Cheshire East Council secures funding to drive forward carbon neutral ambition

Cheshire East Council has secured significant grant funding to support its ambition to be carbon neutral by 2025.

The funding, totalling almost £2.5 million, has been awarded by the secretary of state for business, energy and industrial strategy through the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme operated by Salix.

The funds will be used by the council to improve the energy efficiency of council buildings, leisure centres and depots all over the borough.

Projects include building insulation, LED lighting upgrades and improved energy controls. The council will also install the first air source heat pump on a council building – an increasingly common technology being rolled out in offices and homes across the country.

There will also be a significant increase in the number of solar panels on council buildings, with enough new electricity generating panels to power the equivalent of around 300 homes.

The projects in total are set to save about 330 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year – the equivalent of travelling a million miles in a standard car – and permanently reducing the council’s annual carbon emissions by around 2 per cent.

Councillor Nick Mannion, cabinet member for environment and regeneration, said: “Our new corporate plan sets out our vision to be an open, fair and green council, and we are committed to taking action to combat climate change.

“We have set an ambitious target of becoming a carbon neutral council by 2025 and supporting the wider borough to reduce their carbon emissions.

“Becoming carbon neutral means that we are serious about addressing the impact council activities have on the natural environment. This includes reviewing our carbon emissions and taking real steps to reduce them.

“I’m delighted that we have been awarded this funding, which will really help us to drive forward our plans to reduce the use of carbon in our buildings throughout the borough.

“Projects that the funding will support range from upgrading heating controls in libraries to the installation of solar panel arrays on leisure centres. Each project will contribute to the council’s carbon reduction target, ensuring we help to protect our beautiful borough.”

You can read more about the council’s carbon neutral by 2025 ambition by visiting the carbon neutral by 2025 pages on the website.