A new community energy group is going to be set up in a Suffolk town to look at ways of decarbonising homes, including progressing thermal imaging and air source heat pumps.

The proposal to create the Halesworth Community Energy Group was one of the outcomes from a climate action conference held in the town, which was attended by Suffolk Coastal MP and environment secretary Therese Coffey and Adrian Ramsay, co-leader of the Green Party.

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The group's aims are to engage the community in measuring the thermal efficiency of housing stock and to work with existing groups in the area to take forward the environmental aspects of the neighbourhood plan.

These 'environmental aspects' include thermal imaging, insulation and air source heat pumps.

As well as the community energy group, a new umbrella communicating group, Halesworth Area Sustainable Hub (ASH), is also set to be formed, which will be coordinated by Halesworth Town Council and Blyth Valley Churches.

The Halesworth ASH will be responsible for overseeing future events and distributing information, while a third Open Space group will be created to link open space initiatives together and share knowledge and expertise.

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During the conference, the panel answered eight questions from the many submitted and Dr Coffey praised a local conservation project to save Holton Pits from development and retain the site as a dog walking area and beauty spot.

She had visited the pits prior to the conference.

The event also heard about successful environmental projects, including initiatives to protect open spaces, such as Millennium Green in Halesworth, while groups from Wenhaston and Bramfield described their projects to increase biodiversity and tree and hedge cover.

More than 200 people attended the panel discussion, held separately from the main conference, which was attended by more than 100.

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A spokesperson for the town council said: "We had no idea that climate would be so upper most in people’s minds.

"Both the town council and Blyth Valley Churches, the joint organisers, were delighted with the response and are already planning a follow up series of events."