Good news about the Energy Group project

In May we wrote that the affordable housing scheme had received full planning approval. We now have some more good news- the MCLT Energy Group has received a grant from the Rural Community Energy Fund to commission a Feasibility Study.

The first meeting between the Energy Group and the consultants who will carry out the feasibility study took place in the first week of June.    

What will the grant cover?

The grant will explore whether a community owned, renewable electricity generating installation, can be made to work in Marshfield. This is an important first step to assess what sort of project could be viable and deliver community benefits.

The study will explore issues such as:

                Connection to the Grid

                The likelihood of securing planning on the right piece of land

   Is it possible to earn enough from the sale of electricity to cover costs and possibly have a surplus for the community.

What happens after the feasibility study has reported in September 2021?

If the study suggests a community owned electricity generating project is possible, further work will be needed in areas such as: Planning, developing a full Business Case, securing the Land, selecting Operators and Managers, attracting Investors, appointing Contractors, negotiating the Sale of Electricity, and confirming a viable financial model.  

But the point of the feasibility study is to see if such a project is feasible so we must await its findings before assuming anything.

We are very pleased to get the feasibility study underway and it feels like a positive step that we hope will contribute to Marshfield moving towards net Zero Carbon, and becoming a Sustainable Village!

Join the MCLT Energy Group

We are keen for others to join the Energy Group and help take this project into the future so please get in touch with Jim Brookes if you are interested: jim.brookes@marshfieldclt.org

Christine Eden (chair: christine.eden@marhsfieldclt.org); Oliver Shirley; Simon Turner; Vicky Williams; Ian Jones; Ian Dawes; Jim Brookes; Ros Snow

Great Planning News

Great news

 Full planning approval received

 We’re on our way towards building affordable homes for Marshfield

At the end of April 2021, South Gloucestershire Council signed a Section 106 which was required for full planning approval. And on May 5th a decision notice was on the SGC planning portal confirming full planning approval. This is a very significant development and unlocks the next stage of the affordable housing which will now go forward as quickly as possible.

Watch out for news of how to apply to SGC HomeChoice

Notes from Sustainable Marshfield Zoom on 18/02/21: A Community solar farm

What’s it like to set up and run a community-owned solar farm?
Green Drinks Zoom held at 7.30pm on Thursday 18th February 2021
Notes from the session

Marshfield Community Land Trust (MCLT) is exploring the feasibility of setting up a community-owned solar array north of the A420, to generate renewable energy for the village.
Sustainable Marshfield devoted its February one-hour Green Drinks online session to hear from Wedmore village, similar to Marshfield, who installed such a system 7 years ago.
Steve Mewes, Chair of Wedmore Community Power Co-operative, shared experiences and answered questions from 50 local residents at the online session, moderated by Peter Woodward.
The following notes have been taken from the live Zoom and re-ordered for clarity:

About Green Wedmore

The scheme
• Started in 2012 and built in 2013
• The site over 2 paddocks of 2-3 acres is located a quarter mile north of the village
• The 1MW system generates 1.1 million KWH per annum which powers about 250 houses on a good day
• Finding suitable land near the grid connection with positive landowners is crucial
• Important to get good help/advice from an early stage. These schemes are complex!


Community engagement
• Early and ongoing engagement with the local community is vital
• Every house in the village was leafleted to explain the plan
• 4 public events held on consecutive nights in local school. 50-60 people at each event
• Then applied for planning permission. Permission for solar does not change the land use to brownfield
• There was not 100% support. The Parish Council were not unanimous in support
• Objectors were a small minority and made a classic error of not putting their names on flyers
• Key was to be completely open and to keep talking and talking
• All opposition has now entirely evaporated. Newcomers often don’t know the solar farm is there!
• Volunteers invited to be actively involved in aspects of the construction: ‘how often do you get the chance to help build your own power station!’


