£1m home heating scheme go-ahead for off-grid village

Richard Evans, Local Democracy Reporter

An off-grid north Wales village is to get a £1 million home heating scheme.

Denbighshire Council’s cabinet backed plans to proceed with fitting ground-source heat pumps at the village of Betws Gwerfil Goch.

They appoint contractor Kensa and the design stage is set to take around 12-16 weeks. The cabinet heard how the council had engaged with residents as part of a consultation, and 26 homes wanted to sign up to the scheme – with others interested.

If the pilot is successful, the scheme could be rolled out to other remote communities in the county without access to a mains gas supply. Cabinet member for housing and communities Cllr Rhys Thomas said, “I’m really pleased with this project. It is an innovative project for a heating system for homes, using air-source heat pumps.

“This community in Betws Gwerfil Goch has been chosen because it is off-grid. It doesn’t have a gas supply, and people have to depend on other sorts of fuels, which are expensive at times when fuel is costing so much. So I’m really pleased to be putting this scheme forward to you at this time.”

He added: “A great deal of consultation has been carried out in the community.”

Cllr Barry Mellor said, “I think it is an absolutely outstanding project. I think Denbighshire should be shouting from the roofs about this. It shows we are a forward-looking county.”

Cllr Emrys Wynne said, “There is no gas provision (in the village). There are other villages in the same situation, and hopefully, if this is successful, other communities will take advantage and have an opportunity for this kind of scheme. Excellent.”

£1m cost

The cabinet was informed that residents who didn’t join the scheme at the beginning would still have the opportunity to be connected further down the line.

The overall scheme will cost around £1m, and the Welsh Government will provide £670K.

Denbighshire’s housing revenue account will cover around £330K of the cost.