£120,000 to make schools less dependent on fossil fuels

Herefordshire is to spend up to £120,000 on first steps to making all its schools less dependent on fossil fuels.

The expenditure has just been confirmed by Darryl Freeman, the council’s corporate director for children and young people, as part of plans for the county to become carbon-neutral by 2030.

“Schools play in important part in this journey to become carbon-neutral as they are the biggest contributor to the council’s carbon footprint,” his decision notice said.

The money will go on drawing up “heat decarbonisation plans” for all 101 schools the council maintains in the county, setting out how each will switch to low-carbon energy sources such as heat pumps, and install insulation and other retrofitting measures.

It will also cover the cost of turning some of these plans into design specs, which will form the basis for grant applications or for capital bids to the council, in order to put them into practice.

“This is the beginning of the decarbonisation journey,” the council’s decision says.

“Heat decarbonation plans are essential to inform the next steps of any capital recommendations.”