Developer should be made to rethink heating for new homes in Harrogate - Yorkshire Post Letters

I COULD hardly believe my eyes when I read that the 770 new houses planned by Redrow for Otley Road were to be fitted with gas boilers.

Do they not realise that gas is an environmental pollutant whose days are numbered? Do they not care that all these houses will eventually have to have alternative heating? Do they not care that gas has to be imported and that the cost of extracting, pumping and shipping increase the cost of an already expensive fuel?

On the other hand, I have found the heating in Christ Church Community Centre in Darley perfectly acceptable. It is provided by a ground source heat pump supplying a building which is properly insulated.

Redrow should properly insulate their houses to eliminate heat loss and obtain heat from the ground. This would be non-polluting and not dependent on imported fuel. Maybe Redrow should see Christ Church Community Centre for themselves. Hopefully, that is not too much to ask!

It is the duty of Harrogate Borough Council (and later of North Yorkshire County Council) to ensure that houses in their area are built to comply with Government and UN policy.

This policy was enunciated only a few months ago in the Glasgow Climate Change Conference COP26 which highlighted the urgent need to reduce emissions.

The provision of 770 polluting gas boilers would thus be contrary to Government and UN policy while failure to enforce the conference’s conclusions would be a dereliction of duty by the council.

The council and Redrow should start by publishing statements that they will from today adopt and implement the objectives of COP26.