Council reduces carbon footprint

WARRINGTON town hall has been playing its part in reducing the council’s energy bills as part of a five year plan.
In 2010, the council produced their carbon management plan which set a 40 per cent emissions reduction target over five years.
The lighting in the town hall has recently been upgraded in line with this plan. All the incandescent bulbs have been replaced with more efficient halogen bulbs, including the chandeliers in the main council chamber. Spot lighting has also been replaced with LEDs.
The council is committed to reducing the carbon footprint and lowering the cost of its energy bills and this one of a number of projects across Warrington, including a schools programme and the street lighting investment announced earlier this year, to make this happen. The project is expected to save three tonnes of carbon and £510 per year.
Cllr Linda Dirir, executive member for highways, transportation and climate change, said: “We have been really impressed with the lighting upgrade at the Town Hall, the new bulbs still look good and lighting levels haven’t been compromised. Reducing our energy usage is an important part of the council’s agenda especially with the increasing cost of electricity and gas.”
Meanwhile, the council has further pledged its commitment to tackling climate change when Cllr Terry O’Neill, leader of the council, signed the local climate strategy.
Cllr Terry O’Neill, leader of the council, said: “We want to inspire, drive and support the community of Warrington in their actions to address climate change. Our climate local strategy outlines our intentions for our own estate, the emissions of our borough and how we will look to adapt to climate change.
“Above all we want to communicate and share with our community what we are doing, working in partnership to achieve real change.”
Climate local offers a framework that will reflect local priorities and opportunities for action. It supports the council’s efforts to reduce carbon emissions and to improve their resilience to the anticipated changes in the climate.
Warrington’s climate local strategy can be found on the council website here

Geoff Settle on 23rd July 2013 10:56 am 10:56 am

Shining the light on Carbon Reduction

Great news further carbon reduction changes have been delivered recently at Fearnhead Cross shopping quarter in my ward of Poulton North. The old car park lights that produced poor quality of light and were often failing have been replaced by brand new, efficient and much taller street lanterns with a lower carbon footprint have been installed.

The lights are the third item to be delivered from the action plan agreed last year with the Councils Property & Estate Management Officers. To date the metal framework in front of the shops that supports the glass canopy has been repainted and the glass cleaned and repaired. Other items in the plan include new covered waste bins, cleaning of the brick walkway and re-activation of the police camera at the car park entrance.

Another example of carbon reduction in Poulton North took place last summer at Brook Acre Primary School. The school had to expand classroom size to cater for a large pupil intake. There was no room in any of the other local primary schools. The school was faced with accommodating another 35 children at very short notice. The new cohort would be passing through the school over the next few years so every classroom had to be changed to accommodate them.

The work required innovative thinking from the head teacher. She came up with the idea of removing the 35 year old bulky inefficient radiators and dividing walls to release space. As Chair of the Site and Building’s committee I saw it as a great opportunity to promote the cause in my own ward and then pass on the lessons learnt if we were successful.

The transformation has been amazing and we just need to gather the evidence via out energy bills to see if we have achieved the changes hoped for.

As Warrington’s Climate Change Champion I am very pleased to see these and other changes being delivered in my ward and in fact throughout Warrington. The new street lights for example on Cinnamon Lane are part of the Labour Party’s promise to replace every street light in Warrington under the ‘Invest to Save’ scheme. Individually for each lantern the saving might seem small but collectively they are helping to reduce our carbon footprint by a large amount as well as helping to drive down the school’s energy bill into the bargain.

If you have any ideas along these lines that will help reduce the Town’s carbon footprint or you need help and assistance implementing them then please let me know and I will raise them at the next Climate Change Board meeting. You can contact me via my email address [email protected] of my Facebook site Councillor Geoff Settle.

5 Comments

Geoff Settle on 23rd July 2013 10:56 am 10:56 am

Shining the light on Carbon Reduction

Great news further carbon reduction changes have been delivered recently at Fearnhead Cross shopping quarter in my ward of Poulton North. The old car park lights that produced poor quality of light and were often failing have been replaced by brand new, efficient and much taller street lanterns with a lower carbon footprint have been installed.

The lights are the third item to be delivered from the action plan agreed last year with the Councils Property & Estate Management Officers. To date the metal framework in front of the shops that supports the glass canopy has been repainted and the glass cleaned and repaired. Other items in the plan include new covered waste bins, cleaning of the brick walkway and re-activation of the police camera at the car park entrance.

Another example of carbon reduction in Poulton North took place last summer at Brook Acre Primary School. The school had to expand classroom size to cater for a large pupil intake. There was no room in any of the other local primary schools. The school was faced with accommodating another 35 children at very short notice. The new cohort would be passing through the school over the next few years so every classroom had to be changed to accommodate them.

The work required innovative thinking from the head teacher. She came up with the idea of removing the 35 year old bulky inefficient radiators and dividing walls to release space. As Chair of the Site and Building’s committee I saw it as a great opportunity to promote the cause in my own ward and then pass on the lessons learnt if we were successful.

The transformation has been amazing and we just need to gather the evidence via out energy bills to see if we have achieved the changes hoped for.

As Warrington’s Climate Change Champion I am very pleased to see these and other changes being delivered in my ward and in fact throughout Warrington. The new street lights for example on Cinnamon Lane are part of the Labour Party’s promise to replace every street light in Warrington under the ‘Invest to Save’ scheme. Individually for each lantern the saving might seem small but collectively they are helping to reduce our carbon footprint by a large amount as well as helping to drive down the school’s energy bill into the bargain.

If you have any ideas along these lines that will help reduce the Town’s carbon footprint or you need help and assistance implementing them then please let me know and I will raise them at the next Climate Change Board meeting. You can contact me via my email address [email protected] of my Facebook site Councillor Geoff Settle.

Geoff Settle on 23rd July 2013 12:33 pm 12:33 pm

I see I’ve done the old trick of typing in my email address as a company it’s not it’s government and should read [email protected]

Nick Tessla on 23rd July 2013 12:33 pm 12:33 pm

Is the rather pathetic saving of £510 per year take into account the outlay for the new lighting?

Vote UKIP on 23rd July 2013 6:57 pm 6:57 pm

Nick… this is a year on year saving and using the likes of LED lighting means they will outlast standard spot lighting my many times. I would consider myself the worlds most un-environmentally friendly person but I recently changed all my 35w and 50w spot light bulbs at home for 3 & 4w dimmable units which are now available in the warm light style of a standard halogen bulb rather than the bright white Chavvy ones you see on the front of a Audi A4….. yes there was an initial outlay but in my kitchen for example the 22 50w bulbs have been replaced with 22 4w bulbs so in effect saving the cost of running 17 additional bulbs every time we switch on the kitchen lights!!…. There are a few circuits but it has got to be worth a good saving year on year going from 1100w to 88w in total!

Geoff Settle on 24th July 2013 7:57 am 7:57 am

Yes small acorns/changes grew into bigger savings 🙂