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16
Sept
Chain Lane Community Hub in Knaresborough has been awarded a grant to improve the energy efficiency of the building.
The funding has come from central government as part of the VCSE Energy Efficiency Scheme, which helps voluntary, community, and social enterprise (VCSE) organisations improve their energy efficiency.
The community hub has been awarded a total of £76,598.48 to make these improvements.
The funds will be used to install solar panels and a battery to power them, upgraded LED lighting throughout the building, and intelligent heating controls to help save energy when rooms are not in use.
The upgrades will all help to ensure that the community centre is closer to reaching its net zero goal and reduce the hubs energy consumption.
This will mean that the centre can reinvest the money they will be saving on energy bills into giving back to the community.
The centre applied for the grant in July and received notification that they had been awarded the grant at the end of August.
The team at the hub are now in the process of gathering quotes for the work to be carried out and expect the works to be done over the Autumn.
Part of the grant conditions the improvements must be completed by February 2025.
Charlotte McEvoy, community empowerment manager at Chain Lane Community Hub said:
We have always had aspirations to be net zero, for us our energy bills are a significant overhead as a charity and hopefully we can reinvest the money we will be saving back into the hub.
I think we will look at enhancing our green initiatives including our community garden that residents can benefit from.
We are so happy especially that it is government funding that they have put back into Knaresborough and we don’t have to rely on council or charitable funding. Hopefully it sheds light on Knaresborough and encourages other grants for the area.
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