By Adrian Zorzut, Local Democracy Reporter
A council can proceed with spending £1.2million on consultants to work on a major heating project after a vote to review the plan narrowly failed.
Councillors on Westminster City council’s Climate and Scrutiny Committee voted four to three along party lines to approve extra funds to upgrade the Pimlico District Heating Undertaking (PDHU).
The funding, drawn from a pot of cash containing financial contributions from developers, will go towards providing more detailed analysis of six options to upgrade the aging infrastructure, which currently heats more than 3,000 homes in Pimlico.
The decision was approved during a Scrutiny Committee meeting on Monday. The meeting had been called by three opposition councillors who demanded the decision be sent back to the council’s administration for review after claiming the extra funding was a poor use of taxpayers’ money.
The council has already spent £1.2million on scoping studies. Cllr Ryan Jude, Cabinet Member for Climate, Ecology and Culture, said a lot of work had been done to date to whittle down 14 options to six.
But Conservative councillor Ed Pitt Ford, one of three opposition members to call in the decision, said he was disappointed with the progress made by consultants to date and questioned handing them more money.
He also said the council should have initially poured more resources into analysing the costs associated with installing electric boilers directly into homes. He said residents were becoming anxious about the project, with leaseholders concerned they’ll be hit with a huge bill.
Council officers said the “novel” nature of the project made it hard to determine costs and that more money was needed to offer more clarity on an overall bill. They said the money would also go towards improving engagement with residents.
The council has already said the funding will go towards additional modelling and validation work, legal advice and analysing other funding options. In 2023, the council commissioned a review of the PDHU following rising maintenance bills and concerns about the state of its ageing infrastructure.
A previous report showed £3.5million was spent on maintenance in 2023 while an average of 3,000 leaks and repair jobs were reported per annum over the past two years.
Pictured top: From left, Cllrs Jim Glen, Tim Mitchell and Ed Pitt Ford outside the Pimlico District Heating Undertaking (Picture: Chloe Del Serra/Westminster Conservatives)
