28th August 2025 • The HERALD • Page 73 v READ THE HERALD ONLINE: www.herald-publishing.co.uk v VAUXTECH LOCAL GARAGE Tel: 023 8086 9496 Unit 5, New Forest Enterprise Centre, Totton, Southampton SO40 9LA LOCAL GARAGE EST 27 YEARS • Servicing & Repairs • MOT’s (arranged) • Brakes • Clutches • Tyres • Air Conditioning • Collection & Delivery Locally Friendly & Reliable Onsite Café Facilities All Makes & Models Waterside Climate Action Network (WaterCAN) update from WaterCAN inking about solar panels but not sure where to start? Seen an advert for heat pumps but still have questions? We’re pleased to welcome a representative from My Home Made Better to SoulCafe, North Road, Dibden Purlieu SO45 4PG on Monday 29th September from 7pm. My Home Made Better is a free, Hampshire-wide energy advice service designed to help homeowners making big decisions about reducing their home’s carbon emissions. e talk will cover how the service o ers tailored advice for your unique property and circumstances, what grants might be available, and how to start gathering quotes when you’re ready to invest. If you’re considering ways to futureproof your home, My Home Made Better, exclusive to residents in Hampshire, Southampton and Portsmouth, is the perfect place to start. All welcome, £2 entry includes a ra e ticket. Anyone who came to Shaun Russell’s talk last year on Green Roofs will be interested to learn that Shaun will be doing another session on “Inspiring Green Roofs” at Brockenhurst Village Hall on 20th September 9am – 1pm. Organised by Greener Brockenhurst and Transition Lymington, free entry all welcome. Green roofs can significantly reduce surface temperatures in summer and retain warmth in winter. New Forest Turf Supplies will be there to exhibit their products for green roo ng and showcase some of their projects. Hythe Shed will be bringing a bin store with a green roof. e foreshore project reported in previous issues will be going ahead on one of the four spring low tide dates in September and October with a “Coastal Adventurers” day involving children from Hythe Primary School. Our Community Energy Future Landscape session on 24th July, led by Nicola Davidson, Project Manager at Community Energy Pathways, gave us an up to date picture of where things are at in community energy, and some pointers about our future direction. e aim is to identify suitable sites in the area for solar farms or large roofs suitable for solar panels. Anyone interested in joining this project is welcome. Please contact us or follow our website or Facebook page for details on future steps. Our item on plastic in the last issue turned out to be very timely, followed as it was by a Lancet report which described plastics as “a grave, growing and under-recognised danger” to human and planetary health. e driver of the crisis is identi ed as the huge acceleration of plastics production, which has increased by more than 200 times since 1950, and is set to almost triple to more than a billion tonnes a year by 2060, with more than 8 billion tonnes polluting the entire planet, from the top of Everest to the bottom of the Mariana Trench. e report goes on to highlight the impact of plastic on health across all ages, and was timed to coincide with ten days of talks in Geneva to try to reach a global agreement on plastic pollution. Looking on the bright side, and, coincidentally, again referring to one of our items in the last issue, science has some pointers to possible improvements in packaging which will reduce the use of plastic. A recent BBC report suggested that aluminium, “the greenest container”, could play a larger role, being in nitely recyclable compared with plastic, and being lighter than glass. e wine industry has already trialled full size aluminium bottles, with Tesco and Aldi having already rolled out own label organic wines. A good excuse for a glass, if you need one! Let us know if you would like an aluminium collecting box. For further information and updates, visit: E-voice.org.uk/WaterCAN, or Facebook, or email: watercan2025@gmail.com Energy Performance Certificate
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