A HEREFORDSHIRE town is to have a solar powered toilet block after funding for the project was secured.

The toilet block in Red Meadow car park, Ross-on-Wye, will have solar photovoltaic (PV) panels and battery installed which will allow for the electricity generated to be stored.

OTHER NEWS:

Ross-on-Wye Town Council, who own the building, have pledged funding of part of their 'green technologies to provide and use cleaner, greener and more sustainable power'.

As part of the European Structural and Investment Growth Programme 2014-2020, a successful bid through the Marches Renewable Energy Scheme to the England European Regional Development Fund resulted in an offer of 50 per cent match funding for the project costing £9,000.

A statement from Ross-on-Wye Town Council said: "This is particularly helpful in providing additional power, as the load increases dramatically when an electric car is on charge at the building’s electric vehicle charging point.

"Unlike domestic PV, the toilet block has the advantage that the main energy usage is in the daytime when the panels will be most productive.

"The system also comes with monitoring equipment which allows for the performance of the panels to be tracked and also to see the carbon savings achieved."

Ross-on-Wye Town Council has the ambition to make all the council’s activities net-zero carbon by 2023.

Councillor Jane Roberts said: “As a town council we are committed to adopting greener and more sustainable technologies wherever possible and we are really pleased that this project is now underway.

"It is the first public building in Ross-on-Wye to use solar panels and we hope this contributes significantly towards reducing our carbon footprint.”