Five Harrogate district schools to benefit from £2 million carbon funding

Five schools and a care home in the Harrogate district are set to benefit from £2 million worth of carbon funding.

North Yorkshire County Council has secured the cash from the government to help meet its target of reaching carbon zero by 2030.

The money will go towards projects at county council buildings across North Yorkshire.

It will see the buildings improved by fitting replacement windows and making them more energy efficient.

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In the Harrogate district, the following schools and care home will benefit:

Cllr Carl Les, leader of the county council, said: 

“Climate change is a real threat to our region and collectively we need to take action to mitigate and reduce the effects.

“Opportunities such as the public sector decarbonisation fund are very welcome to help us to improve our buildings and infrastructure. We want to send a clear message that we are committed to improving our own buildings and reducing carbon from our activities.”

More than 20 schools across the county are expected to benefit, as well as council-run care homes in Pickering.

The funding will also support a study of options for environmental and energy efficiency initiatives at the authority’s office buildings.

This could include initiatives such as electric vehicle charge points, generation of renewable energy on buildings and other carbon-saving measures and building improvements.

It follows similar decarbonisation projects which have been announced by Harrogate Borough Council.

The authority was awarded more than £2.4 million for two projects at the Harrogate Hydro and the Harrogate Convention Centre.

Meanwhile, Harrogate District Hospital was given £14 million by government to reduce its carbon footprint by 25 per cent.

Harrogate council awarded £2.4m to cut carbon emissions

The government has awarded Harrogate Borough Council over £2.4m to cut carbon emissions at the Hydro swimming pool and Harrogate Convention Centre.

The Hydro, which opened in 1999, received £1.8m to replace gas boilers with air source heat pumps, install solar panels on the roof and put in place new energy monitoring and control systems.

A total of £580,000 will be spent on the almost 40-year-old convention centre to convert its lighting to LEDs, install solar panels and heat pumps and introduce variable speed drives to control the fans and pipework insulation.

Air source heat pumps are regarded as an environmentally friendly way to heat buildings. They work by absorbing heat from outside air and pumping it indoors.

The council, which has a goal of being a net-zero carbon economy by 2038, hopes the improvements will cut emissions by 577 tonnes a year at the Hydro and 70 tonnes at the convention centre.

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Kathryn Daly, head of place-shaping and economic growth at the council, said:

“We have ambitious plans to ensure our own operations and buildings will be clean, efficient and have a net zero carbon economy by 2038.

“This government funding provides a significant step to allow us to achieve this.”

The council has awarded a £1.1m contract to Arcadis to design the first phase of a proposed £47 million redevelopment of Harrogate Convention Centre.

Asked how the redevelopment might affect the new funding, a council spokesman said:

“Arcadis are still working on design plans for the proposed development.

“Should the redevelopment be agreed, and subsequent planning applications submitted and approved, these improvements will no doubt complement the plans.”

The council successfully bid for the funding from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy‘s public sector decarbonisation scheme.

The scheme has so far awarded £932 million to 429 projects in England and Wales.

Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust announced in January that it had received £14m from the fund to reduce Harrogate District Hospital’s carbon footprint by 25%.

North Yorkshire County Council also received just under £2m to improve carbon efficiency in its buildings.