Planning permission sought to install 120 solar panels on Grade II listed centre in Hebden Bridge
Reducing grid-dependent bills by installing solar panels at a well-used building in the Pennines is “economically essential” if using a ground source heat pump is to continue, argues its owners.
Pennine Heritage Ltd has applied to Calderdale Council seeking planning permission to install 120 solar panels on the Grade II listed Birchcliffe Centre, at Birchcliffe Road, Hebden Bridge, and the adjoining hostel.
Supporting statements with the application say the Birchcliffe Centre is home to approximately 15 small local businesses and a hostel whose rents provide income for Pennine Heritage Ltd, a registered charity, to maintain the building, provide office accommodation at a reasonable cost for the businesses, encourage local enterprise and the economy and to achieve the charitable aims of Pennine Heritage.
It also hosts a range of events and meetings, and the Birchcliffe Centre is also home to partners Hebden Bridge Local History Society and its library, and the centre also houses a digital archive of local collections totalling around 50,000 images – around 30,000 of which are also available online – including the famous Alice Longstaff Collection.
This includes work with University of Huddersfield, according to the application.
The auditorium, mezzanine and studio space are all available for hire and the centre’s hall is used extensively for a full range of community events including weddings, funerals, conferences, choral events and local groups meetings, all at an affordable rate, say the supporting statements.
The centre has a ground source heat pump (GSHP), helping reduce its carbon footprint, but, say the supporting statements, reducing the size of its power bills is “economically essential.”
“The very high electricity cost of operating the GSHP has, since the recent massive price increase in electricity, meant that Pennine Heritage, if we don’t reduce our present level of dependence on the grid, we will not be able to retain this use at the Birchcliffe Centre.
“It is economically essential that we reduce our electricity consumption,” the applicant argues.
The full application – number25/00086/FUL – and supporting statements and other comments can be read online at the council’s Planning Portal.
Seventy two of the panels would be on the main building, according to the application.