Rob Blackhurst

December 22, 2007 - Financial Times Magazine

In this year's Green Issue, Rob Blackhurst wrote about Ashton Hayes in north-west England, which was aiming to become this country's ''first carbon-neutral village''. How have they fared over the past eight months?

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Since the FT last visited in April, the well-heeled village of Ashton Hayes in Cheshire has cut its carbon footprint by an impressive 20 per cent. The biggest fall in emissions has been due to reduction in flights and car travel. According to Garry Charnock, the co-ordinator of the initiative: ''I haven't taken any flights, and one guy in business - who travels all over Europe and the Middle East - has taken 35 fewer flights this year, taking one flight a fortnight out of his schedule. That's been the nicest reaction - how businesses have tried to help people.''

Following the FT article, a group of villagers were invited to appear at the Live Earth event at Wembley Stadium and were interviewed by compere Graham Norton until being cut short by a performance by the Black Eyed Peas.

This got younger people in the village excited but was a ''disappointment'', says Charnock: ''We didn't see much evidence of the event organisers themselves minimising emissions.

The feeling was that it's a bit silly for these rock groups who fly around the world in private jets to be promoting it.''

Ashton Hayes has been getting several inquiries a week from other villages around the world that want to follow their example. Those include Eden Mills, in Canada, which aims to become the first community in north America to go carbon neutral. The opportunity hardest to turn down was an expenses-paid jaunt to the Lion's Club of Mauritius to advise on carbon neutrality - ruled out because of the ''ridiculous'' carbon emissions involved.

After all this public attention, Ashton Hayes is now discouraging the swarms of international journalists so that villagers can concentrate their energies on their latest projects: building a woodchip micro-generator to supply the village and publicising a ''stop using plastic bags campaign''.

For the moment, however, everyone is looking forward to a brief respite singing carols around the sustainable Christmas tree and admiring its low-energy fairy lights.