Ultra green NI school in UK first

Keith Patrick with children from Victoria Primary School

A County Down primary school has become the first building in the UK to be awarded the top grade in a government energy efficiency scheme.

Victoria Primary School in Ballyhalbert's 'A' in the 'Energy Performance Certificate' scheme comes after it was recently rebuilt.

It now boasts toilets which use rainwater and its own biomass boiler.

All buildings will soon be required to have an energy performance certificate before they can be sold or rented.

The certificate explains how energy efficient a building is and the level of its carbon dioxide emissions.

Elsewhere in the UK, they are already a legal requirement, however, the average grade awarded thus far is an 'E' on a A-G scale.

It is hoped Victoria Primary School's ultra green rainwater flushing toilets will save close to half a million litres of water each year.

This helps educate the children and, indeed, parents about how important it is to think about what impact we have on the environment Alison Campbell

Proud principal Alison Campbell said the school's new £2m building created "a great learning atmosphere for all".

"It also helps educate the children and, indeed, parents of how important it is to think about what impact we have on the environment," she said.

It was designed and built by Dromore, County Down, based contractors Graham.

Project manager Keith Patrick said Victoria Primary School's range of environmentally friendly features will not "only save the school money but have less of an impact on the environment".

"These include Northern Ireland's first stand alone biomass boiler in a new school, very high levels of insulation, rainwater harvesting to flush toilets and photovoltaic cells to generate electricity from sunlight."