The two Yorkshire villages which are on the verge of becoming totally carbon neutral

Monk Fryston and Hillam expect to reach the benchmark next year, following a joint initiative which has seen the community centre, primary school, church, football and cricket clubs and residents work together to combat climate change.

The remarkable achievement puts the community in the Selby district years ahead of the targets set by many public bodies and shows what can be done by those determined to make a difference.

Major changes to community buildings have included installing solar panels to provide carbon neutral power, complete with battery storage to allow electricity to be used for essential services and activities

But the whole community has been offered the chance to contribute with thermal imaging camera surveys allowing them to map where heat is lost from their homes. The Monk Fryston and Hillam Community Association came up with the idea of the sustainabiliity project, with polling revealing 96 per cent of villagers in support.

Ray Newton was appointed project manager and the initiative gathered pace as a series of grants, starting with the Rural Communities Energy Fund, helped to move the proposals forwards.

Mr Newton said: “This funding has been used for a feasibility study to examine if it was possible to make our community buildings carbon neutral and then options on how to do it with cost forecasts to power the buildings with sustainable energy.

“These options enabled us to take a big stride towards making them carbon neutral. Later, a grant from the People’s Post Code Lottery funded a thermal imaging camera, solar PV panels and battery storage for the community centre.

“The camera was used to survey all the community buildings to identify areas of heat loss and local people have been trained to survey homes and buildings.Areas identified as losing heat can then be looked at to find ways to reduce energy loss.”

Monk Fryston United Football Club has raised funds to buy a battery-powered LED floodlight system to allow teams to train at their Stocking Lane pitch, rather than travel to Knottingley.

The next step is to install solar panels to charge the batteries.

Vice-chairman, Dave Cockayne, said: “In the last five years, we have almost doubled the club in terms of the numbers of young people playing and the community nature of it is really important.

“We wanted to work together around various issues, particularly the carbon side. We had parents driving children to flood-lit pitches and that was just nuts when we were trying to reduce our carbon footprint."

People are being encouraged to leave cars behind when travelling to the local ground and car share when teams play away. Meanwhile there are plans to install air source heat pumps at St Wilfrid’s church hall and the community centre, while the school has a government grant to replace its ageing gas boilers with ground source heat pumps.

Mr Newton said all the learning and the data would be shared, adding: “They are being recognised as exemplar community sustainable building projects.”

North Yorkshire County Council’s executive member for climate change, Coun Greg White, said: “It is everyone’s responsibility to react to climate change and the county council has its own agenda for change in this area. That’s why we were happy to support this project, which is a remarkable example of what can be done when there is a will to make change.

To find out more, visit the Monk Fryston and Hillam Community Association’s sustainability webpage at www.mfhcc.com/sustainability-project/