Warwickshire News Mine

More than 1,300 entries were received across Coventry, Warwickshire and Worcestershire in the `Switch it off’ Savers Schools Art Competition.

And High Meadow Infant School in Coleshill and Brooke Special School in Rugby have each collected £250 and merit certificates for their entries.

The overall winning school, picking up the Jaguar `Leaper’ Trophy and £250 was Aston Fields Secondary School in Worcestershire.

Schools were challenged by Warwickshire County Council, Coventry City Council and Worcestershire County Council to submit A4 or A5 sized shapes of electrical appliances or lights decorated with a collage of recycled materials or displaying colourful and interesting `switch it off’ messages.

The competition was run as part of a `Switch it off’ campaign to encourage people to turn off appliances when not in use, and particularly not to leave electrical items on stand by.

For example, a television watched for just four hours a day, yet left on stand by for the remaining 20 hours will cost £61 a year, similarly an inkjet printer left on stand by for 20 hours a day will cost £33 per year, these costs can be slashed dramatically by simply turning them off rather than leaving them on stand by.

A `Big Turn Off’ day in November saw everyone in Warwickshire urged to limit their electricity usage between 4.30pm and 6.30pm and this saw an eight per cent dip in energy readings compared to the previous evening.

Cllr Martin Heatley, Warwickshire County Council’s Portfolio Holder for the Environment, said: “There were many great entries and I’m delighted that two of the top three entries chosen by the judges were Warwickshire schools.

“Wasting electricity has a direct impact on climate change. In Warwickshire we supported the launch of a countywide Climate Change Strategy in July.

“It may sound clichéd, but the children of Warwickshire are our future, and it’s vital that they understand the impact they can have every day on preventing climate change by taking very simple actions. And it gives them a chance to tell their teachers off if they see them leaving lights on in classrooms!

“If everyone in Warwickshire, Coventry and Worcestershire stopped leaving appliances on stand by it would prevent 86,322 tonnes of carbon dioxide being emitted into the atmosphere through wasted electricity and save more than £20m (enough to pay the annual electricity bill for 71,953 homes).”

The Jaguar Schools Sustainable Development award is sponsored by Jaguar and the charity ‘Savers’ manages the biennial award programme and chooses the most appropriate theme for that year - and this year ‘Savers’ decided to support the ‘Switch it Off’ campaign.

Giant collages have been made from all the entries and these giant shapes are expected to go on show soon in Shire Hall in Warwick.

For more information on taking steps to `Switch it off’ visit http://www.warwickshire.gov.uk/switchitoff or call the energy advice hotline on 0800 512012.

Link to WCC