THE HEAT has been turned down under plans for a wood fired heating system for the Taro Leisure Centre and the Penns Place council offices in Petersfield.
Based in Penns Place, East Hampshire District Council (EHDC) is looking at installing a wood fired heating boiler next to the sport center, to heat the Taro and council offices.
Fuel for the boiler was to come from a council wood chip hub in Bordon, but funding the specialist facility is proving hard.
As well as supplying wood fuel to the council, it was proposed the hub would also sell it to private and commercial buyers.
EHDC’s environmental spokesman Cllr Adam Carew said: “Plans to install a wood-fired heating system at Penns Place are progressing.
“Sadly we find that we are not in a position to benefit from Local Enterprise Partnership funding at this stage. Even if we formally partnered with the green energy companies we have been talking with, they would not qualify either.”
The council is now lobbying the government for a change to this “irritating” rule.
In turn this stumbling block could affect the viability of the Taro Centre project, but council officers are working to ensure it goes ahead.
Cllr Carew said: “The Taro scheme is also associated with our plans to find a partner to run leisure and sports centres in the district.
“Our lead officer on the wood fuel boiler project is now working to ensure the bidders shortlisted to run the leisure centers (including the Taro) are able to understand the council’s ambitions with regards to wood fuel.”