Garway Community Centre, Herefordshire

For many years Garway has had a well-loved village hall, used year-round for community events. It was built in the 1930’s and demands on its facilities led a forward thinking village hall committee to plan for the future. A new Passivhaus standard building, designed by architects Simmonds Mills, is the first community centre of this kind in Herefordshire. Passivhaus is based on proven robust, high performance, low environmental impact construction methods, lighting, heating and ventilation systems and materials. The objective is to construct a comfortable building with minimal running costs.

Solarkinetics was approached at the start of the project to design a solar pv plan for the roof which was delivered in two stages, with the roof panels fitted in October 2017, then internal electrical works and commissioning in the Spring of 2018. Because the building was built using grants from public funding it is not eligible for the feed-in tariff.  Even so, the hall should save over £1,000 every year on electricity running costs.

The new building was built with assistance from the Big Lottery Fund, the Trusthouse Charitable Foundation, the Post Code Lottery and Awards for All. We were delighted to attend the official opening on April 7th 2018 when the ribbon was cut by the High Sheriff of Herefordshire, The Reverend Lady Lisvane. On a grey, chilly day the assembled folk enjoyed tea, cake and local cider and beers in a beautiful light and airy space, one which will serve their community for many years to come, without costing the earth to run.