Big County nets a green windfall

Apr 10 2009 By Johnathon Menzies

A YMCA project to create vegetable gardens for families in the Craigie and Oakbank areas of Perth has received £122,000 from the Scottish Government’s climate challenge fund.

Ian Marr, chief executive of the YMCA group based in the city’s Atholl Street, described the project – officially known as the Community Carbon Champions Project – as “a huge opportunity”.

The cash will help Perth and District YMCA support six unemployed young people.

He explained: “Our volunteers will be working on the project full time with 35 local households, mainly in the Craigie and Oakbank areas.

“They will prepare the ground, sow, tend and harvest the vegetables. The only thing they won’t be doing is eating them as the produce is for the families!” he said.

Ian added that a quarter of HGV traffic on Britain’s roads is taken up with the transportation of food.

He continued: “This project will reduce the quantity of vegetables which need to be shipped into the area.

“Agricultural methods and chemicals used in vegetable production, refrigeration techniques and the packaging of our foodstuffs all have a high impact on carbon emissions.

“We can reduce these by encouraging people to grow their own vegetables,” he said. The volunteers will also make a DVD showing how to cook the vegetables in an energy efficient way, set to be made available once the produce is ready for harvest.

Participating households also be given the opportunity to carry out a consultation with experts from the environmentally-minded Energy Saving Advice Centre, designed to help them to create a strategy to reduce their carbon footprint further.

Perth YMCA is one of 33 projects that have been awarded a total of more than £2.2 million in the fourth round of climate challenge fund grants.

Guildtown Community Association were also given a £120,200 windfall to help with the Guildtown and Wolfhill carbon community action project.

A co-ordinator will work with locals in various ways to make it simple for participating households to reduce their carbon footprint by as much as 30 per cent a year.

After visiting Guildtown this week, North Tayside MSP John Swinney, who is also the Scottish Government’s secretary for finance and sustainable growth, said: “Climate change is undoubtedly one of the most serious threats we face globally and locally.

“It's therefore very heartening to see that people want to play their part to help ensure a cleaner, greener Perthshire, and Scotland, for future generations,” he said.

Any families interested in participating in the Community Carbon Champions Project can contact the YMCA on 01738 629 883.