Village Hall Information Sheet 3 Providing Services in Village Halls  – this is a new information sheet incorporating information about post office provision. to order it email office@cdaforherts.org.uk there is a cost to non members: 2.70 if emailed.  Members can request an email copy free of charge.  For a full list of available publications for community venues please click here

More than nine million households could be living in fuel poverty within four years unless the Government directs £4bn a year from carbon taxes to families in greatest need, campaigners have warned. More Britons die every year from living in a cold home than on the roads, they said, with the situation expected to worsen sharply because of soaring utility bills. A new study has revealed that there are a million more households already living in fuel poverty compared with previous estimates, taking the total to 6.4 million. The study, by energy efficiency experts Camco, suggests that the total will hit 9.1 million by 2016. The campaign, called the Energy Bill Revolution, was created by Transform UK, a not-for-profit organisation.  For more information, please visit the Independent website.

The Plunkett Foundation has been named as one of fifteen organisations to receive a share of £422,000 in grant form from the Prince’s Countryside Fund to continue its work to halt the closure of rural shops nationwide. . The grant will help the Foundation continue to support communities to save or open their village shop using community ownership.  For more information, please visit the Plunkett Foundation website.

We are looking for a Project Manager for our exciting new Community Garden project to find out more about this voluntary role please click here

All Hertfordshire CAB bureau are delivering additional services to help reduce fuel poverty through the Warm Homes, Healthy People project until the end of March and clients needing help should contact their local bureau – this can be found by entering a postcode on http://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/.  Also if you are off-gas please look at our bulk oil buying scheme which could save you money

The consumer group, Which? is collecting signatures from people who are fed up with high energy bills, which average £1,260 a year. Which? will then invite the UK’s energy suppliers to take part in a so-called “reverse auction”, in which participants try to outbid each other with lower prices. The supplier that commits to the lowest energy price will win the petition’s signatories as customers.

The campaign, which is called The Big Switch, is that the more people sign up to the list, the lower the prices will be. The campaign, which was welcomed by ministers, works along the same principles of group buying sites such as Groupon.

For more information, please visit the Telegraph website.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has produced guidance which explains how organisations can measure and report their green house gas (GHG) emissions, as well as set targets to reduce them. The guidance is aimed at all sizes of business as well as public and third sector organisations. To view the guidance, please visit the Defra website.

The Hertfordshire Local Broadband Plan plans for a much better broadband infrastructure. There will be a few places which are ‘hard to reach’ and where it is not considered viable to install this infrastructure through mainstream plans. For these areas, the government has launched a fund so that communities can prepare their own plans to install superfast broadband: the Rural Communities Broadband Fund (RCBF).  To find out more click here 

The next round for expressing an interest in the RCBF is expected to open in April 2012. It is not currently clear whether there will be further rounds.

The Centre for Sustainable Energy (CSE) is running six workshops to explore how communities can plan low-carbon and renewable energy initiatives, such as wind farms or solar projects. The workshops are aimed at community groups themselves, as well as the staff of organisations like local authorities, national parks and third sector organisations who work with communities on local planning or sustainable living initiatives. For more information, please visit the CSE website.

The Plunkett Foundation, supported by Making Local Food Work, are hosting a one-day conference which aims to help village or community shops increase turnover and profits from local food. For more information, please visit the Local People, Local Food website.