Bucksin residents enjoyed an afternoon of environmentally-friendly fun at the Ridgeway Community Hall as part of a scheme to raise awareness of climate change.
The green festivities were organised by Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council, and took place on Saturday, August 13. Officers from the council's green team were on hand with tips and advice on recycling and energy efficiency, while South East Water had a spokesman on site to talk about ways of saving money and water meters.
Environmental education manager Blanche Miles told the Observer: "The point of today is to have a very localised event to talk to people about energy conservation. We are trying to cut through all the information thats out there about climate change, because people could actually save money if they follow some of the advice."
This is the second of two events organised by the authority, and follows a similar event at the Russell Howard Centre earlier this year. Visitors got to enjoy Fairtrade refreshments and take part in junk art classes and music-making with recycled instruments with the Drumrunners.
Buckskin ward councillor Robert Taylor came along to the event to show his support. He said: "This sort of awareness raising is really important. It's all about making people aware how easy it is to save money and make a difference. A lot of people tend to think recycling is something other people do. I'm really pleased Buckskin was chosen as one of two places to roll this programme out."
Also present on the day were members of the Basingstoke Transition Network, who were offering people advice on reducing their carbon footprint. Martin Heath told the Journal local green events were a great place to meet people and help them go green.
"We've already agreed to help one lady get insulation she is entitled to from her housing association," he said. " And we met a spokesman from the Ridgeway Centre, and we're going to talk to them about putting solar panels on the roof. We're trying to give people good advice that they can trust. We can save people money."
Rebecca Condon, 24, was one of the locals to stop by the event. She said: "it is interesting, we always come down when there's an event on here. It's obviously better to recycle, I definitely learnt that."
