Council supports Fuel Poverty Awareness Day

Bridgend County Borough Council has helped mark Fuel Poverty Awareness Day to highlight the support available so that people can afford to live warmer, healthier, happier lives.

The awareness day is organised by the charity National Energy Action, who last week presented the council with an award for their Caerau mine water project which will help to cut fuel bills for up to a thousand homes.

The innovative Caerau project - which has been awarded a £6.5m grant from Welsh Government towards its development - picked up third place in the recent national Energy Impact Awards which are run by National Energy Action together with British Gas.

The current cold snap makes it more timely than ever to raise awareness of fuel poverty, which is a very real issue for many residents in our communities. When energy bills eat up a large proportion of a household’s income, many have to resort to living in cold homes which obviously has a detrimental knock-on effect for their health.

However, there is a lot of excellent work being done locally to tackle this problem, with the exciting Caerau mine water project having the potential to make a really positive impact in the Llynfi Valley.

I would also like to direct people towards Nest, a Welsh Government funded scheme which offers free advice on energy saving and free energy efficiency improvements which many households qualify for. For further details, please visit www.nestwales.org.uk.

Councillor Richard Young, the council’s Cabinet Member for Communities

Maria Wardrobe, Director of Communications and External relations at NEA commented: “Fuel poverty is a serious problem and one that we cannot tackle alone. I am delighted that Bridgend County Borough Council is supporting the campaign and helping to ensure that residents can live warmer, healthier and happier lives.”

The council’s Caerau miner water project will use water that has filled old underground mine workings as a renewable source of energy as it has been naturally heated by the earth to around 20 degrees Celsius.

The council has been investigating how the heat could be extracted using heat pump technology and a network of pipes to warm nearby homes. A feasibility study has recently been completed and the findings will be reported at a public exhibition in the summer. Construction work will begin in 2020 with the first homes being connected to the system in winter 2021.