The Meadows Partnership Trust is to begin its involvement in the year-long British Gas Green Street challenge

A COMMUNITY group in The Meadows has started a national eco-challenge this week.

The Meadows Partnership Trust is one of 14 groups across the UK to have been selected as part of the British Gas Green Streets energy challenge.

Looking ahead: Jacky Dobson, of The Meadows Partnership Trust, and Pat Thomas, chairman of Mozes – the Meadows Ozone Energy Service – at The Toll Bridge Inn with Wilf Meadows, the mascot who helped present their plans to British Gas Green Streets project. POSTPHOTO C141009AJL1-2

The programme will see £2m invested to find Britain's most innovative "green community".

Jacky Dobson, community regeneration manager for the Meadows Partnership Trust, said: "We are looking forward to the challenge. We want to show The Meadows is serious about being a zero-carbon community."

As previously reported in the Post, The Meadows Partnership Trust has been awarded about £140,000 by the scheme.

This will be spent on converting the former Toll Bridge Pub, in Embankment Road, into an eco-restaurant and coffee shop.

The group also plans to assess 100 homes for energy efficiency and provide 20 of the most vulnerable households with funding for larger renewable energy installations, such as solar panels.

Ms Dobson said the trust was locked in "sensitive negotiations" about buying the former pub.

If all goes to plan, she said the development would be an "exemplar for green technology".

"Our aim is to create something that people across Notts are able to visit and leave with a different view of The Meadows and what we're trying to do," she said.

The 14 communities selected as part of the challenge will now compete in a year-long task to see who can do the most to cut energy use, lower carbon emissions, generate their own energy and increase engagement in these activities among members of their own community.

The community that best achieves these objectives will receive a £100,000 prize to spend on a local environmental project of their choice.

Gearoid Lane, director of communities and new energy at British Gas, said: "We believe it is people at a local level who will help revolutionise the way energy is generated and consumed in the UK. The British Gas Green Streets project is about helping people act as trailblazers.

"The communities involved in our new challenge will provide us with vital insight as we grow our locally-generated energy business and provide great new ideas for saving and generating energy that will benefit the country as a whole.

"We know small groups can make a big difference."

For more, visit www.british gas.co.uk/greenstreets.

bryan.henesey@ nottinghameveningpost.co.uk