Gloucestershire firm wins high-profile contract with local authority
A Gloucestershire business has landed a £5m contract to fit renewable heating systems in three of Stroud District Council’s largest public buildings.
Stonehouse-based Cotswold Energy Group successfully bid for the contract to replace ageing gas boilers with air source heat pumps at Stratford Park Leisure Centre, The Museum in the Park, and The Pulse leisure centre in Dursley.
The work will save an estimated 704 tonnes of carbon emissions every year and is a key aim in Stroud District Council’s 2030 Strategy to make the district carbon neutral by 2030.
The cutting-edge technology will use recycled heat from the swimming pools and changing rooms at Stratford Park and The Pulse as a heat source.
Additional solar panels will be installed on all three buildings which will save thousands of pounds each year in running costs.
Beki Aldam, chair of the community services and licensing committee said: “I am delighted to welcome Cotswold Energy Group to this ambitious project.
“This scheme achieves a number of objectives in our Council Plan and 2030 Strategy: to be a carbon neutral and ecologically sound district by 2030, and invest in our leisure provision to make it fit for the future.”
Jon Bonnar, managing director of Cotswold Energy Group said: “Cotswold Energy Group has a strong heritage of decarbonising the Stroud district and we’re delighted to be awarded this landmark project.
“It means more green jobs created in Stroud whilst providing a much-needed transition away from fossil fuels to modern, renewable infrastructure in these important buildings.”
It will be the second green energy project Cotswold Energy Group has worked on for SDC, having installed water source heat pumps at the council’s headquarters at Ebley Mill, and Brimscombe Port Mill in 2022.
The work is due to start in July 2023 and finish in February next year.
Most of the work will have no impact on the day to day running of the buildings. Any unavoidable closures will be kept to a minimum, and quieter times aimed for.
The work is funded by £4.7m grant from the government’s Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme, to which the council added £700,000 (12 per cent) of its own funds as a condition of the funding.
