Newark Town Council to submit planning application for solar panel installation on buildings on Riverside Park and at Sherwood Avenue Bowls Club

Plans for installation of solar panels in buildings across town to be submitted by a council.

Newark Town Council, which declared a climate emergency in 2019 is pursuing a range of projects designed to help reduce carbon emissions from buildings that it owns and manages.

The council’s climate change working group agreed to pursue the installations of solar panels on buildings at Riverside Park and at Sherwood Avenue Bowls Club.

A planning application will shortly be submitted to Newark and Sherwood District Council for the proposed works.

Working towards a greener town, the council has invested in replacing the Town Hall’s ageing central heating boilers with new more efficient ones, which will be installed in the coming months.

Town centre floral planting schemes under the control of the Town Council are set to see a move this year to the use of peat free compost and a more sustainable planting scheme involving perennials and other plants that provide year-round interest as an alternative to annual bedding plants.

These initiatives will be paid for by funds from the Community Infrastructure Levy which is received from property developers who are required to pay it as a condition of planning permission.

Councillor Dawn Campbell, chairman of the Council’s Climate Change Working Group said “I have had a long-term interest in protecting the environment and am really pleased to be part of the efforts by the Council to play its part in mitigating climate change.

“However, the scale of the problem is significant and requires focused efforts from all of us.”

The Council said to recognise that in isolation the impact of these efforts will be small but hopes, by setting an example to keep climate change issues in the public eye, will encourage others to take small but important steps to combat the increasingly apparent negative impact of greenhouse gas emissions.

It is also investigating the possibility of preparing a Green Neighbourhood Plan for the town, which is is a locally developed, enforceable, planning policy document that must be voted for by a public referendum.

Approval by the District Council and central government would enable the Town Council to draw additional funds from the Community Infrastructure Levy for future environmental projects.