Lib Dem leader calls for “excellence”

But motion to use sustainable energy source did not pass

Paul Ray, leader of the Liberal Democrat group in Lichfield District Council, believes that the Council is missing a big chance with the Stychbrook Leisure Centre, and he introduced a motion to the District Council meeting on 10 December to remedy this situation.

“Like so many Lichfield residents, I am delighted to see work starting on the replacement for the Friary Leisure Centre, a cause for which I and many others campaigned,” he said. However, there has been a change to the original design which he feels is for the worse. He explained, “In the original plans, the idea was to achieve a rating of Excellent in the BREEAM[i] by using air source heat pumps – an all-electric solution that does not involve the use of fossil fuels on-site. However, this was changed to a gas and electric heating system. This goes against the goals set by the Council in its resolution of December 2019 declaring a climate change emergency.”

This change would drop the rating from Excellent (a rating awarded to very few non-residential projects) to Very Good. “Do we not want to pursue excellence?” Ray has asked.

However, when presented to the Council, the motion was defeated, with all seven Lib Dem councillors joined by five Labour councillors voting for the motion, with the other councillors voting against. 

The decision was made chiefly on grounds of the additional expense. A report was commissioned as a response to the planned change, by the Task Group charged with overseeing the project, as a result of the change having been announced without the Task Group having discussed the issue.

The Task Group’s report, which was not actually brought before a meeting of the Group, concluded that replacing the heat pumps with conventional gas boilers would increase the cost by just under £340,000 (under 3% of the total budget). However, against that initial outlay, the same report concluded that the running costs of the centre would be reduced by nearly £70,000 per year if the heat pump solution were to be adopted over the use of gas boilers.

When discussing the extra cost, which was claimed by the Conservatives to be unaffordable, Cllr John Smith (LD) reminded the Council that £1.7 million had been donated to a private company – The Botanist – earlier in the year; a move that the Liberal Democrats did not support at the time, feeling that this money could have been better used for the benefit of residents.

“We had the opportunity to put Lichfield at the forefront of sustainability, and to provide a model for other authorities to follow,” Ray concludes. “For a relatively modest outlay, we could have done this, and I am disappointed that other councillors did not share our views.”

[i] BREEAM = Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method measures various aspects of new projects with regard to sustainability, etc.