A film crew came to the East Cambridgeshire village of Swaffham Prior to record a segment about the village’s community heating project, as part of the run-up to the G7 meeting of world leaders in Cornwall next month.

Residents in Swaffham Prior have developed an impressive project to take around 250 homes in the village off oil and onto sustainable heating and hot water—and the County Council has been working with them towards making this a reality. A County Council-owned farm field will house 130 boreholes supplying heat from the ground, and a rebuilt barn will accommodate an energy centre from which heating will be delivered by a piped network to villagers who sign up to be supplied. County Council officers have also supported residents through the complex financial, legal, technical and other processes involved in realising this scheme.

Not only will energy be supplied in a more environmentally friendly way to these homes, but customers will avoid the high capital costs and complexity of installing their own technology, and will benefit from more stable energy costs rather than the fluctuating price of oil. The field housing the boreholes will be re-covered to return it to its agricultural purpose.

The film crew took several hours to hear about the project and interview the impressive Emma Fletcher, local resident and Chair of the Swaffham Prior Community Land Trust, along with Janet Hall from community engagement consultancy Line Undrawn which is working with residents on this project, and myself as Chair of the County Council’s Environment & Green Investment Committee.

UK100 is the body representing local authorities ambitious to reach Net Zero by switching to 100 per cent clean energy by 2050. UK100 has chosen to film Cornwall Council and Cambridgeshire County Council projects to showcase as part of its pre-G7 event. Its Power Shift campaign is calling on the Government to release more powers to local government to enable more ambitious carbon reduction schemes like the one at Swaffham Prior.