WORK to connect the new Abbey Stadium Leisure Centre and state-of-the-art energy saving equipment at Redditch Crematorium has now started.

The pipe work installation, which will send the heat generated from a flue gas cleaning process to the new centre, will take around two to five weeks to complete.

Signs informing customers and visitors of the disruption will be put up in the crematorium grounds to help keep people informed of what work will be done.

The project, which won the council a Gold award at this year’s National Green Apple Awards, will use the crematorium’s flue cleaning process that stops harmful mercury and acids being released into the air.

This cleaning process involves gases from the flue being cooled from around 800 degrees centigrade to around 140 degrees centigrade, creating significant heat loss.

As part of the new process, this heat will be transported to the adjacent leisure centre. Solar thermal hot water systems are also being planned for the new centre, which is due to open next year.