Community

Community Funded

In total, the scheme cost around £330,000. A community share issue raised over £125,000, with grant funding providing another £165,000. The shareholders are mostly local people and businesses plus people from further afield who wish to support renewable energy schemes.

Community Owned

Our members – over 260 shareholders – own the scheme. Our annual general meetings (AGMs), held in the Revive Church in New Mills, attract a high percentage of the shareholders keen to hear how the project has progressed over the last year and exercise their voting rights to control the Society. AGMs are normally held in April.

Community Benefits

Each year, we hold a series of well attended open afternoons over the summer and have commenced an educational programme with local schools. This pioneering scheme has generated nationwide interest and has put New Mills on the map. Shareholders can receive interest on their shares, but many choose to donate their share of the profits from the scheme to the Torrs Hydro Community Fund.

Since its inception, Torrs Hydro has been committed to improving the community and environmental sustainability of New Mills and surrounding area. The idea of a Community Fund resourced from surpluses from its power generation was inherent in its original business model. The Torrs Hydro Board of Directors now feels that the business is sufficiently secure to be able to offer a meaningful scheme. With the climate emergency becoming increasingly visible, the Board is particularly keen that the Community Fund is dedicated to supporting initiatives which address the climate emergency, pollution and waste, and their impact on local people, and have measurable impacts. The Fund is now looking to invest in a small number of projects with high impact in preference to a larger number of projects with lower impact. It currently has over £20,000 allocated to it and is working on the terms of reference for investing the fund. 

Local organizations that have previously benefitted from the Torrs Hydro Community Fund:

We have also:

  • collected food for the New Mills ‘Helping Hands’ food bank
  • provided refreshments for the New Mills Walkers Are Welcome kick-off event
  • sponsored a tree at St George’s Parade of Trees
  • hosted a number of art projects carried out by students at New Mills School

We regularly host visits from local schools, several of whom have integrated Archie into their curriculum; Archie’s name was chosen based on suggestions from local pupils.

In addition to our Open Days, when we open up the shed and the fish pass to anyone who is interested and volunteers are available to answer questions, we also host official visits by groups ranging from other hydro startups to groups who are simply looking for an interesting day out. We have even had a visit from a group of hydroelectric engineers from China, who fortunately brought their own translators.

In addition to generating electricity, Archie is a valuable resource for academics: a number of dissertations and theses have been based on environmental, hydrological or engineering data collected on site.

Inspirational

We hope to encourage others to think about the challenges that climate changes presents us all. We have been delighted that the project has inspired a number of local artists.

The New Mills Metro reproduced by kind permission of Chris Smith / TwentyTrees Photography of Hayfield.