Community benefits for 2017 announced!
It is with great pleasure that we can announce annual community benefit payments for 2017 to the parishes of Bere Regis (Dorset), Wanstrow & Witham Friary (Somerset), Dyrham & Hinton (South Glos) totalling just over £28,000. This is slightly down on 2016 and due primarily to lower than average wind speeds.
Distgen continues to deliver on the pre-planning promises to put money back into the local communities hosting our Rogershill Farm, Landmark Farm and Talbot Farm wind turbines having now donated nearly £82,000!
In each case the payments are made directly to the Parish Councils to be spent on behalf of their electorate, often financing local initiatives that might otherwise struggle for funding in the current economic climate.
In response to the most recent payment, a representative of Bere Regis Parish Council said:
Thank you so much for the contribution it is always greatly received and enables us to do so much that we would otherwise be unable to do.
At the moment, we are looking to build a new village hall as the one we have is too small and not particularly disabled and elderly friendly. A larger hall will enable us to increase the number of people we can invite to our monthly lunch club for the over 60s, hold more community events and enable the doctors' surgery to carry out more treatments than their current facility allows - physiotherapy sessions for example.
Record Community Payments for 2016
It is with great pleasure that we can announce record levels of annual community benefit payments for 2016 to the parishes of Bere Regis (Dorset), Wanstrow & Witham Friary (Somerset), Dyrham & Hinton (South Glos) totalling just over £34,000 !
Distgen continues to deliver on the pre-planning promises to put money back into the local communities hosting our Rogershill Farm, Landmark Farm and Talbot Farm wind turbines having now donated over £58,000 in just 3 years.
In each case the payments are made directly to the Parish Councils to be spent on behalf of their electorate, often financing local initiatives that might otherwise struggle for funding in the current economic climate.
In response to the most recent payment, a representative of Bere Regis Parish Council said:
Bere Regis Parish Council would like to thank Distgen for their funding over the last 3 years which has enabled us to carry out many schemes around the Parish that we would otherwise be unable to.
Examples of such initiatives are the clearing and ongoing upkeep of our rights of way, continued funding of the Lengthsman Scheme after it’s withdrawal by DCC, ongoing support of the community lunch club and NeighbourCar schemes to enable them to provide vital services to the elder residents of the community and upgrading the Souls Moor Footpath once the building of the new school has been completed.
We have just received this years funding and will be discussing how to allocate that at the July Parish Council meeting.
1st Talbot Farm Community Payment
It is with great pleasure that today we announced our 1st community payment to the parish of Dyrham & Hinton from operation of our Talbot Farm wind turbine. The interim payment of £2,000 covers the just the first quarter of 2015 and during a period where the turbine still had a few teething troubles and so we expect next years payment to be MUCH MUCH BIGGER!
We understand the funds have already been committed to purchasing two new gazebos for community events hosted within the parish. Given the British weather we suspect they will get lots of use!
This brings total community donations from distgen wind turbines to over £25,000.
#PayingItForward
Wanstrow villagers visit DG004
Today we were pleased to welcome a group of keen ramblers from Wanstrow who chose our Landmark Farm turbine as the destination for their annual May bank holiday walk. Distgen staff were on had to answer questions and after were invited back to the village for refreshments during which we canvassed the opinions of those present to see how their reaction to the wind turbine matches any pre-conceived ideas (or even fears) they had.
Wind windspeeds of 10m/s the wind turbine was running at full power and all present agreed it was quieter than had been expected. Some said that initially there had been concerns in the village about how the turbine would look but again, post construction, the feeling was the turbine was not as large or visible as had been expected.
All agreed the turbine is a positive asset for the village and look forward to the first community reward payments which are desperately needed to fund various local projects and good causes.
2nd community payment from Rogershill
Distgen is pleased to announce that the second community reward payment from our Rogershill wind turbine will be £6,964.08.
This will bring the total reward payment for the residents of Bere Regis to over £10,000!
The parish council in Bere Regis are currently developing several schemes including a 'neighbourcar' service to combat rural isolation (having lost their bus service to Poole), a trim trail and skate park and some pathways located centrally in the village to make the countryside more accessible for the less mobile elderly residents. These are all very worthy projects that we very happy to be able to help through our continued community rewards scheme!
UPDATE... we are now officially supporting both the Neigbhourcar and Lunchclub initiates within the local community with the distgen logo displayed prominently on various flyers and forms! Distgen staff recently met some of the volunteers who run the service and one of their clients to see first hand how much difference this makes combating the very real issue of rural isolation.
First community payout from Rogershill
Way back in 2010 we presented details of our Rogershill Farm wind turbine to the both the Parish Council and general community of Bere Regis. At the time we made a public commitment to make generous community reward payments to the council for re-investment back into local good causes - not just once, but every year for the life of the wind turbine.
The Rogershill wind turbine received planning permission in late 2011 and was finally commissioned in November 2012.
We are now delighted to come good on our promise and make the first donation to the Parish Council for the sum of.....
... covering the first 4 months of operations. We understand that the donation will be initially be used towards a "kick wall" and outdoor gym for local children! We hope this is just the start of a series of new projects that our funding will make possible.
Last week, in conjunction with announcements regarding new planning guidance from DCLG (Department for Communities and Local Government), DECC announced that wind farms should increase the level of annual community rewards fivefold - from £1000 to £5000 per megawatt (MW). Based on current forecasts we expect the 500kW Rogershill turbine to return an equivalent of over £10,000 per MW per year!