Category Archives: Community Energy

SHARE AGM – save the date


In advance of our SHARE AGM event, to be held at South Hill Parish Hall from 7.30pm on Monday 23rd  September, we have contacted all members informally.  This message includes important information for members regarding the election of Directors.  Please read it carefully.  Nominations for Directorships need to be with us by Sunday 8th September (2 weeks before the AGM).

Thank you to all who stopped by to talk to us at the Horticultural Show on August 17th.  We enjoyed meeting you, and had some good conversations.  To remind you of our recent headlines:

First and foremost – we have repaid the last of the members’ investments for the Solar PV at Church Park.  This project has paid for itself in the space of only 8 years.  This also means that any future income generated can be used directly to benefit the community, which brings us nicely onto point two.

Second – We are looking for input on what future projects you would like to see. We are broadly looking for any ideas regarding energy reduction, recycling and reusing items, travel impacts, sustainable living. If you have any ideas you would like to share, we’d love to hear from you.  We will be asking for your ideas at the Horticultural Show, or you can email SHARE@south-hill.com.

Third – Our Recycling for Charity project has been growing strong and its most recent success was winning a bench from Devon Contract waste, which has been donated to St Stephens school (one of our most enthusiastic recyclers).  Ali, who runs the project, has a wonderful group of volunteers helping.

Fourth – Our Wood project has been supplying the local community with firewood and we are always looking for further opportunities within the project.  Do you have somewhere you would like to plant some trees that we can then coppice and harvest?  Or do you have that tree that needs removing? If so, please get in touch.

Last but definitely not least – some of our directors will stand down at the AGM and will not be up for re-election.  This means we are looking for new people to keep the momentum going.  If you feel passionate about sustainability and renewable energy, we’d love to hear from you.  The workload is low, we are all doing what we can when we can, we are just asking commitment for a couple of meetings a year (more if you wish), and of course, your input to our Mission, Vision and Aims, and ideas for taking SHARE forwards.

·   Prospective candidates will need a Proposer and a Seconder at the AGM (neither of whom can be themselves), and an election will take place by show of hands. Note that only Members have the right to vote, although Associate Members have the right to stand for election.

·   SHARE is a Community Benefit Society and a Limited Company. Directors are responsible for the running of the company in accordance with the law.

·   Directors of SHARE must be age 18 or over, be able to carry out the role to the best of their ability and not be disqualified from acting as a director.  If not already a Member of SHARE, they must join, and must be prepared to uphold our Mission, Vision and Aims and take a long term view of the company.

·  Our Mission, Vision and Aims, and our Rules, can be found at http://south-hill.co.uk/share/share-member-area/

DEADLINE for nominations is Sunday 8th September 2024.

Please contact us with your nominations by email to this address or by post to our registered address: Trewoodloe Barn, Trewoodloe, Golberdon, Callington, PL17 7NJ

If other members of your family are registered for SHARE with this email address, please make sure that they also receive this message. 

Thank you.

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Events coming up

Community Orchard – an opportunity to get involved

On Monday 26th August (Bank Holiday Monday), volunteers will be mowing the grass in the Orchard.  In the afternoon we’ll be raking up the cut grass.  For this, any person with a rake willing to help will be much appreciated. There will be some spare rakes if you haven’t got your own.  Many hands make light work! 

If you would like to help and need more information, please phone David Skelton on 07776 386828.

SHARE tour of Plymouth Incinerator September 19th

We have been invited to an in-depth tour of the MVV incinerator Energy from Waste Facility in Plymouth  

Sept 19th Itinerary

We’ll take the 11:11am train from Gunnislake to St. Budeaux and walk the short distance, ½ mile.

OR CAR SHARE from Golberdon.. OR meet there at 12noon.

Free lunch will be provided. Return train 4:45pm arrives back at Gunnislake at 5:24pm.

If you’d like to join us, please let Ali know ASAP iamalihumphreys@yahoo.com 07305 044049

Recycling for Charity project

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Visit to Bodmin Materials Recovery Centre


Once cardboard has been offloaded

the plastics container can be opened

and offloaded. 

We were delighted to see how many schools have visited.

Recycling for Charity project volunteers

visited on July 16th 2024 and toured the facility.

