An open letter to RDC

Dear Councillor Osborne,

I write to you as my district councillor, as well as the chair of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee at Rother District Council.

Ahead of the additional meeting on Monday next week in relation to the temporary closure of Rye Swimming Pool, I wish to express my regret that at the time of construction of the pool, I believe in 2004, no solar panels were fitted to the Sports Centre.

As part of RX Energy in 2008, a number of Rye area residents were looking at several options for community owned renewable energy generation in and around Rye, this included for the new pool and adjacent buildings, currently run by Freedom Leisure. We concluded that there is potential for the installation of panels to achieve up to 142.25 kW (see image attached). Based on generic UK projections, this would have had the potential to produce 128,000 kWh/year, although given the optimal orientation of the roofs, combined with the location within one of the sunniest parts of the UK, this figure could easily be increased by 40%, but this is not factored into my calculations.

At current electricity costs of say 34p/kWh, the yearly income from the panels would have been £43,500/year, or £783,000 over 18 years. The capital expenditure at current rates, based on a domestic installation of 5kW amounting to £8,000, would have cost £225,000. I would imagine that with economy of scale, this figure would be a lot less. The purpose of this exercise is merely to provide an order of magnitude.

These figures suggest that the Council could have saved in the order of half a million pounds, had only solar panels been fitted at the time of construction, no doubt enough to have made the closure of the pool unnecessary even with the considerable price increases in energy over the last year.

Swimming pools are ideal thermal stores, so a combination of solar thermal panels in conjunction with solar photovoltaic panels would have made even greater savings, I feel. It is a shame that the administration of the Council at the time of the decision was only taking a short term view, when it always makes sense to think of the long term when making important capital expenditures. I and several others had made that point at the time, to no avail.

You and I, we have in common that we understand the built environment, the importance of life-cycle costing, the importance of embodied energy, thermal insulation, renewable energy and minimising running costs, which is particularly important for publicly owned buildings such as Rye Sports Centre.

It is not too late for the Council to engage in discussions with Energise South, to ensure that solar panels are now finally installed, for the benefit of the community as well as the Council, as they should have been almost twenty years ago. I do hope that the Council will find a way to re-open the swimming pool; its importance to Rye and surrounding areas to achieve physical and mental wellbeing, especially in these uncertain and worrying times, cannot be overstated.

We have no option other than reducing our reliance on fossil fuels; this can only be achieved by reducing our collective energy consumption, combined with making the most of our thankfully locally abundant renewable energy. I hope you will agree.

I would be glad to assist in any way I can.

Yours sincerely,

Dominic Manning

Chair, Rother Green Party & resident of Peasmarsh

Image Credits: Supplied by Dominic Manning .