Tilbury Douglas starts £1.4m heat pump and electrical upgrade at Worcester Police Station

Tilbury Douglas has started work as principal contractor on a £1.4m project to replace gas boilers with air-source heat pumps and upgrade electrical systems at Worcester Police Station for West Mercia Police.

The contractor said it was appointed through the Pagabo M&E Solutions Framework. Work started in late September and is due to finish in late April 2027.

According to Tilbury Douglas, the job involves removing the station's existing cast-iron gas boilers and installing air-source heat pumps. The centralised hot-water system will be replaced with point-of-use water heaters, and a new hot-water system will be installed in the custody suite.

Ross Mather, Managing Director – Engineering at Tilbury Douglas, said the project would "replace ageing systems with more efficient, lower-carbon technology, while carefully managing the works within a live operational environment".

The electrical package covers an upgrade to the incoming supply and improvements to the station's electrical distribution system, the company said.

The background

The West Mercia Police and Crime Commissioner's own records set out how the scheme came about. A decision notice dated 14 November 2024 said a mechanical and electrical condition survey had identified £5,276,565 of required upgrades at Worcester's divisional headquarters police station.

Of that, £858,580 was identified for replacing the gas heating and hot water system.

The same notice said a feasibility study had put the total cost of decarbonising the heating and hot water system at £1,634,554. Tilbury Douglas gives the value of its project as £1.4m; the two figures come from different documents and may not measure the same thing.

The decision notice refers to a single air source heat pump, while Tilbury Douglas describes the installation in the plural.

The notice also said the station will be included in phase 2 of the Worcester City Heat Network Zone by 2030.

The framework

Pagabo named 47 suppliers to its £545m Mechanical & Electrical Solutions Framework in August 2023. It said the framework would run for four years and is split into three lots, with eight core and four reserve suppliers per lot in each region.

Framework users can appoint suppliers by direct award or further competition, according to Pagabo.

Tilbury Douglas said it holds places on five Pagabo frameworks: Medium Works, Refit & Refurb, M&E Solutions, Decarbonisation (General) and Decarbonisation (Healthcare).

The company said it has supported more than 40 clients on decarbonisation and delivered over £100m of decarbonisation and retrofit works in the past five years.