Nottingham City Council is supporting low-income homeowners in Nottingham to reduce their energy bills by installing insulation and solar panels in homes for free.

The City Council has successfully bid for over ?6m of grants through the Sustainable Warmth Competition, which is funded by the UK Government?s Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. The scheme aims to improve the energy efficiency of 511 cold and draughty homes that are difficult to keep warm in the winter.

Homeowners are invited to a drop-in event on Wednesday 16^th November at Harvey Hadden Sports Village where they can speak to the team to find out which measures would be suitable for their home, understand the process and apply for the scheme.

Representatives from Nottingham Energy Partnership and Marches Energy Agency will also be attending the event to give attendees free, impartial and confidential advice to help reduce energy bills.

The event will be open between 12-6pm, and residents can drop-in at any time. Find out more about the event, including if you are eligible for the scheme, here.

The UK Government has set a national target to increase the amount of waste recycled in England to 65%, while keeping waste that ends up in landfill below 10%. The Government is also introducing new collection rules for food waste and recycling to deliver more consistency across England.

To achieve these goals, the City Council is proposing new options for waste and recycling collections in Nottingham. These include:

• Working on initiatives to help people reuse and repair items rather than throwing them away
• Helping people to manage waste well and recycle the right things
• Starting?food waste collections
• Making changes to how we collect recycling
• Offering smaller general waste bins
• Increasing our fleet of ?alternative-fuel? bin lorries.

To help us shape the final strategy, we?d like you to tell us your thoughts on waste and recycling in Nottingham. Sharing your opinions will allow us to create a new strategy that works for the city.

More information about the draft strategy and the survey can be found online:?https://bit.ly/3EbyBWn

I?m pleased to let you know that RideWise is offering free cycling lessons and rides to Nottingham City adult residents. These will happen on Saturdays until February for beginners and improvers. You can learn how to ride a bike or just build your confidence. They will be providing bikes and helmets or you can take your own.

In recent years the council has significantly increased the road space infrastructure for cyclists, which is shown to encourage more people to choose to cycle. We believe that delivering high quality sustainable green transport options will enable Nottingham to become a resilient city that is able to cope with and do its bit to help tackle climate change.

These free lessons are a great way for people to increase their cycling skills and to build confidence which will enable them to take advantage of the cycle routes across the city.?Many people will find that cycling is not only helping to lower their carbon footprint, it also has health benefits and they will save money too.?

You must book a place to join the lessons here.