22.12.2022

Have your say on District Heating Network expansion

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Southwark Council is seeking planning permission to extend its District Heating Network to another 3,000 homes in Old Kent Road and Peckham.

SELCHP already heats more than 2,500 Bermondsey homes via the District Heating Network and it could heat a further 3,000.

In 2013, Southwark Council connected 2,500 homes in Bermondsey to the SELCHP heat-from-waste facility via a District Heating Network (DHN).

The DHN provides a low-carbon alternative to the gas-fired boilers used to heat most properties in Southwark.

Connecting these homes, ten years ago, has already saved around 70,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions and will continue to help the council in its efforts to tackle the climate emergency and become carbon-neutral by 2030.

Now the council wants to extend the network to a further 3,000 existing homes plus new developments in the Old Kent Road area.

This will save a further 11,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions every year.

In order to do this, the council is seeking permission via a Local Development Order (LDO) and a public consultation has begun to find out what you think about the plans.

The proposed LDO will grant permitted development rights to construct an underground network of insulated pipes to carry heat from the SELCHP facility in south Bermondsey to properties around Old Kent Road and Peckham to provide heating and hot water. This will mean laying roughly 7km of new piping.

If the LDO is granted, no further planning applications will be required to extend the network in the area.

However, a decision to actually build the network will still need separate approval from the council (to vary its existing contract with SELCHP).

The LDO will enable the council to manage the impact of building the extension – ensuring heritage, archaeology, trees, and ecology are protected. It will also minimise the impact of construction, including the impact on traffic, through the implementation of a Construction Environmental Management Plan.

Have Your Say

The consultation is open until 9 February 2023.

Download a copy of the draft LDO (pdf)