The latest green initiative by Cheshire Constabulary will not only
reduce its carbon footprint, but will save on energy costs leading
to a reduction in carbon emissions.
Two of the county's police stations are to be fitted with the
latest green technology, which has been funded and supported by the
North West Improvement and Efficiency Partnership.
Nantwich and Middlewich police stations have been chosen to become
the first in Cheshire to be made as eco-friendly as possible.
It is hoped that the introduction of solar technology to provide
hot water and electricity, along with improved electrical
connections and insulation, will lead to energy efficient buildings
reducing costs. It is also anticipated that the Constabulary will
benefit financially via the Feed In Tarrifs and the Renewable Heat
Incentives, payments which are in addition to savings on the
bills.
The Constabulary's Environment Officer Karen Wickstead said:
"For a while now, the Carbon Management Team have been trying
to secure funding from different sources. We had suggested we would
like to create an eco friendly police station, but this was not
specific or original enough to fit the criteria for funding.
However, our plan for these two police stations is to make them
self sustainable through renewable energy which we believe has not
been done before.
"We know that in other Forces they have introduced solar
panels to the roofs of their buildings, but no one that we know of
has ever looked at one building and implemented a number of
projects at the same time."
The team looked at 40 buildings across the Force before deciding
that Nantwich and Middlewich would be the most viable to convert.
"There are issues with the amount of sunlight, the pitch of
the roof and whether there are any trees or buildings nearby which
cast a shadow. We also needed the buildings to be small enough to
finance - bigger buildings would cost more and might not be
financially viable. And we had to consider the future of the
buildings - the Constabulary will be selling off some of its assets
in the next few years, and we did not want the work to be done on
something we would not be able to get the benefit from."
One of the key conditions of the grant funding from the North West
IEP is that the Constabulary shares any information and learning
that it gains through the project with other public sector bodies,
such as Local Authorities, Health and Fire Services. This means
that others following in the Constabulary's footsteps can save
time (and money) when developing similar projects of their own, and
get a better understanding of the practical challenges they might
face and how to overcome them.
The meeting to discuss the implementation of the technology took
place in early February and work is expected to take up to two
months, with minimal disruption to police buildings expected.
