London’s most eco-friendly fire station was opened by the Mayor of London Boris Johnson on 11 February. Harold Hill fire station is the first additional station in over a decade and will improve attendance times of firefighters responding to emergencies in the north east area of the Havering. The new station on Ashton Road, Romford increases London’s fire stations to 112 and one river station.
Harold Hill is fitted with state of the art green technology and has already won a prestigious award for environmental sustainability at the Havering Business Awards. The station is fitted with water collection technology which harvests rain water to flush the toilets and the fire station hose reel. The water storage holds 20,000 litres saving 64kg of CO² per year.
The solar panels provide the electricity for the high efficiency lights and plug sockets. The station also has energy saving boilers, lighting fitting with both motion and daylight controls and thermostatic radiator valves which control the temperature of each radiator.
Harold Hill has applied for the BREEAM (BRE Environmental Assessment Method) classification of excellent. If it achieves this it will be the first fire station to be placed in this high category. BREEAM is the leading and most widely used environmental assessment method for buildings. It sets the standard for best practice in sustainable design and has become the measurement used to describe a building's environmental performance.
The project was also shortlisted in the Sustainable Construction category of the Thames Gateway Development Awards in October 2009 and the Archant Environmental Awards in November 2009. The Brigade has recently entered the station into the Public Building of the Year Awards.
Harold Hill became operational on Friday 29 September and joins the borough’s three stations at Hornchurch, Romford and Wennington.
The design, construction and long term use of the new station have been based on sustainability principles for the maximum reuse of the existing structure with minimum possible alterations, the reduction of energy consumption, the production of renewable energy and ultimately the building itself at the end of its lifecycle. The station is the first fire station to have been fitted out from an existing building meaning fewer materials were used. This resulted in a smaller impact on the local environment.
This fire station and the sustainable principles used is a good example of why the Brigade has achieved the top level against the Governments Sustainable Procurement Flexible Framework for leading the way on sustainable procurement practices. The flexible framework was developed by the government’s sustainable procurement taskforce to evaluate sustainable practices.
