BURY Council has cut its energy use by 10 per cent in the last year.

New figures from the annual CRC Energy Efficiency report show that electricity and gas usage in all of the council’s non-domestic buildings, excluding schools, and street lighting produced 12,222 tonnes of carbon dioxide, down by 1,395 tonnes compared to 2014/15.

That cut has led to savings of £142,000 on energy bills and Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) carbon allowance payments.

Cllr Alan Quinn, cabinet member for the environment, said: “Since 2008/09 we have reduced our carbon emissions by 19 per cent and have implemented more than 100 projects which are calculated to reduce our emissions by 3,500 tonnes per year.

"These include cavity wall insulation, new boilers, energy management systems, energy efficient lighting, solar electricity generation and voltage optimisation.

"We are running an awareness raising campaign, The Carbon Cost Challenge, and we have a network of 50 ‘green champions’ across our workforce who help to spread the word."

He added: “We are planning a major energy efficiency retrofit of five of our main buildings, and we have commissioned a study to look at the feasibility of a heat network to supply heat and electricity to town centre buildings.

“Since 2012 we have installed 5,800 LED streetlights and have a target to install a further 3,700 before the end of 2017/18. We are also working with Greater Manchester colleagues to set up an energy company to harness locally generated energy, in order to provide fairly priced electricity and gas to our residents and to help tackle fuel poverty.”