Community Transport - East Sussex Volunteers reduce their carbon footprint
SERCC is the Regional organisation for the eight Rural Community Action Network Charities in the SE. We support Rural Communities to address sustainability issues through the Community Led Plan process. We also offer advice on:- how to reduce CO2 emissions, Energy Audits for Community Buildings, advice with the set up of Community Shops and Farmers Markets selling local produce, Community Transport and ECO friendly Affordable Housing.
The Project
There is growing controversy about the use of Biofuels as a replacement for fossil fuels and doubts are being raised about its ability to fulfil energy needs and the effects that increased production of fuel crops will have on food crop production.
However, biofuels do hold some of the answers at a very local level and some organisations have already turned to Biofuels to run local bus or vehicle services. Action for Communities in Rural Sussex supported the Cuckmere Community Bus project. Their Rural Transport Officer worked with the Local Authority and a group of 5 local farmers to convert a bus from Cuckmere to run on pure plant oil obtained from their rape seed crop.
The garage in Cuckmere maintains the community bus fleet. The garage owner presses and stores the fuel and plans to become an agent to undertake vehicle biofuel conversions, as well as offering the oil as an alternative fuel to customers for their cars. The cost of maintenance for vehicles running on biofuels is similar but the cost of the fuel is cheaper
The bio-bus has been in operation for several months. The drivers report that performance is just as good as prior to conversion and it is much smoother.
Fuel crops like rape can be grown on arid uncultivated land, which has the benefit of not affecting food crop production. After pressing the waste product, known as rape expellant, is a useful animal feed, which can be sold back to local farmers.
The local rapeseed crop was previously taken to the docks on 42 tone trucks and shipped to Europe where it was pressed into pure plant oil. The local production process circumvents this and the farmers are looking to complete the circle by converting a tractor to run on Vegetable Oil. They are also interested in using disused farm buildings for the production of the fuel thereby supporting the local economy and local jobs.
West Sussex CC has also converted one of their own fleet of minibuses to run on bio-fuel
For further information please contact Angela Gilmour at http://www.sercc.org.uk or Action in Rural Sussex http://www.ruralsussex.org.uk
Contact Email:
Organisation:
SERCC South East Rural Community Councils
Funding Details:
Costs to date £15,500. Funding £10,000 from South Downs Development Fund and the balance came from East Sussex County Council
Status:
Ongoing
Organisation’s website:
http://www.sercc.org.uk, http://www.ruralsussex.org.uk/newsletter/Mar08News.pdf
Keywords relating to this case study:
Agriculture, Biodiversity, Community Engagement, Biofuels Project in Sussex
South East groups case study relates to:
Communities
