MONMOUTH's Bridges Community Centre will reduce its carbon footprint as part of the Welsh Government's Climate Change Challenge.

The Centre, at Drybridge Park, has installed water butts in its garden and push taps in the toilets to reduce water and energy use as it competes against two other community centres in Wales.

The Climate Change Challenge is a friendly competition that rewards the centre that makes the biggest reduction to its carbon footprint.

The water saving effort follows several other changes by Bridges Community Centre. These include the upgrading of outdated and energy inefficient appliances, putting more recycling schemes in place, installing a 'smart' meter to monitor energy use, and explaining the benefits to the community of reducing its carbon footprint.

Bridges deputy centre manager, Heather Vincent, said: "The centre's flowerbeds and herb gardens obviously need a lot of tending, and using water from the mains can be very costly.

"By installing water butts in the gardens we are able to use an abundant natural resource - rainwater.

"The push taps - which turn off automatically - have also been a major bonus. We welcome up to 1,000 people to the centre each week for the many functions we hold, and often taps were left on accidentally."

At the end of the Challenge year, a judging panel will look at their carbon savings, the range and effectiveness of their activities and how many people they have persuaded to act on climate change, and then decide which of the centres has made the most progress.