Structure/management
• CPC set up as a not for profit co-operative
• 125 members invested as Bond and Share holders
• Shares deliver a 5.5% return to investors. It’s worth investing in a good prospectus
• Minimum investment was £100 to encourage community involvement
• Finding the money quickly was not a problem at all – plenty out there.
• Members elect a Management Board who are all volunteers

The technical operation is managed by British Solar Renewables (BSR) who do all site maintenance and take the hassle away from volunteers
• Share Energy are paid an annual flat-rate fee (£700?) to do administration – communication with members, payments etc
• Getting money back out of the Grid is a challenge. Good Energy is the purchaser.
• Each year we have negotiated a new Purchase Power agreement with them
• Have now switched to an Export Rate which gives a better return
• Electricity prices haven’t increased as predicted in business plan
• No security issue encountered on this site. Weather is the biggest damage risk
• Insurance companies now requiring high tech surveillance. Deciding not to spend £30,000 on kit
• The panels are expected to last for full 25 years
• The inverters are most likely to fail as they have a 10 year lifespan. Replacement twice has been factored into business plan
• The Business Plan is structured to pay for removal of everything if we want to after 25 years Community benefit


A core mission for whole project was that all the financial surplus goes back to the community
• In addition to returns to investors, estimate of £600,000 payments to the community over the 25-year life time. £45,000 paid out in grants so far
• Sub cttee of the board meets 3 times a year to assess grant applications
• Simple 2-page form to apply for max £5,000 grant. Examples for grant awards:
o Wedmore village hall panels
o Shower block for girl guides
o LED lights in community buildings
o Warmer Wedmore to help retrofit social housing with insulation

Site retained as farmland
A founding principle was to enhance the site for biodiversity as pasture
• Panels are slightly raised to allow sheep grazing – they love it and have caused no damage
• There was a marginal increase in cost, but prepared to pay as it’s the right thing to do
• Biodiversity very important. Botanical survey done before and during works
• 400m of new screen native hedgerow around sites planted
• Decision to use no concrete. Supports piled into the ground will help easy removal But that was then!


The future
• Not replacing panels with more efficient ones. Minimising the carbon lifecycle of the project important
• At the end of life the panels will probably be sold into the second hand market – or recycled as there will be a fully-fledged reprocessing industry in 20 years’ time
• Next scheme being developed is a wind turbine with battery storage
More information
Green Wedmore: http://www.greenwedmore.co.uk
Wedmore Community Power Co- operative: https://wedmorecpc.co.uk
Marshfield Community Land Trust: http://marshfieldclt.org
Sustainable Marshfield: Free to join membership@sustainablemarshfield.org

Steve believes projects are still financially very doable even without the Feed in Tariff
• Solar panels are half the price and more efficient
• Battery storage offers more options to earn money. BSR can help with this
Wider community impact
• Hope that the project encourages people to think about their own carbon footprint
• Never been worried about having an active core group with a small turnout to meetings etc
• Keep plugging away and focus on actions

2019-20 Directors’ Annual Report

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING 2020

Saturday October 31 2020, 12.00 noon: Zoom meeting

Annual Report from MCLT Board of Directors 2019-20

1. The MCLT has now been in existence for 4 years and remains committed to promoting a confident and forward looking local community in Marshfield by developing new initiatives for community benefit. From its inception the Board identified three key areas of activity: providing affordable housing; developing other social and environmental initiatives, and encouraging community participation. Over the last year it has focussed on those activities relevant to delivering its affordable housing project and has also been exploring issues of energy use and efficiency that could benefit Marshfield.

2. At last year’s AGM we reported that we were working with architects and a range of consultants to develop a draft design for 12 affordable houses, of which 10 are for rent and 2 for shared ownership, on a site next to Garston Farm. This draft design was shown to the village at a consultation event in the Community Centre in November 2019. We received very strong support from people who attended the consultation and we submitted a planning application just before Christmas.

3 .The application was unusual in that it requested permission to build on a rural exception site which can only be considered for planning approval because it meets certain planning policy criteria. These include a requirement that the development be small scale and that homes will be for people in housing need with a local connection.

4. There followed a period of considerable activity as various questions were raised by the planners around issues that we had always known would need to be discussed in detail. In particular there were major concerns about the access from the A420, the relationship to the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, the sewage water treatment system and the design of the houses. There was also considerable discussion about the energy efficiency of the housing design with South Gloucestershire Council strongly supporting the CLT’s desire to move to the internationally recognised low energy pasivhaus standards.

5. The application received a powerful endorsement from Marshfield community with 79 letters of support and just 2 letters of objection from local residents.

