THE refurbished Miners and Mechanics Institute in St Agnes has gone green for its heating.

To provide warmth and hot water for its events the MMI is using a system that runs on thermal energy recovered from the outside air, with the system's £46,108 cost part-funded by £30,000 from EDF Energy's Green Fund.

Dawn Brown, chairman of the MMI, said: "Having a comfortable meeting place in our village will help put the heart back into our community."

The new system will reduce carbon emissions by up to 66% annually compared to the previous heating systems, and save about 6.8 tons of carbon dioxide per year.

Jo Steven, who leads EDF Energy's Green Fund, said: "We are proud to support this project and we hope it will strengthen the long-term future of this important community building and inspire interest in renewable energy technology."

The rest of the money for the system came from funds for the overall refurbishment project, which included £136,500 from the Big Lottery Fund, £150,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund, £100,000 from Rural Renaissance and a combined £97,000 from other organisations along with charitable loans.

The community building, which had been closed for two years, opened last month, and aims to offer classes and courses such as yoga, foreign languages, and IT, along with pension and benefits advice, and a crèche.

It will also offer conference opportunities, a snooker club, a heritage room about the history of the building and area's World Heritage Site status and a public bar for social functions. The revamp has included the original front of the building being separated into two floors, with a dome ceiling letting in light to the modern rear extension.

St Agnes artist Helen Suiter spent six months hand-making the stained glass panes in the front entrance, based on an old section that was still intact to ensure they were in keeping with the original look.

The building was donated to the village in 1893 by local philanthropist John Passmore Edwards.

The opening day was marred slightly by residents raising concerns about disabled access.

Mrs Brown said: "The trustees were given one month's notice in July that the existing disabled access was to be permanently closed.

"As this means changing the scheme for which we had permission, we needed both planning permission and listed building consent, to make alternative access and we are working on this as quickly as bureaucracy allows."