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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.

DR is holding a key event for the South West focusing on:

Are We Making the Most of our Resources?  Food and Energy Resilience in the South West

The event is being held on 4 November at Bicton House, (Bicton College), Budleigh Salterton.

The all day event will be introduced by our keynote speaker, the local celebrity chef, Michael Caines MBE. The jam-packed day includes many presentations and numerous displays from local renewable energy, farming and food businesses demonstrating what is happening on the ground. A lively debate ‘Are we making the most of our resources?’ will follow.

Leading the debating panel is Professor Michael Winter OBE, the Director of the Centre for Rural Policy Research at the University of Exeter. Michael has carried out a variety of work around the topical issue of food security. He will be joined by other leading figures from the renewable energy, farming and food sectors and we are presently awaiting the response of a top rural Government Minister.

What promises to be an informative and thought provoking day will feed into the Local Economic Partnership and will culminate with the chance of a tractor and trailer tour of the nearby Bicton EaRTH Centre  –  a renewable energy training centre housed in a sustainable building which is currently under construction.

Numbers are restricted for the Event but we will be filming and recording the debate and the highlights will be available to view on our website the following week. We will let you know when this is online.

If you have any key questions that you feel should be put to the panel please send the question to fiona@ruraldevon.org and we will try to include them.

Let’s keep the panel on their toes and stimulate some lively and worthwhile debate!

Greater Dartmoor LEAF has recently been revealed as the leading Local Action Group nationally in terms of performance.  This is based on the successful allocation of funds to projects that have started and delivered their objectives swiftly. The South Devon Coastal LAG programme is not far behind, and both are starting to make a real difference in their local areas. The programmes are managed by Devon Renaissance.

So far we have supported 71 projects in the Greater Dartmoor LEAF area and a whopping 81 projects in the South Coastal area.  The projects are very varied, from helping small businesses to develop and grow through direct financial assistance, to assisting communities to build and expand their facilities to make them more sustainable, from providing subsidised training opportunities to developing and enhancing tourist attractions.  The full range of projects can be seen on our website: www.ruraldevon.org

Update October 2011

NEW FUNDING AVAILABLE

After several months of uncertainty, we now have final confirmation of the available budgets, and we can allocate the small amount of remaining funding to new projects.  In both areas the decision has been made to focus on economic projects that will help to support businesses and create jobs, and therefore the Business Growth and Diversification Fund is now open to new applications.

If you are seeking funding for your business to help it grow or make a step change to diversify then you would be eligible to apply for a grant of up to £5,000. We are particularly interested in projects that will help to create new jobs. Time is tight as we expect all of the funding to go very quickly, so if you are interested please check out the details on our websites: www.greaterdartmoorleaf.org or www.southdevoncoastal.org for more information or contact us on 01837 658643.

New life has been brought to a corner of Dartmouth with the regeneration of the Old Market Place. The project, which was managed by Dartmouth Town Council, redeveloped part of the Grade II listed market building in order to provide more retail space for producers and retailers and extend the use of the market from two days to six.

The Town Council were granted £100,000 of Local Action funding from South Devon Coastal Local Action Group, towards the total costs of £340,000.

John Yeoman (Chairman of South Devon Coastal LAG) and Dave Cawley (Deputy Mayor of Dartmouth)

The project has converted little used areas of the building into ten retail units, as well as improving space for market traders. The idea for the project originally came from the Market and Coastal Town Initiative Community Plan for Dartmouth which was put together in 2004.

The project is a great success and has created a vibrant and economically active area of the town, drawing people into the town to visit and buy local produce. As well as benefiting a variety of local businesses the project also created eight new jobs and safeguarded a further five –  an excellent result for the South Devon Coastal Group.

Chris Horan of the Dartmouth Town Council said ‘The whole project has been successful and has completely transformed the Market Square. We have received many favourable comments regarding the development.’

Cathy Heath of the South Devon Coastal LAG said, ‘Dartmouth Market has a completely revitalised feel to it.  The project has provided an excellent opportunity for new businesses as well as facilities for the community’.

The project has been so successful that the Town Council has 18 businesses on a waiting list for starter units, showing a need and   demand for future expansion of the project.