PLANS to provide a heat network to connect three different sites in Penrith have been given the go-ahead – in what the applicant says is the first scheme of its kind in Cumbria.

Members of Eden local area planning committee approved proposals from Omega Proteins to construct a heat network that would connect the applicant’s site, Sewborwens Farm and Newton Rigg Estate.

According to a report prepared for the meeting on Wednesday, the scheme seeks to make best use of latent heat produced by industrial processes at the Omega plant.

The report says: “At present, this surplus of heat is used to warm office and administrative buildings on the Omega site, but a significant amount is currently wasted.

“The proposed district heating system seeks to make best use of this surplus to form the basis of a wider district heating system.”

According to the planning statement submitted by the applicant, the scheme proposed in Penrith will decarbonise heating at Sewborwens Farm and Newton Rigg Estate.

The statement adds the heat network will demonstrate the ‘wider potential’ for a heat network to be established in the town to serve housing, employment and other users.

Planning documents say the heat network is a sealed loop system, with pipes carrying clean hot water around the network and returning it to the heat source where it is recharged and recirculated.

The proposed pipeline would be about 2,100 metres in length, and would run underground.

According to the report, the pipeline would cross Greystoke Road underground and travel northwest through farmland at Sewborwens to reach the farmstead.

Then it will head north west along the Sewborwens access road before turning onto a north-westerly heading towards Newton Road, passing under the road and into the Newton Rigg Estate.

Planning documents say that the proposal will involve the loss of around 20 trees however the report prepared for the committee says the proximity to the road makes it a ‘less suitable habitat’ for wildlife.

The report prepared for the committee adds: “it would not result in any significant loss of habitat or cause fragmentation of the woodland, as agreed by the Councils Ecologist.”

The planning statement submitted by the applicant says: “The construction of heat networks is recognised as a crucial part of how the UK will reach its net-zero targets as one of the most cost-effective ways of decarbonising heating, uniquely able to tap into otherwise inaccessible large-scale renewable and recovered heat sources, including waste heat from industrial installations like Omega.”

Members of Eden local area planning committee approved the proposal on June 12 at Penrith Town Hall.