Fire service opens first carbon neutral station in county

09/09/2025

Cambridgeshire’s most sustainable fire station has opened its doors after undergoing extensive renovation work.

St Neots Fire Station was officially reopened yesterday (Monday September 8) following the completion of the works, which have been carried out by Neville Special Projects with Ingleton Wood managing the project.

An extension to the front of the station accommodates new offices and welfare facilities, with other improvements made to meeting rooms as well as a purpose-built gym.

The station is the first in the county to be completely carbon neutral. At the heart of the station is the use of modern, sustainable technology, such as heat pumps and solar panels as well as electrical charging bays.

Councillor Chris Morris, Chair of the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Fire Authority, said: “I am delighted to see the improvements made to the station. It is important that we ensure our firefighters have the best possible facilities, and the improvements made here certainly reflect that.

“It is also crucial that we are future-proofing our stations from a sustainability perspective and reducing the impact we have on the environment. The upgrades made here demonstrate we are making strides on our journey to being as energy efficient as possible.”

Assistant Chief Fire Officer Stuart Smith added: “We are really excited by this renovation and the facilities it brings to our firefighters, improving the provision for the future for St Neots and the wider county. It helps us ensure we are keeping up with the growth and development we continue to see across our county in a sustainable way.

“We are grateful for the positive collaboration with Neville Special Projects and Ingleton Wood, which allowed the crews to remain at the station to be able to respond to emergencies during the renovation.”

The renovation project cost around £2 million, with £700,000 coming from a grant from Huntingdonshire District Council’s Community Infrastructure Levy.

Ben Knight, Construction Director at Neville Special Projects, added: “We’re proud to have delivered a net zero-focused station that will benefit both the crew and the community for years to come.”

Simon Chesworth, Associate Project Manager at Ingleton Wood, said: “Thanks to close collaboration, the station remained fully operational throughout, ensuring service and response times were never compromised.”

Many of the crew at St Neots are on-call firefighters, who respond to emergencies in the area around their other life commitments. On-call firefighters are not based at a fire station all the time, they will often have other jobs or family duties, carrying a small pager and responding to emergency incidents as and when they happen. When they are on-call they may be at home, working for themselves or for a nearby company, or out in their local community (staying within a five-minute travel time of the fire station).

We are actively looking to recruit more on-call firefighters at St Neots Fire Station, so if you live or work within five minutes of the station and can be available to respond, please visit the Careers section of our website. The crew holds its training nights on a Wednesday at 7pm, where you can also find more information.