Published: Friday, 16th July 2021
The next step in making borough council-owned buildings greener is taking place, thanks to decarbonisation grants worth more than £3.8M from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
From 19 July work will begin to install boreholes in the Alive Downham Leisure car park. Cllr Paul Kunes, Cabinet member for Environment at the Borough Council of King’s Lynn & West Norfolk, said: “These boreholes are part of a ground source heat pump installation, this will provide net zero carbon heating to the Alive Downham Leisure building as council premises are supplied by a renewable electricity tariff. This work is important for making council buildings more sustainable and decarbonising them.”
The drilling work will be completed in two stages. The first stage, starting week beginning 19th July, should take no longer than 3 weeks and is planned to take place during working hours. The rig will then return before the end of August to complete the work.
Cllr Kunes added: “Ultimately, switching to a renewable heating system allows for a reduction in the council's carbon footprint. This is really exciting news and means a very big step forward in the council's aim to become carbon neutral as soon as possible.”
Letters have been sent to residents and signage put in the centre to assure people that the contractor will try to minimise any disruption.
The project will also start the process of installing heat pumps at other sites including Alive Lynnsport, South Lynn Community Centre, and Alive Oasis in Hunstanton soon.
The scheme is part of the council’s ongoing Re:Fit programme, as it seeks to remove carbon from its existing stock of buildings. The borough council will be working with our Re:Fit partners, Ameresco, to deliver the 100% grant funded project.
Two grants have been awarded by the Department of Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and are from the Government’s £1 billion Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme (PSDS) fund.