Hillside Ltd hand over the keys
to greenest village hall in UK

Full service construction and development company, Hillside Ltd, has handed over the keys to what it believes is the “greenest” and “most eco-friendly” new village hall in the UK.

Kiveton Park and Wales Village Hall in South Yorkshire took just eight months to complete from demolition of the old hall to handing over the keys to its Trustees.

The Hall integrates some of the most ground-breaking energy saving systems available, the combination of which, Hillside believe, makes the Hall unique in the UK.

Matt Brown, Senior Contracts Manager with Hillside Ltd says the concept is about making financial sense as much as it is about being environmentally conscious.

“This village hall is here for the long-term and as such will have to be self-sustaining. The technological systems we have built into the hall mean that it will not only save money on heating, light and water; it will generate income that can be used to provide more services for the community. We honestly believe there is no other village hall with such complete advanced environmental concepts anywhere else in the UK,” says Matt Brown.

The Hall was designed by Burnell Briercliffe Architects of Sheffield.

Key green features of the building include:

A ground source heat pump that extracts heat from below the ground that is then used to fuel an under floor heating system to warm the Hall. The pipes for the system are buried 100 metres vertically down in the grounds of the Hall.

A rainwater harvesting system which recycles rain water for use in the building as grey water. The water will be used in the Hall’s toilets and to tend the newly planted gardens outside the Hall

A Pholto Voltaic solar panel system which should provide sufficient electricity to supply the whole building. An export meter has also been installed allowing unused generated electricity from the solar panel to be returned to the national grid, producing income for the Hall.

Natural light tubes in the roof illuminate internal rooms that would otherwise require powered lighting.

Inside the Hall a fitted digital display unit presents up to the minute information on how much power and water has been saved since the Hall was opened.

The state of the art Village Hall replaces an aged one that was unfit for purpose. It is intended that it will provide the community with a focal resource that will house everything from childcare to health advice and guidance as well as being able to stage events, shows, celebrations and meetings.

The new build was commissioned by The Trustees of Kiveton Park and Wales Village Hall. Through a combination of grants, sponsorship and fund raising the Trustees managed to finance the approximately £1.2 million project which should act as a locus in the regeneration of the former mining area.

Financial Director of Hillside Ltd, Paul Willows says the full-service capability of the company, it has separate construction joinery manufacture divisions, is one the reasons it is perfectly placed to take on such projects.

Maureen Alderton, Secretary of the Trustees is full of praise for Hillside Ltd in completing the construction and says; "Our Village Hall is a Flagship for the North of England and we are proud of Hillside Construction and the wonderful job they have done. We overcame setbacks by working them out as a team with Hillside Ltd our Funders and Sponsors.”  

Hillside Ltd is already working on similar projects with new clients who recognise the contractor’s excellent pedigree in competitively priced new build.

“We like to think that we have given the Trustees and the local community a contemporary new building with a clean modern design that will be a resource and investment for many years to come. It’s important to us that our legacy as builders is much more than bricks and mortar,” says Hillside Ltd Managing Director, Richard O’Malley.

Hillside Ltd is based in South Yorkshire on the outskirts of Sheffield from where its 60-strong team of highly skilled tradesmen and professional managers handle contracts throughout most of England. The team of Directors have a minimum of 30 years’ individual construction industry experience and have been running the firm since 1991.

Year-on-year growth has seen the company move on to larger projects and is establishing a strong reputation for completing private and public sector contracts valued between £100,000 and £2,500,000

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