilos of CO2 every year and generating up to 20% of the electricity needed at the castle.

Castle Drogo on Dartmoor had a 400kw biomass boiler installed in 2009, replacing an oil-fired heating system saving around £40,000 a year in fuel.  In 2009 it was awarded best renewable energy scheme in the South West by Green Energy Awards, and projections indicate that it will start to pay back after just 10 years.

Now feeling that the National Trust is moving in the right direction, Phillip summed up by saying “although we are not yet maximising the benefits that we could achieve to our own businesses and the communities we serve and support, our direction of travel is clear and we have grounds for optimism and indeed celebration.”

Pictures below of PVs on Dunster.

Andy Bradford who owns and runs Brimpts Farm at Dartmeet on Dartmoor, gave an engaging down to earth presentation about the range of projects he is involved in to ensure the ongoing success of his own business, and also stressed the importance of collective collaboration to secure the future prosperity and sustainability of Dartmoor.

Andy demonstrated how farms can diversify to become more profitable even in challenging moorland areas by explaining in detail about his business.  Brimpts Farm itself is a Duchy of Cornwall tenant farm in the Dartmoor National Park which has added group accommodation, meeting rooms, teambuilding facilities, farm walks, camping, and a traditional tea room to run alongside its herd of South Devon cattle.  www.brimptsfarm.co.uk

Andy outlined the challenges facing them as a farm but explained how they had persevered to become an award winning business.  Awards were received from Devon Life, the Royal Bath & West Show, Natural England’s Future of British Farming awards, as well as reaching the finals of the Devon Environmental Business Initiative awards.

Another element of Andy’s work has been to work co-operatively with other land owners to develop the Dartmoor Woodfuel Co-operative www.dartmoorwoodfuel.co.uk   This started with Andy’s ambition to reduce his own environmental impact, and has led on to partnerships with other farmers, the Forestry Commission and Exeter University, amongst others, to become a ground-breaking venture.

Despite the well known difficulties in bringing farmers together due to the potential fear of competition, Andy has been at the heart of the Dartmoor Farmers Co-Operative www.dartmoorfarmers.co.uk  This is a brand that is now synonymous with high quality meat produced on the moors.  The group were originally funded by DR through the SERC programme and have gone from strength to strength, winning a Taste of the West Producer of the Year award in 2011 as well as various Champion Product awards!

Andy concluded his presentation by saying ‘All three projects prioritise environmental preservation and recognise that collective collaboration is key to securing the future prosperity and sustainability of Dartmoor.’

A further example of collaborative working in the Dartmoor area can also been seen by another GD LEAF funded project, The Wool Directory www.wooldirectory.org.uk which is a free online database striving to connect South West wool producers with wool users.  This project was initiated by the Centre for Contemporary Art and the Natural World www.ccanw.co.uk in collaboration with Give Fleece A Chance www.givefleeceachance.com

Keith Webber, a physics teacher at Okehampton College, set himself a challenge; to stop teaching for one year during which he would research and implement enough energy saving measures to offset the cost of his salary.

He not only achieved this, but much, much more………..

Keith gave a lively account of how he had developed savings that had already amounted to a 75% cut in energy consumption (and costs!), for the College.  This was achieved by setting up detailed monitoring systems to identify energy wastage, then reducing the waste that had been identified.  This was implemented by introducing a series of behavioural changes, installing renewable energy technologies, employing simple measures to reduce wasted energy and investing in more efficient systems to bring long term benefits.

The biggest steps taken were in trying to change people’s behaviour – If 1 person wastes 1p per hour, this equates to £100 in one year, if this is applied to 100 people then the total waste would reach £10,000.

3,000 T5 fluorescent lights have been installed in the College which produce more light and less heat meaning that less electricity is needed to produce the required light.  In doing so they now use 50% less electricity and provide 20% more light than conventional fluorescent tubes.

More efficient gas boilers were installed – this now means that a higher percentage of heat gets delivered to the building instead of going up the chimney.  This also affects the flow temperature compensation – as the building warms up the temperature of the water in the radiators drops. This stops the rooms being overheated which saves gas.  Both of these measures will result in less gas being burnt and lead to less atmospheric emissions.

