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utILIty WeeK | 14th - 20th February 2014 | 15 Investigation: Community energy self rich," says Luke. "He was just trying to get to the stage where he had the funding to create the energy services company." Another shock followed: on 3 October, the police arrested Green on suspicion of fraud. The Isle of Wight Council had raised the alarm aer discovering some £120,000 of the grant awarded to promote the Green Deal was unaccounted for. Green was interviewed for six hours. It was a new low, but nobody anticipated what Green would do next. He had no history of depression, at least that Luke knew about. "His nickname was Dave 'Jolly Boy' Green. To see him down or upset was an absolute rarity." Others describe a relentlessly upbeat, optimistic personality. "There was not a day that was not a bright day in David Green's world," says Huber. Yet on Monday 7 October, Patricia Green went into the garden of the family home of two decades and found her husband hang- ing by the neck from a tree. He was 52. David Green had made Ecoisland his personal mission and when it fell apart, he could not simply shrug it off as an unsuc- cessful experiment. "He felt he had let eve- ryone down," says Luke. "We had spoken about moving forward but ultimately I think he didn't want to start from scratch again." His widow was le with no choice. She sold the house and moved away from the island where she had lived for nearly 30 years. The six-bedroom home that Green had proudly used as a showcase for green tech- nology went on the market for £1 million. It boasted solar panels for water heating and electricity generation, an air source heat pump, an electric car charging point, rain- water harvesting and a RIBA Award for sus- tainability, as well as a hot tub. There were numerous missed opportuni- ties for the authorities to intervene before things got out of hand. The Community Interest Company Regu- lator, which is responsible for registering and checking up on enterprises like the Ecoisland Partnership, took little action despite receiving two complaints. With just half a dozen staff overseeing many thou- sands of CICs, the regulator openly aims for a "light touch" approach, "with the mini- mum of interference". The CIC is a relatively 7 October 2013 – David Green's wife finds him hanged from a tree in the garden of their Cowes home 3 October 2013 – David Green is arrested on suspicion of fraud. He spends six hours answering police questions 1 October 2013 – Ecoisland Partnership writes to creditors: "It is with deep regret that the Ecoisland Partnership Community Interest Company has been forced to close its doors and wind up its affairs on the island." June 2013 – Ecoisland Partnership launches the100 Club and Energy Services Company in the House of Commons, hosted by Andrew Turner MP. David Green says: "We have got to a watershed moment." May 2013 – The Isle of Wight Council changes hands, with the Conservative leadership giving way to Island Independents new concept, introduced in 2005 as a mid- dle ground between charity and business, and the regulator's main role is to register, encourage and advise those wishing to set up social enterprises. The first complaint, in March, objected to Green's £61,000 salary. The regula- tor defended the company. "Directors can receive salaries and many are paid well for the services they provide," says a spokes- man. "The regulator has no problem with this as long as the remuneration is reason- able and does not affect the CIC's ability to deliver benefit." The second complaint, in April, raised concerns about "irregularities" in 3 Green- lights' accounts and "aggressive marketing in relation to securing new members of Ecois- land Partnership CIC". Companies House made 3 Greenlights file revised accounts and the regulator promised to "closely monitor" Ecoisland on the marketing front. The Isle of Wight Council, which author- ised Green to take up the Ecoisland mantle and passed on grant money – apparently without oversight – has resisted calls for an inquiry. The executive argued it would be inappropriate while the police are still inves- tigating the fraud allegations. UKIP council- lor Daryll Pitcher is not satisfied. The money le unaccounted for "is a considerable sum for an authority such as ours which faces large cuts," he says. "Then there is the moral point of ensuring we have complete control over public money." The police declined to comment on the progress of inquiries. An inquest into Green's death is due to be heard by early March. Harrington-Vail started to raise questions with the council about the solvency of Ecois- land "a good six months" before it went into liquidation. "There was a lack of monitoring and a lack of control from the council," he says. The council declined to comment. It did not help that there was a change in administration in May 2013. Any action the Conservative-led council might have been planning to take was lost in the transition to the Island Independents that followed. Luisa Hillard, serving cabinet member for sustain- ability, says: "Before I got elected there was not necessarily a close relationship between the council and Ecoisland." David Pugh, the former council leader, says local authorities deal with a lot of community interest compa- nies, and "there is only so much they can do in the way of due diligence". The Department of Energy and Climate Change and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, which were behind the Green Deal grant, did not respond to a request for comment. The phrase "Ecoisland" has become taboo on the Isle of Wight. There are many who still support its ideals and objectives, but nobody with the money and guts to try and revive the movement. Huber considered taking on the project aer the CIC went into liquidation, he says, but he had recently founded his own busi- ness and decided "one start-up is enough". He is keen to stress that he still sees com- munity projects like Ecoisland as the future of energy. Jimmy Chestnutt, chair of green business network Future Solent, looked at whether they could continue some of Ecoisland's work. However, he said this "proved quite difficult" because the projects were bound up with the finance and Future Solent does not have its own funds to invest. The technology partners are continuing some of the work under their own steam, such as a hydrogen car trial. "David was very good at selling a dream and he did bring together a lot of different companies who basically are willing to invest in Ecoisland as a test area for different technologies," says Hillard. "Those projects are still ongoing and he will have that legacy." The Footprint Trust and fellow island charity Natural Enterprise put forward some suggestions to the council, but they would need funding. Harrington-Vail says any attempt to revive the concept must involve "people who are actually delivering things," not "another bunch of concept people and marketing people". If community energy is to fulfil all the hopes placed in it, Green's story shows that good intentions and personality will not be enough. It takes charisma to start something new; it takes money, community buy-in and expertise to get results. "The idea of a sustainable community – that is never going to go away," says Luke Green. "Leaving it up to lone people to cham- pion it is possibly a mistake."