Paper baled

After our recycling has been collected by Cornwall council kerbside service, it’s taken to Bodmin Materials Recovery Centre before sending on to the next stage in it’s journey to be recycled. 53 lorries a day drop off recycling here. Cornwall council tell me… Since the new system has started We have collected over 3,000 tonnes of food waste so far and kerbside recycling in South East Cornwall has gone from 36% to 58%.

Paper – goes to recycling companies in Somerset and Kent where it is reprocessed into 100% recycled paper for newsprint and packaging.

Cardboard – is also taken to Somerset and Kent where it is sorted and reprocessed into new cardboard.

DS Smiths (who have a site in Launceston) claim they can turn a cardboard box that has been put out for kerbside collection back into a cardboard box in 14 days.

Steel cans –go to Swansea to be made into many different products including cars, bridges and cans.

Aluminium cans and foil – all these go to companies in Swindon and Swansea where they are melted and turned into ingots to be used to make everything from foil trays to aeroplanes.

Plastic bottles, pots, tubs and trays – a number of different companies take these in Wiltshire, Warwickshire, Kent, Essex and Buckinghamshire where they are sorted, shredded, melted and reused to make things including garden furniture, refuse bags and drainage pipes.

Glass bottles and jars – are first taken to Falmouth port before being shipped to Scunthorpe or Tilbury. A laser sorts by colour and can then be made back into glass bottles and jars.

Clothes & textiles – The Salvation Army collects and sends to JMP Wilcox the largest, textile reclaimers and processors in the UK. Post-consumer clothing is brought to the four-acre site at Bilston, near M6 West Midlands to a purpose-built, fully-computerised sorting and processing unit. Over 99% of the material is reused or recycled and more than 90% is exported around the world. The greatest demand is in Africa, Asia & Eastern Europe. Clothing demand more than doubled between 2000 and 2018, driven by the increased middle class, shorter fashion cycles and garment life.  Many of the items not fit for purpose as reusable clothing become industrial wiping products, flock rags or mixed felt material and stay in the UK.  Putting items in Salvation Army clothes banks goes on the same journey.  

Any decent wearable clothes, shoes, belts should be dropped to charity shops or Fire Fighters yellow skips at fire stations. IMO.

Garden waste – this stays local going to Roche, to compost for agricultural and horticultural use. Sometimes during the year this is given away if you can bag and collect.  

Food waste  – goes to a transfer station at Liskeard to be loaded into lorries to take to Holsworthy to the Anaerobic Digestor which produces energy as well as biogas and digestates ie soil improver and used as a high quality agricultural fertiliser.

SHARE visit to The Incinerator


Tour of the incinerator centre or CERC Cornwall Energy Recovery Centre, as it’s called, at St Dennis.

If you’d like to join us on Thursday 24th August, either am or pm, let Laurence know.

There is no charge for the tour, which lasts 2 hours.

Children must be over 7 years of age to visit this site.

More details to follow once we have names and numbers.

Numbers are limited.

If you’d be prepared to drive please let us know.

We’ll visit the Bodmin recycling centre another time as it’s currently closed for redevelopment work. TY .

EMAIL laurencersmith76@btinternet.com

Thank you Laurence for arrranging this.

Suggestions for other visits welcome.

SHARE’s Latest Project


As you may know by now, we have secured an Option to purchase about four acres of land just outside Trevigro. This gives us first refusal and a fixed price for two adjacent fields, between the Trevigro-Haye footpath and the stream below the South West Water works.   Our working title for the project is “Quarry Bottoms” – from the names of the fields, Quarry Field and Bottoms Field.

A PROSPECTUS detailing our vision for this project is now available – read it here…

The prospectus begins with an introduction from our Chairman, then describes:

  • The location and extent of the piece of land
  • Its potential value to the community
  • Possible uses for the land
  • How we can finance the purchase

    As a companion to the prospectus, you can view a short aerial film of the land.  Taken on a lovely day in early Spring, and accompanied by atmospheric music, it shows the silvery beauty of the bare tree branches, the stream glinting through the trees, and the potential for a nature-friendly space in South Hill parish.  It’s on our SHARE YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Svkd9L53ks.  

    Did you spot the buzzard at about 2m 10s?  Beautiful!

    The footpath from Trevigro to Haye passes alongside the fields.  Take a look by all means, but remember that the fields are private, farmed property.  SHARE does not yet own the land, so please keep to the path.

