Church hall refurbishment
A Building Project Team has been responsible for advising the Parish Priest, over the last 3-4 years, on essential refurbishment of the church hall . This project started before we registered as a LiveSimply parish but our group has been in contact with the Project Team requesting that alterations are made with sustainability in mind. They have advised us as follows:
A new roof was erected in 2013 using tiles manufactured to minimise their carbon footprint. However, the major advantage of the roof will be that it offers considerably better insulation than the old one. Unfortunately, no gas consumption comparisons with previous winters will be possible because one meter serves the whole church complex. Solar panels on the new roof would not have been feasible because the building lies in a north-south orientation.
Dyson air blade hand driers were installed in the toilets as a result of lobbying by the LiveSimply Group. The urinals have been fitted with a water saving flush system so they no longer run every five minutes as they have done for 30 years! There are also movement sensing light switches to conserve electricity in the toilets.
Further refurbishment plans are being made for the hall and the LiveSimply Group will continue to request that these are made sympathetically with the environment. There will be a need for rainwater harvesting from next spring for use in the LiveSimply Garden.