6. In May 2020 we were delighted to receive planning permission, in principle. As expected, approval is conditional on MCLT agreeing a Section 106 with South Gloucestershire Council. This will address issues such as the various requirements associated with access to the site, the affordable housing and the local connection criteria.  We hope to complete these various legal processes by early November, 2020.

7. The process of securing contractors to build the site has already begun and  detailed informationhas been sent out to a shortlist of 5 contractors. If all goes well we would hope that contractors could be on site within the next 3 to 4 months.

8. The building process is managed, both in terms of the construction and financing, by our partner housing association, United Communities. MCLT has worked very closely with Caroline Massey from United Communities who is very committed to our project. She is the main contact with our financial partners, South Gloucestershire Council and Homes England, who are providing grant support for the project. South Gloucestershire Council have also supported us in our desire to build to pasivhaus standards for which MCLT have been very grateful.  We have also been grateful for the continued high level of technical support we have received from Steve Watson and the Wessex CLT project.

9. The allocation of these houses will be in accordance with ‘local connection’ criteria agreed by MCLT. Applicants will need to register with South Gloucestershire Council’s HomeChoice to verify their need for affordable housing. The scheme is on target to achieve its aims of charging social rents.

10. The CLT energy working group has continued to explore energy use and the possibility of having greater community control through emerging technologies. Such debates involve complex issues such as exploring possibilities for generating local green energy on a sufficiently large scale to provide a large proportion of the village’s  needs. The group has contributed to discussions about energy sustainability in relation to the Community Centre and the affordable housing project and has been exploring issues associated with fast charging provision for electric cars. The EWG have made links with the new climate emergency team in South Gloucestershire and other groups across the country with similar objectives. The group are very keen to hear from anyone interested in joining them to help take issues around sustainable energy forward.

11. The Board wishes to thank all who have supported the Trust over the years it has taken to acquire a site and get planning permission. This could not have been achieved without support from the Parish Council, our District Councillors Steve Reed and Ben Stokes, our members and Marshfield community. Thank you all.

12. The MCLT Board is very keen to hear from anyone with ideas about potential future developments that would benefit Marshfield. This can cover a wide range of possibilities, not just housing projects .Please get in touch if you have any –however vague- ideas to chat about.

The MCLT Board:  Christine Eden, Chair; Oliver Shirley, Vice-chair; Simon Turner, Treasurer; Vicky Williams, Secretary; Jim Brookes, Ian Dawes, Ian Jones, Ros Snow .

October 2020

MCLT Planning Approval in Principle

VERY GOOD NEWS!!

MCLT is delighted to have received planning permission in principle , conditional upon agreeing a Section 106 with SGC, for the development of affordable housing for rent on a rural exception site at Garston Farm.  

It has taken 4 years to acquire a site and get planning permission so this feels like a very significant milestone. It could not have been achieved without support from the Parish Council, our District Councillors and Marshfield community.

The application received a powerful endorsement from Marshfield community with 79 letters of support and just 2 letters of objection from local residents.

As expected, approval requires MCLT to agree a Section 106 with South Gloucestershire Council. This will address issues such as affordability, facilities and priority for local connections and this process is now underway.

We know there is still a lot of work to do before building work begins and homes are ready to be lived in but it’s good to celebrate this important moment.

MCLT Board May 2020

Planning application submitted

On 24th December MarshfieldCLT submitted the planning application for 18 dwellings to the east of Marshfield. The application in publicly available on the South Gloucestershire planning portal. https://developments.southglos.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=summary&keyVal=Q30LT0OKHG800

There are 45 documents associated with this application. The two that give the overview of the application are the Design and Access Statements.  Comments in support would be very welcome and of course you can also make objections if you wish. Comments  have to be made by Feb 13th 2020. A reminder that this application is for a rural exception site which can only be considered for planning approval because it meets certain planning policy criteria. These include a requirement that the development is small scale and that homes will be for  people in housing need with a local connection. Any planning approval will be subject to a legal agreement  to ensure that the properties will always remain available at an affordable price for people in housing need and prioritised for those with a local connection.    

Latest news on MCLT Affordable Housing Project August 2019

Affordable Housing project

As you will know, last year MCLT entered into a partnership with Mike and Anne Ball to explore a possible site for affordable housing, west of the Garston Farm buildings. After the village meeting at the end of July where there was strong support for the CLT proposal, we interviewed architects and housing associations and appointed Reed Watts as our architect and United Communities as our housing association partner.