Radiators have been taken out of hot rooms and put into the colder rooms which will even out the heat demand and stop people letting the excess heat out of the window!

Overall the energy bill was £120,000 but is expected to fall to £30,000 and this will in the greater part be due to people’s awareness and using energy wisely.

DR is now working with Keith at Okehampton College to develop a system that can be rolled out for other public buildings to help them save both energy and money.  For more details please contact us.

Kirsty Tooke talked about the high level of households in fuel poverty in Devon and outlined schemes and incentives that people can access to help to alleviate it. 

Renewable Resource Efficiency opportunities for Devon

Devon has significant renewable resources that are not currently fully utilised with:

• Two coastlines for wave & tidal power
• 11.5% of the county is woodland, a proportion of which could be used for biomass
• High solar radiation for the UK
• Hydro power potential due to high rainfall
• Good wind speeds with large swathes of sparsely populated land at relatively high altitudes

Devon has many properties of solid wall construction including cob, stone and brick which do not meet the criteria of existing schemes.  In addition, there are almost 100,000 households in Devon classified as being in fuel poverty.  The county ranks second in the South West for generating renewable electricity (37.113 MW) and first in terms of renewable heat (20.471MW).

Kirsty outlined the energy efficiency and cost reduction schemes available and below we list links to find out more about them.

Renewable Heat Incentives

www.rhincentive.co.uk/

• The RHI tariff is due to be launched for the domestic sector in 2012 with premium payments available in 2011.
• Tariff levels are estimated to provide a 12% return on the additional capital cost of renewables, with a lower rate of 6% return for solar thermal

The Green Deal

www.green-deal-guide.co.uk/#

• A market-led mechanism, funded by private capital
• Energy efficiency improvements at no upfront cost, from autumn 2012

Cosy Devon 

www.cosydevon.co.uk/

Providing discounted measures including insulation and safety checks regardless of income for home owners and private tenants.

PLEA – Private Landlords Energy Action www.energyactiondevon.org.uk/grants-schemes/private-landlords-for-energy-action/

PLEA provides grants to support energy efficiency measures for private landlords to improve their properties, including insulation and boiler repairs.  The scheme operates in Exeter, East Devon, Mid Devon, South Hams & West Devon.

Warm Front

www.direct.gov.uk/en/Environmentandgreenerliving/
Energyandwatersaving/Energygrants/DG_10018661

A Government backed scheme that offers grants to those on certain income benefits who have poorly insulated homes and/or heating systems which are not working.

For more information go to www.energyactiondevon.org.uk

Stewart Horne, the Managing Director of BIP, an organisation that provides business advice to farmers, and a farmer himself, discussed how the complicated conditions of the proposed CAP reform would affect farmers at a local level and how these conditions would impact upon them.  Stewart has recently produced a paper titled ‘CAP Reform 2014 Help or Hindrance’

Stewart outlined the detail of the CAP reform and, taking his own farm as an example, showed what it is likely to mean for farmers. The new proposed reform is prescriptive and stipulates exactly what the farmer would have to do including, for example, growing additional crops of ‘something else’ in order to get their payments.

Stewart highlighted the weaknesses in the CAP, which was raised again during a lively debate www.ruraldevon.org/about-us/dr-key-event-2011/ where the proposed reforms were described as ‘a dog’s breakfast, anti competitive, anti production and hugely complicated.’

Professor Michael Winter OBE described the CAP reforms as: ‘ a disastrous set of proposals that will not stand the test of time and the worst set of CAP reforms I think I have ever seen.’

This provided much food for thought for the audience and it was widely felt that a complete overhaul of the proposed CAP is required.

Following the successful debating session, delegates were invited to join a tour of Bicton’s EaRTH Centre project.  This project sees the conversion of two disused barns on Home Farm, part of Bicton College’s working farm, to create a renewable technologies training and conference centre.

