GREEN campaigners have set up a group aiming to get residents in East Oxford to cut their carbon footprint.

Low Carbon East Oxford is set to follow in the footsteps of similar groups in Wolvercote and Headington.

At the launch at the Magic Café, in Magdalen Road, about 30 people who live near Donnington, Florence Park and Magdalen Road listened as speakers from the two existing groups explained the steps they had taken to cut their carbon emissions.

Craig Simmons, a Green city councillor and carbon expert, said: “As with Wolvercote and Headington, the goal is to support local residents and businesses in their efforts to reduce their climate change impact and ready themselves for the transition to a low carbon economy. This effort will need to be led by local people if it is to succeed.”

He said he and other Green councillors had been app-roached by people in the area saying they would like to do more to lower their carbon footprint.

Changes made by the group could include sharing information on how to make houses more environmentally friendly, like using renewable forms of energy and insulation.

The group could also apply for grants to carry out pro-jects and link up with other groups, such as cyclists’ organisations.

The area already has a car-sharing scheme, launched a year ago, which now has 200 members.

Jane Carlton Smith, 58, an environmental researcher at Oxford Brookes University, was among those who signed up to the new group.

Ms Carlton Smith, of Aston Street, said: “The reason I went along was because I’m very interested in eco-renovations and low carbon life-styles.”

She said she had installed solar water heating panels, got rid of her car eight years ago and grew food on an allotment – but wanted to do more.

She said: “Things like this are very much in the zeitgeist at the moment.

“There’s a lot going on at the moment but there needs to be a lot more in terms of people’s individual lifestyles.”

The next meeting will be on Monday, December 14, at a venue and time to be set.