We applied for a grant from Homes England in November 2018 to enable us to carry out a full feasibility study of the Garston Farm site.  It took a little time for the grant to be approved but in March 2019 work started in earnest and specialist consultants have now been employed to provide a series of reports on the archaeology, landscape, ecology and topology of the site as well as the technical aspect of land structure, utilities and highways. These reports have provided a significant amount of information and our architect, Reed Watts, has coordinated this data as they have developed a draft scheme for the site.

Planning Process

An indicative scheme has now been sent to South Gloucestershire Council for discussion through what is known as the Pre-app process. This advice is important in addressing major concerns such as access and the way a development will fit into the local environment so it is important that we get that advice even though we know it may take some time before we can meet with South Gloucestershire planners.

The draft application will be amended in the light of this advice and brought to the village so we can take your views into account. Following that consultation and any further amendments, a final planning application will then be made.

We hope to get planning permission to build 12 affordable homes; a mix of 1-beds flats, 2 beds and 3-beds houses for rent and shared ownership, and 6 market houses. Three of these are plots for a return for the landowner and three will be open market houses to help finance the affordable homes.  Planning consent will be subject to a Section 106 Agreement restricting occupancy of the affordable homes to local people in perpetuity.

The application will be for planning consent under South Gloucestershire Council’s policy on Rural Exception Sites which can allow development in the Green Belt and AONB when the application is for affordable housing for local people. Such proposals are strengthened if they are community led initiatives such as ours.

In 2018 Marshfield Parish Council commissioned a Housing Needs Survey which was carried out by South Gloucestershire Council. This survey confirmed the findings of the 2013 survey and indicated that there is still a need in Marshfield for housing for people with local connections. The Parish Council have confirmed their support for the findings of The Housing Needs Survey and this will strengthen the MCLT planning application.

Key Planning Concerns

In our discussions of the site we have been aware that the houses will be close to a cluster of agricultural buildings and the architect’s initial indicative design has been sympathetic to this context. Another key aim is to charge as low a rent as possible.  The rented houses will be available either at Affordable Rents (defined as 80% of market rents for similar properties, subject to be capped at the Local Housing Allowance rate) or, if we can achieve it, at Social Rents which are significantly lower.  We want to incorporate some low-energy measures and also are looking for opportunities to maximise biodiversity and green space across the site but these will have to be balanced against build costs and achieving affordability for residents.

Allocation of houses

We are hopeful that planning permission may be granted towards the end of 2019. It is unlikely that houses will be available to live in before 2021 but we have already begun to think about the criteria that will be used in allocating the houses.

Allocation of these houses will be in accordance with ‘local connection’ criteria agreed by MCLT. Applicants will need to register with South Gloucestershire Council’s HomeChoice to verify their need for affordable housing.

Closer to the time when people are thinking of applying, the MCLT intends to provide workshops to clarify the HomeChoice application process.

Building and managing the homes

United Communities Housing Association will play a very significant role once we have received planning permission. They will fund, develop and manage the rented accommodation homes as well as managing the sale of market houses and shared ownership. The freehold of the houses remains with the MCLT.

Please contact any member of the MCLT board if you would like more information or have any thoughts on the work of MCLT.

The MCLT Board

Christine Eden (Chair- 01225 891525 c.eden@live.co.uk), Oliver Shirley, Simon Turner, Jim Brookes, Ian Jones, Ian Dawes, Ros Snow

MCLT response to removal of affordability criteria Bences Close

Marshfield Community Land Trust does not own the assets under question or have any legal right to intervene in this dispute but we are active in promoting affordable housing and are concerned at the potential loss of any affordable housing in Marshfield.

A recent Housing Needs Survey, commissioned by Marshfield Parish Council and conducted by South Gloucestershire Council, identified a continuing unfulfilled need for affordable housing for local people in Marshfield. Any loss of existing affordable housing stock would be a retrograde step. MCLT would therefore wish to register its opposition to this application. This case highlights the important role a Community Land Trust can play in providing housing which remains affordable in perpetuity and whose status is not vulnerable to legal challenge.