SOLAR panels have been fitted to the roof of a North East community centre as it strives to cut energy bills and continue providing popular services to the public.

Heaton Community Centre in Heaton, Newcastle, is more than 100 years old and has annual gas and electricity bills of over £12,000.

The committee at the centre got together with local councillors to come up with a plan to secure its future and make it more sustainable.

Panels to run a solar water heating system have been fitted along with a new boiler. The new technology will run alongside the centre’s existing system and cut future running costs. The solar panels will also reduce the centre’s CO² emissions.

Centre manager Sue Newton said: “This being a building that’s over 100 years old, it is an expensive place to heat.

“Our energy costs were in excess of £12,000 per year and if the full cost was passed onto us we wouldn’t have been able to afford it. We had to find a way to bring down the costs.”

South Heaton councillor Henri Murison said: “I am committed to making Heaton greener, which is why we worked to establish the first ward-based campaign to cut our impact on climate change, introducing free home insulation with Warmzone. I hope Heaton Community Centre will serve as an example to local people of how they to can save money and help the environment using technologies like solar water heating, and photovoltaics which for those with south-facing roofs can generate a good financial return using the feed-in tariff subsidy introduced by the previous government.”

The community centre’s main focus is children but there are also services for the elderly. It hosts baby socials for new mothers with the help of NHS health visitors and also offers creche services.

Elderly people use the centre on Trewhitt Road for lunch clubs while bingo and bridge events are also popular.

Sue, who volunteered at the centre for 25 years before taking the position of manager, said staff and those who give their time have been keen on going greener for some time.

“The committee here has always been interested in finding ways of being more energy efficient. We have to come up with ways to keep the centre open and keep it viable,” she said.

“We looked at things like wind turbines but the solar panels were easier for the city council. I see this as a starting point. I would like to see us have more solar panels in the future and bring in more measures to help us be energy efficient.”

“We have got to make every effort to keep the centre going to keep empowering local people to run it.”

Coun Murison added: “The building is a credit to Sue Newton and the volunteers of the centre. The fact that we can reduce the area’s CO² emissions while helping secure the centre’s long term future by reducing their bills is a positive example of how improving local services and reducing all our impacts on the environment can go hand in hand.”