Council assess energy consumption in their buildings

The council has committed to becoming carbon neutral by 2030 and are making alterations to buildings as part of their pledge.

As part of the council’s Carbon Neutral plan they have assigned £4million from their budget to combat climate change.

Councillor Carolyn Healy, cabinet member for climate action, says that the council is currently assessing buildings to identify where further work can be done.

“We’ve been doing a piece of work looking at the energy consumptions in our buildings to understand where the greatest energy usage is, so where the opportunity for most savings are,” said Councillor Healey.

“We’ve put £4million into a budget for climate change. We’ve used that on a wide range of things, from community grants to building projects in our own estate.

“We’ve also applied for additional funding and taken advantage of when the government does release funding for this sort of scheme. We then use our budget as the match (funding) to draw down more so we can then do more with what we’ve got.

“We’ve been quite successful in bringing in that external funding.”

Oakengates Leisure Centre is the latest of the council’s buildings which will have energy saving and essential maintenance work as part of a £2.1million project starting later this month.

Energy efficiency work has also taken place at Telford Ice Rink and Wellington Leisure Centre.

An air sourced heat pump has been installed at Newport Swimming Pool and the thermal fabric of the building has also been improved.

“We’ve already done quite a lot of work on our buildings,” added Councillor Healy. “At Newport the work has reduced our gas usage by 41 per cent.

“We’ve already done quite a few of these things. Whenever anything needs an upgrade or routine maintenance we’re then looking at what’s the next thing that we can do.”

Councillor Healy highlighted the Abraham Darby Leisure Centre and Telford Ski Centre for future improvement works.

She said that it is ‘win-win’ for the council to carry out improvements and save money in energy bills.

“We’re looking at places like Abraham Darby Leisure Centre where there is perhaps more we can do and also the ski slope,” added Councillor Healy.

“It’s a win-win because we’re cutting our carbon usage down and therefore not pumping as much carbon into the atmosphere.

“It’s also financially sensible because it saves us money, particularly at a moment when energy bills are high. It’s just cheaper to use renewables. It makes sense to make those financial savings as well as well as the carbon savings, we can then use that resource elsewhere.

“There is more to come. We’re just trying to reduce every bit of our energy consumption and convert to renewable as much as we can.

“The builds aren’t ancient because the new town is 50 to 60 years old which is the length of time some of these buildings have been around.

“There are upgrade works which need to happen and we’re trying to do that in the most sustainable way.”