£225,000 oil bill for leisure centre

£225,000 oil bill for leisure centre

3 October 2012

THE Down Leisure Centre in Downpatrick uses a staggering 227,000 litres of heating oil a year, it has been revealed.

New figures detailing Down Council’s total energy bill for its various buildings across the district which are being made public today will reveal that the local authority spends almost £800,000 a year on heat and power.

The three council buildings which top the energy use league table are the Down Leisure Centre, the Newcastle Centre and the local authority’s former Strangford Road administrative base which closed last Friday. Staff who worked there have relocated to a new base at the Downshire Hospital site.

Council officials are keen to reduce the local authority’s energy bill to ease the burden on ratepayers and have appointed an energy and sustainability officer to help achieve this.

At today’s meeting of the local authority’s Building Control and Estates Committee it will be confirmed that the combined cost of powering and heating the Down Leisure Centre in Downpatrick is a whopping £330,686.

The annual energy bill for the council’s former Strangford Road base was £128,280, with £92,000 spent on electricity and just over £36,000 on heating oil.

At the Newcastle Centre — which also includes the resort’s tourist information centre — the yearly running energy costs were £103,830. Just over £68,000 was spent on heating oil, with almost £35,700 on electricity.

The cost of combined heat and power at other council buildings shows an annual spend of £47,499 at the Down County Museum and £30,155 at the Ballymote Centre, both in Downpatrick. The combined power and heating bill for the Ballynahinch Centre is £25,503.

The annual energy costs at the Drumanakelly landfill site near Seaforde and the Down Arts Centre in Downpatrick are £27,000 and £15,832 respectively.

Councillors will be told today that there are 10 council buildings which account for 95 per cent of the local authority’s total energy costs.

A report prepared by energy officer Ciarán Óg Mussen highlights that while the Down Leisure Centre facility has a limited lifespan as it’s to be replaced with a new building, “significant energy savings” can be achieved with the introduction of new technologies.

Main pumps which circulate water in the swimming pool run 24 hours a day at an annual cost of almost £21,000, but Mr. Mussen believes reducing the speed of the pumps overnight will produce savings and wants authority from councillors today to investigate this further.

At the Newcastle Centre, the energy survey revealed electricity costs spike by £4,000 a month during the summer to power water pumps at the outdoor Tropicana swimming pool. Mr. Mussen suggests altering the speed at which the pumps operate could also produce energy savings.

Elsewhere, the council officer suggests fitting LED bulbs at floodlights in Donard Park to reduce the £8,600 cost of powering them annually and reducing usage of immersion heaters at the Kilmore changing pavilion where the annual electricity bill is £6,700.

Mr. Mussen’s report reveals immersion heaters remain on at the pavilion when it is not in use and he believes fitting timing switches will reduce costs. He said there’s a similar situation at the Langley Road changing rooms in Ballynahinch where annual electricity costs are £4,300.

Councillors will also be told today that there is scope to reduce the £3,378 annual electricity bill for a council-owned toilet block in Castlewellan. Mr. Mussen said fans and air heaters have been running constantly, even during summer months. He said from now on, the air heater will only operate during the winter.