A major £70,000 project to introduce more cost-efficient heating at a West Huntspill church has received a huge grant boost.
St Peter and All Hallows Church has been awarded £25,000 from environmental firm Viridor and work is now progressing quickly on the project.
Rev Geoffrey Walsh, pictured, told Burnham-On-Sea.com: “We’ve recently calculated that heating the church for just one service costs £110 a time since it takes upwards of eight hours to take the chill off the air in the church.”
“We therefore began the first stage of our heating project by renewing the boiler and then, last Spring, high up in the apex of the roof, installed three ceiling fans to circulate the warm air that was radiated from the radiators.”
“An engineering firm has been cutting down the old ring mains and removing the old radiators and this week, with the new fan-assisted radiators installed and fully wired, they have been testing the system.”
“The cost of the third stage will be about £70,000 and we are very pleased to have received £25,000 of this from Viridor, with the remainder coming from bequests to the church.”
Rev Walsh added: “We hope that we will be able to hold services in the church by the beginning of February after a big clean up.”
He said a special ‘Church Warming Service’ is scheduled for Sunday 27th February at 3pm followed by a celebratory tea.
As part of the work, the church is also selling a small number of 130-year-old solid oak Victorian pews and cast iron radiators. Those interested, should contact the churchwarden on 01278 786063.
Viridor Credits Environmental Company distributes funding through its Landfill Communities Fund. The funding is available for community and environmental improvement projects within ten miles of an active Viridor management landfill site. Since 1996, Viridor has allocated over £70m to over 1,000 projects across the UK.
