Our team are staffing information points to help residents access free professional advice to cut energy and other utility bills this winter. The information drop-ins are:
- 4th Tuesday of the month
Deal Pantry in Deal Welfare Club & Social Institute, Cowdray Square, Deal, CT14 9EU - 2nd Saturday of the month at 10:30am
Warm Welcome Drop-in Walmer Chapel, Station Road - 2nd Saturday of the month at 11:15am
Warm Welcome Drop-in St Saviours, The Strand Walmer - And we’re also working on the Energy Saving info-point by the East Kent Climate Action team at Deal Library, until 1st March 2025.
Free professional services by Groundwork South Green Doctors can be contacted on 0800 233 5255
And KentMoneyAdviceHub.com can be contacted on www.kentmoneyadvicehub.com phone 0800 8085622
The people most in need of help are often the most difficult to reach, so we recommend that all of us keep an eye out for neighbours who are struggling and we hope they may be helped if these phone numbers are passed on to them.
The information point to help people cut their energy bills was also available at a public meeting at Walmer Parish Hall before Christmas. The meeting on Deal & Dover’s Winter Energy Crisis invited the public to discover how community-owned renewable energy project can cut costs of energy for homes and carehomes, schools and businesses.
Clearly if lots of roofs across our country can generate energy for the folks inside we cut down the need for big corporate oil and gas middlemen so that neither we as individuals nor our country is as dependent on international oil and gas prices we have no control over. This makes Britain more self-sufficient in energy terms, and we cut the burning of the fossil fuels which ramp up extreme weather events of the climate crisis.
Saving money for ordinary folks in this way makes sense all round. This is why we have lobbied our MP to support the Sunshine Bill in Parliament (on 17th January) to force property developers to put solar on the roofs of all new homes.
The guest speakers at the public event were from Kent Community Energy, Michael Bax and Stephen Perfect, who along with Duane Poppe live locally in the district and are keen to reach the local organisations who could benefit from their expertise. KCE (Kent Community Energy) are a Community Benefit Society, and can provide 3 forms of help.
- They can give free quotes on the installations of roof-top solar arrays
- They can also to team up with organisations who have larger roofs (170m2 or more), to lease the roof space for 20yrs, install their own KCE solar array and supply the organisation with cheap, reliable energy. No need in this case for an organisation to come up with thousands up-front to install solar themselves. Examples of suitable organisations include small businesses, carehomes, schools, etc.
- KCE also offer small grants to groups working to combat fuel poverty.
Kent Community Energy can be contacted by email info@kentcommunityenergy.org Or phone Duane the local KCE contact on 07418 077877.
