VILLAGERS hoping to become the greenest in the county have received £60,000 to realise their ambitions.

Oakenshaw Community Association is leading the sustainability project, which could result in the village producing its own electricity and residents living in energyefficient homes.

The group has now received £60,663 from the Local Energy Assessment Fund run by the Department of Energy and Climate to fund several schemes.

Six residents have been trained as energy auditors and will visit their neighbours' homes by appointment.

Mr Spencer said: "The auditors will give people an assessment of their energy usage and how they might be able to reduce that through simplemeasures like curtains on doors and windows or better insulation behind loft hatches."

The funding will also pay for free energy monitors, usually worth £50, so residents can monitor their power use.

Mr Spencer said: "It has been proved that people reduce their usage if they are aware of what power is being used.

"For example, they might make their children switch off the television when no one is in the room, or other simple things that immediately affect the reading on the monitor."

The fund will also be used to pay for up to £100 worth of efficiency improvement works onpeople's homes in the village, which has 210 houses, and a thermal imaging camera will be bought that can reveal where heat is lost from homes.

Mr Spencer said: "This is all voluntary and for people to use if they want it. We are not pushing it onto people."

The biggest project is the potential erection of a 75metre wind turbine on a former opencastmine site, which would sell surplus power to the National Grid, with the money being used for the community.

Part of the fund will be used to complete a geology study, to check the stability of the ground beneath the proposed mast, and an ecology survey to see what impact the turbine might have.

A monitoring mast to measure weather conditions received planning permission last week. A full survey of residents will also take place next month to gauge opinion, although Mr Spencer said the overwhelming majority of residents have come out in favour of the plan at previous meetings.