£1m investment puts Grange Park at forefront of tackling climate change in Blackpool

Around 2,000 trees are also set to be planted at Grange Park, while its community centre will ditch its traditional gas boiler and switch to energy sources including solar power instead.

The £1.1m project focused on Grange Park – which is home to 6,000 people – includes a £660,000 contribution from the European Regional Development Fund.

Its aim is to adopt a whole place based approach to tackling climate change and achieving carbon reduction.

Coun Jane Hugo, Blackpool Council’s cabinet member for climate change, said: “This is a fantastic scheme that has the potential to offer great benefits to the residents of Grange Park and the environment as a whole.

“The Grange Park project is going to tackle carbon reduction from every angle.”

She added: “Carbon reduction cannot be achieved by infrastructure alone.

“The eco-coaching scheme, which will be delivered by Groundworks, will help residents to make changes for themselves, not only to reduce energy consumption and bills but also to help the environment.

“Later on this summer we plan to launch the tree planting initiative which ties in with the council’s overall tree strategy.

“We really want the local community to get involved in this as we aim to plant 2,000 trees on the estate.”

Grange Park is the largest council estate in Blackpool, with around 1,200 homes dating mainly from between the 1940s and 1970s.

The scheme is part of the council’s response to its climate emergency declaration made in June 2019.

The declaration called for the council’s activities to be carbon neutral with 100 per cent clean energy across all services and functions by 2030.

The Grange Park project is made up of five key elements:

* Housing retrofit – Refurbishment of 75 properties on Garstang Road to retrofit measures to improve their energy efficiency.

* Community engagement – Eco-coaches will work with 410 residents on a one-to-one basis in their homes, helping them to understand energy efficiency and how their behaviour can increase and decrease energy consumption. In addition to targeting behaviour change, eco-coaches will provide small scale energy saving measures to homes that can increase the efficiency of energy use.

* Public building improvement works – Installation of a ground source heat pump and roof mounted solar panels at @theGrange community centre. This investment, costing £165,000, will provide low carbon sustainable heat, removing the building’s requirement for gas heating.

* Green infrastructure – Around 2,000 native trees will be planted in open spaces in partnership with residents. There will also be improvements to cycle links as part of new housing development on the estate to encourage active travel .

* New housing – New homes on Grange Park will be fitted with air source heat pumps as well as additional thermal insulation.

The climate change project follows a number of initiatives at Grange Park in recent years to improve the look of the estate and get residents more involved in the community.

This has included developing the @TheGrange community centre which houses library facilities, a volunteer hub, cafe, and a community allotment, as well as hosting a variety of activities and events.

Coun Hugo said: “In 2019 we declared a climate emergency recognising the impact of climate change around the world and that we must take action

in Blackpool.

“Our ambitious target is to make the council’s carbon emissions net zero and use 100 per cent clean energy across our services by 2030.”

She said the £1.1m investment in Grange Park was a key part of that.

She added: “In addition to improving some of our existing properties we will also ensure that the new homes planned for the site are energy smart.”

The work on the existing properties on Garstang Road is already under way., with the overall project expected to run until 2023.

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