Following regular emails to the Notts County Council we eventually had contact (thanks to Cllr. Sue Saddington for her support and intervention).
The result was praise for our application and business plans from NCC and that the application was passed to Cllr Keith Girling for a decision, however they have to get a valuation on the site.
A further development was that Cllr Sue was at a function with Cllr Keith and raised the issue, the suggestion from Cllr Keith was “if they can raise the money, they can have it”.
So quite positive, we now await their valuation and any discretionary discount that may be applied! Then our first challenge: sourcing funds.
We hope to have significant contributions advanced from the approved Battery Storage Sites and proposed Battery Storage and Solar site each of which surrounds our villages along with National Grid and the RWE Power Station.
Next steps are to nominate our board of trustees at our next meeting and set up our legal format a Community Benefit Society with asset lock, the bank accounts.
Once these administrative tasks are complete and we have an indication of how much we need, we can set about deciding the best way to raise the funds to get us underway.
GRANTS
There are a good number of grants that we shall be able to apply for in addition to any funds offered by the Energy Companies.
A new government may set about introducing something similar to the now defunct Community Ownership Fund. This we will find out about asap after the new government has been elected.
We are getting nearer to a move in the right direction after all this time!
We will keep you abreast of developments and our next meeting c/w date, location and time.
Positive news at last!👍