Work has been carried out at a Denbighshire primary school to provide better energy efficiency for staff and pupils and lower long term building energy costs.

The Council's Energy Team has worked to tackle energy efficiency and lower costs at Ysgol Bodfari.

The team has managed a number of projects across Council owned buildings including schools, to help improve building energy efficiency, reduce emissions and also usage costs over the longer term.

The Council’s Energy team assessed the building to see what areas of energy use could be improved to increase efficiency.

Work at Ysgol Bodfari included the installation of a ( 7.47KW) solar panel system on the school roof. Each Kilowatt generated and used by the school will save around 22 pence and this capacity not only reduces substantial carbon it also reduces strain on the local grid infrastructure.

LED lighting was also installed inside the school which will help improve efficiency and drive down energy use costs.

The school has also had a new modern efficient boiler installed which allows further energy long term cost savings and better efficiency for the whole site.

All the work is expected to result in savings annually of around 18079kWh, over 4.5 tonnes of carbon emissions and over £2961 per annum in reduced energy costs, paying back what has been invested in a short space of time.

Martyn Smith, Property Energy and Carbon Manager, said: “We have brought together different strands of technology at the school to help improve the building environment for the pupils and staff and also drive down energy bills long-term.”

Councillor Barry Mellor, Lead Member for Environment and Transport, added “We are committed to reducing our buildings carbon emissions and thank the Energy Team for their proactive work and the support from pupils and staff at Ysgol Bodfari while the work was carried out.”

A project that ran through 2024 will provide stronger support for an under-threat bird returning to Denbighshire this year.

The Council’s Biodiversity Team last year launched a project to provide better protection for swifts nesting across the county.

Swifts visit the UK during the summer, flying nearly 3,400 miles from spending the winter in Africa to breed in the UK. They pair for life returning to the same site each time.

They like to nest in homes and churches, using small gaps in the roofs. However, as older buildings are renovated, roof gaps closed and new builds designed differently, swifts have fast disappeared.

Insects that the birds need to feed their young and refuel for their migrations are dwindling with the loss of habitat such as wildflower areas and freshwater. The Council is working to restore this loss through the management of its Wildflower Meadows Project which has so far created nearly 70 acres of suitable habitat to support the regeneration of insect and bird populations.

Despite local and wider work, the swift is currently on the highest conservation priority level in the UK

To provide more support for the swifts visiting Denbighshire, 114 swift boxes were installed by the Biodiversity Team last year across the county. These are a mix of boxes from single occupancy, double, quadruple and a couple with an occupancy of six.

Biodiversity Officer Evie Challinor explained: “These boxes went on schools, Council owned properties including County Hall and a few private residences in the Ruthin, Corwen and Rhyl areas. We focused on these three areas because Cofnod records showed us that swifts were still been found in these locations. We want to bolster these populations before helping them to expand throughout the county again”.

“A lot of our wildflower meadows are also found in these areas, and it ties in nicely giving the swifts habitats that supports the insects they feed on.”

“We ran swift walks in these key areas to help record swifts and foraging swifts as well as ‘screaming parties’. These loudly calling groups of the birds gathering in the skies at dusk indicate to us that this is an area which can support the birds as we take action to strengthen their dwindling populations.”

The Biodiversity Team is continuing to work with Denbighshire Housing, Council home residents, private residences, schools, North Wales Wildlife Trust, Bionet partners, local businesses and local groups such as the Chirk Swifts group (winner of 2024 Bionet award) to be able to drive the project forward.

Councillor Barry Mellor, Lead Member for Environment and Transport and Council Biodiversity Champion, said: “We are grateful to our colleagues in Denbighshire Housing their residents and everyone who support this project last year, as this will help in 2025 stabilise local swift populations.”

A Biodiversity project has breathed life into the future of a wildflower species during its 2024 season.

The Council’s Biodiversity Team has recorded an increase of orchid types across the county wildflower meadows following surveys carried out last year.

The team’s Wildflower Meadow Project started in 2019, aiming to restore and increase the amount of habitat available throughout the county for pollinators and wildlife.

This project includes just over 70 acres of meadows helping and protecting local nature and supporting community wellbeing across the county. It has also been funded by Welsh Government, through the Local Nature Partnerships Cymru ENRaW project.

In 2024 the team discovered a pyramidal orchid at the meadow outside County Hall in Ruthin which had never been recorded at the site before.

This was first of a resurgence of orchids across the county according to Liam Blazey, Senior Biodiversity Officer.

He explained: “Last year was a good year for orchids on our sites. We recorded pyramidal, common spotted and bee orchids across several of our sites that had no previous records of orchids. The distribution of these new records was spread from the north through to the south of the county.

Our meadows are managed to help bring back an important piece of biodiversity that we have lost over the years which helps nature to thrive and our pollinators to keep being able to support the food chain that we as humans rely on.

“It’s also really good for the local communities in these areas, as these meadows are bringing back plants that our future generations can enjoy once more alongside the positive support they are bringing for local nature.”

Since the project began the Biodiversity Team has recorded 17,716 individual wildflower records across the county meadows through carrying out 1,423 site surveys.

During the 2024 season 297 different species were recorded working out at 5,269 individual wildflowers logged.

Councillor Barry Mellor, Lead Member for Environment and Transport, said: “Our meadows are crucial for supporting local nature that has been impacted by the effects of Climate Change. As more wildflowers such as the orchids return to sites they will help increase diversity and colour for communities to enjoy and better support pollinators at risk who help put food on our tables.

“Given the time they need to establish, all of our meadows will be for the equal wellbeing of residents and wildlife to both enjoy now, and most importantly, for our future generations in the shape of our younger Denbighshire residents.”