Last updated 15:40, Wednesday, 12 November 2008

GUESTS using Eskdale’s youth hostel will be snug in their beds thanks to the hostel’s new Eco boiler.

WHEN THE CHIPS ARE DOWN: Eskdale Youth hostel manager Mick Blamires with some of the wood chips which the new bio-mass boiler burns, to heat the Eskdale Youth hostel.

Copeland Mayor, Keith Hitchen, last week officially opened the installation of its new wood-fuelled biomass heating system.

The biomass plant is housed in a new boiler house and will burn wood chippings from nearby Miterdale Forest.

In a collaboration with the Youth Hostels Association, West Cumbria Wood Products Ltd raised the money to fund the project and installed the system. West Cumbria Wood Products Ltd is a not-for-profit business formed by a community group to address issues of fuel poverty within Eskdale and surrounding areas.

The youth hostel biomass plant is the second of three systems planned for Eskdale as pilot projects in the Eskdale Biomass Project.

The first was installed at St. Bega's Primary School and incorporates a log burning system. The third project, for which funding will now be sought, is planned as a small community heating scheme serving a group of properties in Eskdale Green.

Another environmental initiative at YHA Eskdale is the recent fitting of new ‘Thermafleece’ loft insulation, which is manufactured from sheep’s wool.