Issue - decisions

Date of Decision:

02/04/2024

Title:

Council Building Decarbonisation – Change to Solar PV arrangements at Civic Theatre, Clifton Park Museum and Riverside House

Decision Maker:

(Including Job Title)

Rob Mahon, Assistant Director Finance and Customer Services

Details of Specific Cabinet Delegation

or Delegation contained in the relevant Sub-Scheme of Delegation.

At its meeting on the 18^th September, the Council approved a scheme to decarbonise five council buildings including Civic Theatre, the Clifton Park Museum and Riverside House. All three of these schemes included solar pv works. The following recommendation was approved.

1.    Approves the programme of works to design and fit the LED and Solar PV works to the five Council buildings listed in Section 2.5 of this report to be delivered through a procurement process.

The PV works to Riverside House will still take place but 2 of the buildings are now found to be unsuitable for Solar PV, as such the decision is to  allocate budget for PV’s at these two buildings for greater PV work at Riverside House.

Decision:

Enhance the Solar PV provision to capacity at Riverside House using funds originally intended for Clifton Park Museum and Civic Theatre. All other planned works including interventions such as LED Lighting, insulation and enabling works to allow for connection to a heat network will continue as proposed as part of the above Cabinet decision.

Reasons for the Decision:

Original plans were based on initial surveys of all sites, however, secondary, more detailed technical surveys indicated that due to the shape of the roof at both Clifton Park Museum and the Civic Theatre, shading would make return on investment unfavourable. These buildings are also listed and are subject to planning constraints.

Details of alternative options considered and rejected:

No alternative options were considered feasible due to the technical difficulties presented above and restrictions as a result of the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme on how the awarded grant funding could be spent.

The Council funding approved for the delivery of this work, is specifically for decarbonisation of buildings as such the approved funding is still be utilised for its designated purpose.

Conflicts of interest declared by any Cabinet Member consulted by the decision maker which relates to the decision:

No conflicts of interest declared.

Dispensations Granted:

(If any)

N/A

Reports or parts of reports considered

Solar PV Officer Decision Report considered by Assistant Director Financial Services.