Hereford hospital zero-carbon heat plan faces snag

Plans have been revealed to build a large unit to power Hereford’s County Hospital using air-source heat pumps.

The new energy centre would occupy 400 square metres of what is currently car park, according to a newly submitted planning application by Centrica Business Solutions.

It would house six air-source and three water-to-water source heat pumps, providing heating and hot water for the main hospital building and outbuildings.

Wye Valley NHS Trust, which runs the hospital, described the bid as “another significant step forward on its journey towards zero carbon”.
Other buildings at the hospital have already achieved this thanks to another large ground-source heat pump which went live last year, it added.

The trust’s chief strategy and planning officer Alan Dawson said that if approved, contractors on the project would “make every effort to minimise disruption to patients, local residents, hospital visitors and staff” during construction.

Pre-application advice from Herefordshire Council recommended archaeological survey work to determine any impact on the site of the mediaeval, now-lost Priory of St Guthlac, which lies within the hospital grounds.

The council’s archaeological advisor Julian Cotton said this made it “a particularly sensitive location”, adding: “Whilst the buried configuration of the priory buildings is still difficult to be sure of, there is clearly a level of risk here.”

And though previous work at the spot was “unlikely to have removed any but the most superficial remains”, what is now planned “will involve deep and extensive excavations, potentially damaging to important archaeological remains, which might include human remains”, he wrote.

“I view it as essential that the site is subject to full archaeological assessment and evaluation at an early stage,” he urged.

Comments on the planning application, numbered 233045, can be made until November 30.