MORE than £2.3m is to be spent on replacing five end-of-life legacy gas boilers serving the Town Hall and Walton Hall with greener, ground source heat pump technology.
Of the £2,320.377, the borough council will pay £1,422,879, with the rest of the funding coming from the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme.
It is part of the council’s commitment to address the climate emergency. One of the most challenging aspects for any council trying to reduce its emissions is how to shift from conventional fossil fuel heating in buildings to greener methods.
The Town Hall and Walton Hall buildings are in the top ten carbon emitters in the council’s estate, so this is a significant step towards cutting the council’s climate pollution. The new heat pumps will extract heat from underground and use it to warm the buildings. This renewable, low-carbon technology forms part of our plans to move away from burning gas, which produces climate-damaging pollution. The works on both sites are expected to be complete in 2024.
The council has previously installed ground source heat pumps at some of its specialist housing units, and more recently, the council’s housing company, Incrementum Housing, have constructed 162 new low-carbon homes that also utilise heat pump technology.
Cllr Janet Henshaw, cabinet member for sustainability and climate change, said: “We have seen in the news in recent week’s extreme heat across Europe and beyond, due to climate change caused by human activity. It’s so important that we work together to do what we can to reduce our carbon emissions.
“With this in mind, the replacement of these five gas boilers is an important step towards meeting our ambition to be a net-zero organisation by 2030.
“Replacing these traditional heating systems with low carbon heat pumps will help to ensure the Town Hall and Walton Hall have lower emissions and running costs than previously.”
The council would have had to pay for the cost of replacement boilers for both sites if the bid for funding hadn’t been successful.
For more information about the Climate Emergency and what is being done in Warrington, visit warrington.gov.uk/climate-emergency
Town Hall and West Annexe
Total cost: £1,162,331
SALIX PSDS: £554,280
Council contribution: £608,051Walton Hall
Total cost: £1,158,046
SALIX PSDS: £343,218
Council contribution: £814,828