    Coming soon:

    • Competition to choose a name for the project
    • Feasibility study exploring the possibilities for the site
    • Financial projections (boring but necessary!)

    SHARE – Picnic In The Wild


    We’re keen to show people a piece of land which SHARE has the option to purchase (subject to the approval of our membership).

    So you’re invited to a picnic on Sunday July 23rd, from 11am to 3pm.

    The location is near Trevigro, less than 2 miles walk from Golberdon – OR you can meet us at the Recreation field and go by tractor and trailer!

    Bring your picnic and rugs or chairs.  We will provide additional snacks and soft drinks. Posters will appear on the Parish noticeboards with full details nearer the time, and SHARE members will receive an email update. Non-members can receive the update too, just let us know if you’re interested – share@south-hill.co.uk.

    If you’re not a member of SHARE, and would like to join, you can download a Membership application form (or Associate Membership for those not resident in South Hill Parish) from our web page https://south-hill.co.uk/share/

    SHARE Breaking News, February 2023


    On Saturday Feb 11th, SHARE had an open meeting in the Parish Hall, where we were able to unveil our next project, and the plans we have going forward. We realised not everyone could make it; this is intended to put everyone in the picture.

    What’s the news? We are delighted to announce that we have secured an Option on about four acres of land just outside Trevigro. This gives us first refusal and a fixed price for two adjacent fields down by the stream opposite the South West Water works. The space is big enough that we can use it for several things simultaneously, and we have a whole range of options open to us.

    For the last few years, SHARE has done well across a number of projects, including firewood, recycling, solar power, tree planting and the Orchard, all of which are dependent on the generosity of members or other people – by donating materials, or by allowing us to use their premises to conduct our activities.  Now SHARE can have a place for itself, where it can run a number of projects literally on its own turf.

    Why would we do that? There’s room for planting some coppicing trees, such as Hazel, which would bolster our firewood supplies. Without planting, sooner or later we’ll run out. It’s a lovely spot, which we can manage for a more biodiverse environment with selected planting of native species. There’s a wet area, where willow for harvest would do well, and plenty of room for south facing ground mounted solar if we wish, and recreational space for all to enjoy by the stream. Access is good, as the public footpath from Trevigro to Haye Mill runs alongside the fields, as shown in pink on the map.

    Having the option means that we have a year to decide whether to complete the purchase, and if so, raise the funding to do so. The land would be owned by SHARE, forever.

    How would it be paid for? There’s a whole range of options available to us, depending on how much we feel we should tap into SHARE’s reserves. A mix of reserves / loans / interest is up to us to balance, in exactly the same way as SHARE funded the Church Park installation. Likewise, the interest on the loans is already secure, as the revenue from wood sales and the Solar PV already covers it.

    So what next? There’s a timeline in the chart below. Firstly we need to understand the range of options for what we’d do with the land, and how it’d be paid for. By midsummer, we will be publishing a Prospectus which describes all we could do, and how it could be funded. We need your views – both now in thinking of the usage and later in response to the prospectus. Then, at the AGM, we’ll put a simple straightforward question to the vote: do we go ahead or not? With a Yes answer, we then have the remainder of the year to secure the funding, make investment offers so that the sale can be completed before the option expires in February 2024.

    If you have ideas about how the space should be used, what we could do, how we could fund it or even whether we should grow SHARE like this, please let us know by getting touch via email to share@south-hill.co.uk

    My EV Experiment – three months in.


    I’ve always liked cars, and I’ve had all sorts. Big cars, little cars, new cars, vintage cars, diesel cars, petrol cars … but all with one thing in common. An engine. With the move to Electric Vehicles gathering pace, and with an outright ban on internal combustion engine (ICE) cars from 2030, I wondered whether I would like electric motoring. Could I live with reduced range between having to refuel, refuelling (or charging) taking hours rather than minutes? What are they actually like to drive and more importantly, what are they like to live with as a means of transport?

    I wanted a way to find out without committing to buy one. Certainly, I wasn’t prepared to jump into EV ownership and part with my ICE car without understanding the day to day first. My solution? Lease one. If I like it, I can look around to see what to save up for. If I don’t, then just get the leasing company to take it away. So it was that a shiny red Kia Niro appeared on my driveway in July, courtesy of an offer from EDF. After all, they want to sell electricity…  Here’s my view after the first three months.

    Continue reading →