Belfry to install EcoPod at Barton Village scheme

Salford-based City West Housing Trust has appointed Warrington-based building and maintenance company Belfry Group to install a cascade boiler system at a development in Eccles.

Belfry's EcoPod system will be installed at City West Housing Trust's £14.3m Barton Village development.

The heating system was designed by Belfry's managing director Keith Rimmer with an aim at improving fuel poverty in high-rise tower blocks.

City West Housing Trust claims the system reduces fuel costs and carbon emissions by more than 40%.

Colette McKune, director of asset management at City West Housing Trust, said: "Barton Village is a flagship regeneration project and we have been looking for innovative solutions in a number of different areas, not least on the heating side.

"In the past we have had fuel poverty issues in our blocks so we knew we had to develop a renewable strategy that was going to provide a solution for our tenants.

"This solution from Belfry enables us to heat properties at a cost that tenants can more readily afford so we are addressing the fuel poverty issue head on.

"Crucially, it also alerts us automatically when vulnerable residents are not using heating and hot water, which is a great early warning mechanism, particularly in the winter months when outside temperatures plummet.

"This will help us educate tenants on energy efficiency and significantly reduce their fuel bills."

The Barton Village scheme in Eccles is expected to be completed in 2015. Contractor Bullock Construction has already started on site with the transformation of four high rise blocks into 236 homes.

Elsewhere in the North West, Ashton-under-Lyne-based New Charter Housing Trust was one of the first organisations to use the EcoPod system for its 16-storey Chartist House apartment building in Hyde, Greater Manchester.