Residents up in arms over 'problem after problem' with Ludlow estate's eco heating system
It is a "green" estate in Shropshire, heated by a state-of-the-art biomass boiler. But people living in the homes, on the outskirts of Ludlow, are fed up with a system that constantly breaks down and costs them an arm and a leg.
They live on the Rock Green estate, one of scores across the country that have taken on their own heating system in an effort to be environmentally friendly.
In fact the development of 91 "sustainable" homes has won awards for being a pioneer in clean energy.
But residents say they are not impressed after "problem after problem" with the heating, which was created along with the estate in 2009. And today 41 one of them have produced a petition calling for a review of "whole system and set up".
South Shropshire Housing Association, which runs the site, insists problems had been resolved and today denied tenants had been charged for "downtime" when not using heating.
Michael Reading, an engineer who has lived in Rocks Green Crescent on the estate for two-and-a-half years, disagreed.
He said in January his heating bill had doubled for no obvious reason, and tenants were unhappy because they could not switch energy supplier unlike others – they had no option but to use the woodfuel system.
He said: "There have been problems from day one. Tenants have various issues with the heating but one major concern we all have is the pricing and accuracy of the readings taken each month.
"It seems there can be a massive jump from one month to the next, and it seems there's no way of turning the heating completely off. Even if you switch it off at the mains, apparently it's still generating heat and you're still paying for it."
He said some tenants were paying over £120 a month for "little or no" usage, and some were worried they were racking up bills of more than £1,000.
On the petition, resident Charlotte Brindley says: "As residents we are the ones that are basically footing the bill for an experiment that has back-fired."
Stephanie James agreed, saying: "The heating system has never worked how it should. The biggest problem is, we keep getting stupidly high bills that we must pay."
Catherine Morris said: "I very rarely turn my heating on so don't see why I should be paying so much for something I'm hardly using. These are supposed to be 'eco houses' after all."
Nigel Bradley added: "I have been told that I am a lower-end user on the estate yet my bills are still £70 to £80 a month. We have been taken for mugs long enough. This needs sorting now."
Paul Sutton, executive director for assets at Shropshire Housing Group, of which South Shropshire Housing Association is a part, said: "We acknowledge that there has been a problem with some of the filters in our sustainable heating system at Rocks Green becoming blocked, but this has been addressed through additional investment to cover essential maintenance.
"During any downtime, our tenants have not had a service charge levied.
"The system is carbon neutral and is market comparable with other gas heating systems.
"We are already talking to some tenants and are keen to work with all tenants who feel that problems remain."
