Plans have been submitted to refurbish the exterior of Wilmslow Fire Station.
The scheme includes replacing the roof coverings, windows and doors. Additionally, feature cladding will be installed along with a rendered panel to the front gable. The boundary fencing will also be replaced.
As part of the Cheshire Fire Authority Modernisation Programme, Wilmslow Fire Station - which opened in 1964 - is due to be refurbished both internally and externally.
The Design & Access Statement states "Sustainability is also a key goal of the modernisation programme and the works to the external fabric will include enhanced insulation to roofs and installation of double glazing. Photovoltaics are also to be installed on the roofs."
The plans can be viewed on the Cheshire East Council planning portal by searching for planning reference 23/2080M.
Comments
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Sounds like there will be improvements to the fabric and structure of the building to deliver energy savings and reduce operating overheads.
In which case, I would like to add the observation that earlier this year, when it was still quite dark at an early hour, I was walking past and the whole fire station was BRIGHTLY lit inside and took an image. I don't know what sort of lighting illuminates the large bay that houses the fire engines but unless they are low wattage LED type lighting, the electricity meter must have been whizzing around rather fast - at great cost to we ratepayers!
So can whoever is responsible for this refurbishment please make sure that ALL lighting inside the station is of the low energy type and the chief officer on duty at any time makes sure that the lights are OFF when not needed - as if they personally were paying the electricity bill?
Good plan to put solar panels on the roof, which will need to be at an angle of about 40-50 degrees for maximum efficiency and also facing south. The present flat roof will be unsuitable. Panels could be installed up the side of the tower which would gather energy for longer, being the part of the station that gets sun early and has it until latest. I might add there are very few roofs in Wilmslow with solar panels (I have them since 2011 by the way). Have a look round Wilmslow on Google maps -
https://www.google.com/maps/@53.325977,-2.2395469,87m/data=!3m1!1e3?entry=ttu
- and see how many very expensive houses don’t have any. Also how many commercial buildings have NONE? Mr ‘Orbit’ Jones and other local builders take note too and tell us why this is so. Where are our planners in all this? Shouldn’t it be a condition of permission to build anything, anywhere in the UK that solar panels MUST be installed? There are some at Wilmslow rugby club, which is not an ideal installation as the building is low-lying and under the shade of some trees. The present police station has a decent installation so these could be relocated to the fire station roof and money saved there. If being declared redundant during the demolition of that building what will happen to those solar panels? They could be relocated elsewhere or if destined for a skip, offered to the public instead - or sold on the likes of eBay? I mean Cheshire East keeps telling us how it is short of funds.
Will our RoW Councillors care to comment on this please?
From the evidence I have seen around town I doubt Mr ‘Orbit’ Jones has such sympathetic environmental considerations regarding solar panels on his buildings but am willing to be proved wrong - over to you Mr Jones.
Cheshire East cannot compel the use of solar panels on new developments because UK planning law does not allow them to. Therefore, the government needs to change the law for this to happen.
Neither can it be put it into the new Local Plan. The Planning Inspectorate says Local Plans must be compliant with UK planning law and removes anything that contravenes it.
Finally, the police station is police property. It has nothing to do with Cheshire East. Therefore, it is up to Cheshire Constabulary to decide what it does with the existing solar panels and they would we get the funds from any resale.
Cllr Mark Goldsmith
Residents of Wilmslow
Wilmslow West & Chorley
Only yesterday I asked to speak to our local Fire Prevention Officer to give feedback about the second generation Smoke Detector, which after 11 years needed replacing. Although I rang the local number it was answered in Crewe. They informed me that an email would be sent to ask them to ring me. The reply only happened the next day.
The comment was made to me that the centralisation of calls was due to the fact that they had had their budget cut. I wouldn't be able to go to my local Fire Station and swap the detector. Their system is to send out a person with a replacement detector. That person would have to come from either Crewe or Warrington and hopefully provide a detector made in the UK, and not China. (We cannot afford to export Sterling for items we can successfully manufacture locally.) This seems a crazy waste of money spent on travel and their time. All they need is a replacement stock in each Fire Station and the resident take in their old detector for a swap, a procedure that takes only a few minutes.
The centralisation of Police and now Fire makes no sense and only serves to keep residents at arm's length. We are humoured by being sent News bulletins that few of us have time to read and are regarded by many as window-dressing.