Cheltenham is in the news this week for considering two heat networks, which could warm hundreds of homes and businesses in the town.

Heat networks supply heat from a central source to consumers, via a network of underground pipes carrying hot water. This avoids the need for individual boilers or electric heaters in every building.

There are many possible technologies that can provide the input to a heat network including energy from waste (EfW) facilities, biomass and biogas fuelled boilers and Combined Heat and Power (CHP) plants, heat pumps, geothermal sources and solar thermal arrays.

This is part of the authority’s plan to become carbon neutral by 2030 which Planet Cheltenham supports and there are similar innovative ideas being developed across the country to deliver the same goal.

But now there are also plans to build the UK’s first deep coal mine in 30 years – a project that would undermine the UK’s chances of meeting its climate targets.

PLEASE, PLEASE sign this petition calling on the government to scrap these plans and say no to new coal in the UK.