Senior Project Officer at DR, Matt Parkins, formed part of the group and said:

“This was a really interesting visit as we had the opportunity to see the renewable energy technologies being installed into the farm buildings part way through their refurbishment. We were also able to closely look at the design features of the building such as the passive solar glazing and ventilation, with an opportunity to discuss these with the staff from the college. These Renewable Energy technologies will provide a demonstration of real installations being retro fitted to old buildings giving an insight into the problems encountered and successful methods to overcome such difficulties.

The Bicton EaRTH Centre is particularly interesting as they have chosen to refurbish old buildings rather than build from new. In order to meet our carbon reduction targets this is something many people in this country will need to start looking at.

The training areas at Bicton EaRTH Centre will also give excellent opportunities for people to learn about the effectiveness of a range of technologies and to gain first hand experience of them.

The tour also gave us the opportunity to see how the college has significantly reduced the energy consumption of the milking parlour and we were able to discuss their plans to install an anaerobic digestion plant to manage the large volume of potentially polluting waste and convert it into a source of energy.”

For more information, please visit www.bictonearth.co.uk/

Picture attached to show build for curved glazed roof to maximise solar gain.

Businesses in West Devon and the South Hams are invited to complete a survey that will help Devon Renaissance (DR) and your local councils to understand how they can help you. This includes applying for the funding to pay for this help.

This survey follows on from previous surveys over the last 6 years that have helped to bring over £4 million of funding into the area for projects that have provided (amongst other things) hundreds of free or subsidised training opportunities, IT equipment and advice, and funding directly to businesses to fulfill growth plans and to find suitable new premises.

In this new survey we are keen to hear from all types of businesses, from new businesses that may not even be established yet to larger businesses that have been trading for many years, and everything in between.  We hope to understand what issues businesses are facing at the moment, and what help might be useful to address these issues.  We are also particularly interested to learn about the premises that businesses currently work from and if they want to make any changes in the future, either by relocating or adapting/expanding existing premises.

Liz Abell of DR said, ‘”We would like to encourage as many businesses as possible to respond so that we have a good understanding of the needs of all businesses in this part of Devon. We have designed the survey to be really user friendly and quick to complete and so we hope that people will take part to help us to help them.”

DR is carrying out the survey in Partnership with South Hams District Council and West Devon Borough Council and you can access the survey online at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/Devonbusiness . The survey takes less than 10 minutes to complete.

If you do not have internet access just call the team on 01837 658643 to go through the questions over the phone.

Well, it’s not really a new name so much as a tweak to our existing name.  In fact many of you may already call us by this name anyway.

Before revealing the change, here’s a little bit of history of the business to help explain.

As some of you will know six years ago Devon Renaissance was a company set up to run the Rural Renaissance programme across the Western and Southern parts of rural Devon. This was all about regeneration and development through the investment of funding in projects. Over the next couple of years our remit expanded to cover the whole of rural Devon.  We also found that our partners and customers were asking us for other sorts of help, rather than just funding, and so we developed our services to respond to these diverse needs and provide a more rounded range of support for the business, community and public sectors across Devon.

As time has gone on we have built a larger team of staff with expertise in a wide range of economic, social and environmental areas and gained a huge amount of experience.  We are now finding that our expertise is being sought from outside Devon, and over the past three years we have gradually taken on more work across the South West of England and further afield.

Throughout all of this, we have retained our professional but friendly approach, our not-for-profit ethos as well as our commitment to providing high quality, affordable services.  We are a private sector organisation and we receive no public funding, so we pride ourselves on our independent and non-political approach.  Where we (or our partners) identify gaps in current delivery, we will develop projects ourselves and seek funding to pay for them.

We have therefore thought long and hard about the name of the business as the name Devon Renaissance no longer fits the bill, but we did not want to lose sight of our roots and our reputation.

Therefore, as from the beginning of November our name will change to the DR Company and our logo will change to:

You will see this logo on our new website and materials, however the people, the service and the ethos are unchanged! We still aim to support Dynamic Regeneration through working with businesses, communities and the public sector.