Supporting improved use of community buildings in County Durham

Overview

NICRE, the Rural Design Centre (RDC), in collaboration with Durham Community Action (DCA), and Durham County Council, supported communities in Teesdale, County Durham to identify potential improvement opportunities regarding the use of community buildings.

This included supporting the council with a series of webinars and working with DCA to provide individual support to the management groups of community buildings regarding sustainability.

Outcomes

Survey:

This was sent to all Teesdale community building management groups to gather their insights of existing issues. Following the results of the survey, it was decided to focus on three themes of broad interest: energy efficiency, digital connectivity, and resilience.

Workshop recruitment:

After recruitment to workshops proved unsuccessful, it was decided to provide individual support to interested individuals within the community management groups.

Webinars:
It was realised that the council’s low carbon economy team was running a similar project therefore, with the facilitation of DCA, our project was merged with that, and we were tasked with supporting and finding guest speaks for the programme.

Five online events were held December 2021-April 2022

- Decarbonising buildings - where to start?

- Reducing energy bills through behavioural change and energy efficiency

- Green space management

- How to organise a low carbon event

- Funding available for community groups

Next steps

Our team is interested in providing additional support to community management groups to address concerns or challenges that may arise.

Conclusions and recommendations

Although the three most prominent issues were identified through our survey, as the project progressed, our team realised that although there were some similar challenges, each community building had its own unique situation. Therefore, strengthening the connection with communities and coming up with customised solutions to the difficulties may be an appropriate approach for future projects.

Partners

Related items

Watch this video to hear from representatives from Durham County Council and Durham Community Action about their work towards net zero.

Together Towards Net Zero 1