THREE rural Northumberland schools are set to benefit from new eco-friendly heating systems to replace outdated oil heaters.

Northumberland County Council’s cabinet improved plans to spend more than £1million on the improvements at a meeting on Tuesday. Bellingham middle and primary schools are both set to benefit alongside Otterburn First School.

A report presented to members identified that the current systems have ‘reached the end of their useful lives’ and that oil systems are ‘not efficient’.

In Bellingham’s case, the current heaters are “unlikely to last” beyond 2026 and “urgently require replacement”.

Speaking at Tuesday’s meeting, cabinet member for education Coun Guy Renner Thompson said the move would save the schools money. He said: “This will be a lot cheaper for the schools to run, so they will have more money for teaching and learning activities.”

Coun John Riddle, who represents the Bellingham ward, added: “I do welcome this significant amount of spending into my ward. I know there has been problems here when there was a flooding incident and it took a long time to source the parts for the heating system.

“The boilers are coming to the end of their life. There’s a safety issue too and now we won’t have vehicles reversing into the school site.”

In Bellingham, the oil heating system on the joint site will be replaced with an air source heat pump that uses electricity for heating at a cost of £887,000. In Otterburn, ground source heating will be used at a cost of £155,000.

Council leader Glen Sanderson said: “This is a significant amount of money for these schools. It is important to make sure we have a first-class system installed.

“These are very good schools and we’re very proud to have them in Northumberland. This is a good use of money; it meets our climate change commitments and provides a warm place for children to come to in the winter, because it can get very cold up there.”