Cotswold District Council has reached its target of £500,000 investment into its innovative programme, Cotswold Climate Investment (CCI).

The CCI is Gloucestershire's first Community Municipal investment (CMI) which allowed local people to invest directly into a greener, more sustainable and healthier future for the Cotswolds.

After its launch on April 26, the scheme quickly gained momentum hitting 50% of its target in just over three weeks. The raise period closed, fully funded, on August 16, 2022.

Councillor Joe Harris, leader of Cotswold District Council said: "We're thrilled that Cotswold Climate Investment has reached its £500,000 target with over 450 investors.

"We'd like to say a huge thank you to all our local backers who invested with us. Without your help, we wouldn't have reached our target.

"Responding to the challenges of the climate crisis is at the heart of everything we do, it's one of our top priorities and we're always looking for innovative ways to achieve this. We wanted to give our residents the opportunity to put their money to good use and help us with our ambitious target of becoming a carbon neutral district by 2045.

"The projects we have planned will help lower the carbon footprint of the Cotswolds, creating a more planet conscious District for our future generations, and we couldn't do it without our local investors. Thank you."

The Cotswold Climate Investment will support a range of projects, including installing publicly available off-street electric vehicle charging points (EVCPs) around the district to encourage electric vehicle take-up, and improving the energy and carbon performance of the Council's Cirencester offices.

Local investor Ralph Rayner said: "Climate Change science is central to my day job so I am very engaged and involved with issues relating to mitigating and adapting to the impact of climate change. Most of what I do is on a big scale, at a global level so CCI presented me with an opportunity to have an impact locally as well.

"Also, on a personal level, I drive an electric car and there aren't that many charging points around, so any initiative I can help with to improve the infrastructure for sustainable travel has got to be a good thing. Better local infrastructure would also encourage other people to move to electric vehicles."

The scheme is in partnership with Abundance Investment, the UK's first and biggest regulated green investment platform.

Bruce Davis, co-founder of Abundance Investment said: "It was great to see that Cotswolds secured their full funding target for green projects despite the headwinds of market uncertainty and the cost of living crisis. It shows that people understand the urgency of the need to act on the climate emergency now - and as a local investor too I look forward to further updates as the projects progress."