St Athan Village

RAISING THE ROOF Appeal

There is little doubt that for most people in the village of St. Athan, the ancient church building of St. Tathan has figured large in the history of our families.  For many generations the building has stood as a visible witness to the faith of our community.

But now our faithful old building is in need of our help, in order to continue in its mission into the 21st century and beyond.  To this end, we are pleased to announce the launch of our ‘RAISING THE ROOF’ Appeal, to raise awareness that our community’s church building is in need of extensive repairs, the major work being with the roof.

The planned works are not simply for general repairs and maintenance.  The intention is to make the building more user-friendly and to provide better access for people with disabilities, all within a warm, dry and secure environment, fit as a place of worship and social focus.

St. Tathan Church has recently qualified for a substantial grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund towards this work.  So please do your best to support our ‘RAISING THE ROOF’ Appeal.  Fundraising events will be listed on the Diary page.

Get ‘Smart’ With St Athan

St Athan (Vale of Glamorgan) has become the first town/village in Wales to participate in a pioneering long-term energy efficiency project, in partnership with SWALEC.

SWALEC has teamed up with local community group “Get smart with St Athan” and the South East Wales Energy Agency to help the entire St Athan community cut its energy use, using a wide range of energy efficiency measures including cutting-edge smart meter technology.  If the village achieves a 10% cut in energy use within the two years, SWALEC will donate £20,000 to St Athan.

The innovative project was launched on the 1st March 2008 with a community event that gave the residents of St Athan the opportunity to learn more about the initiative and decide how the project will be run over the next two years.

As part of the project, residents will be offered smart meters, energy monitoring devices, home energy surveys, free advice workshops and grants for home insulation. Over the next two years, the community’s energy consumption will be measured using a real-time meter installed in the local substation. This will be fed back to the residents so residents can plot their progress. SWALEC will be using the data to understand the best ways of encouraging a community to reduce its energy demand.

Jane Davidson, the Welsh Assembly Government's Minister for Environment, Sustainability and Housing, visited the project launch to find out first hand what the community is doing and why the project is important to the residents of St Athan.

Jane said: “In order to fight climate change we need to reduce our energy consumption so I am delighted to hear that this pilot is taking place in Wales and I look forward to the results. I am keen to do what I can by working with UK Government to achieve a successful rollout of smart meters across Wales as soon as possible.  I strongly support smart meters as they can give customers and suppliers accurate information which tells people how much energy they are using which can encourage them to reduce their energy bills.”

This community-wide project is one of three such initiatives being run in England, Scotland and Wales by SWALEC’s parent company, Scottish and Southern Energy.

SWALEC’s energy efficiency project manager, Anna Batchelor, added: “We welcome the opportunity to study how energy demand can be reduced across an entire community. It’s sometimes hard to encourage people to take up energy efficiency measures because, individually, the savings look small but in St Athan this will be aggregated to show the impact residents are making.”

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