Historic Calderdale buildings to get eco boost with new heating schemes to suit them in the future

Six historic buildings in Calderdale will be heated in an eco-friendly way in the future, thanks to a £2.8 million grant.
Halifax town hallHalifax town hall
Halifax town hall

Calderdale Council’s Cabinet agreed to use £350,000 of the council’s own money to ensure the project, which will see Victorian buildings from Todmorden to Brighouse kitted out with modern energy-efficient heating methods, can be delivered.

Bankfield Museum at Boothtown, Halifax, Brighouse Library, Todmorden Market Hall, Manor Health jungle experience at Halifax, Spring Hall register office at Halifax and Halifax Town Hall will see existing gas fuel heating systems replaced with electric heat pumps.

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Cabinet member for Climate Change and Resilience, Coun Scott Patient (Lab, Luddenden Foot) said the council’s portion of the money will come from its half share of the £1 million Carbon Neutral Fund recently agreed by the authority to tackle the climate emergency, the other 50 per cent being made available to communities.

The scheme, said Coun Patient, would bring environmental and financial benefits to the council.

“It is a really exciting time, it will give us significant cost savings as well as a move away from fossil fuels.

“This is just one part of the suite of things we need to do as a council,” he said.

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The authority has declared a Climate Emergency and has set a target of the council and the borough becoming carbon neutral by 2038.

The sites identified are all older buildings, with ageing heating systems which are expensive to run.

Cabinet heard replacing the systems with the new technology would cut the carbon footprint of these buildings by 82 per cent.

The Victorian buildings are of traditional heavy construction featuring substantial stone and brick exterior and interior walls.

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The heavy construction results in the buildings having substantial thermal mass which naturally suits heating systems that operate for longer periods at lower peak temperatures to maintain a steady building temperature, councillors were told.

In financial terms the new installments are expected to require less energy to deliver the same level of heat and protect the council from anticipated gas price rises.

The construction programme should be delivered by the end of September this year.