Northumberland school 'not going anywhere' after pledge to cut heating costs
Council bosses say that a coastal school in Northumberland is “not going anywhere” after signing off on investment to help cut its energy costs.
Northumberland County Council agreed almost £500,000 worth of funding to improve the heating system at Seahouses Primary School.
Tory councillor Guy Renner-Thompson, the council’s cabinet member for children and young people, told colleagues that the school’s heating problems had been an on-going concern among the community.
He added: “This is the council showing a huge commitment to that school – it is not going anywhere. It is a fantastic school, one that we are proud to invest in for the future.”
At a cabinet meeting, the local authority agreed to spend £485,000 on improvements to the heating system shared by the school and Busy Bees Nursery.
The Ground Source Heat Pump (GSHP) system is currently out of action, due to what the council called a “metering issue causing high electricity costs”, and has been replaced temporarily by an oil heating system – at an on-going cost of £744 per week.
A council report said that failing to invest in the school would leave it “exposed to high annual running costs, volatile energy prices, increasing maintenance costs for existing plant and no ability to reduce the heating demand of the site”.
Bosses say that the school and the nursery need to be put on separate heating systems, as having them share means that it must be left running 52 weeks of the year to serve the nursery’s requirements and leaves the school paying for unnecessary energy costs during the holidays.
The planned works will include replacing roof insulation, installing a separate Air Source Heat Pump system for the nursery, increasing the capacity of the GSHP system and insulating pipework.
Council leader Glen Sanderson said: “This is an expensive bit of apparatus but it does fit the bill very much for our environmental priorities, as well ensuring that small local schools like that one are kept alive and thriving.”
A report added: “This option also involves supplementing the operation of the current GSHP system supplying the school with a high temperature heat pump that will cover the peak heat demand in cold periods and avoid the need for additional plug-in heaters or supplementary oil heating.”