The University’s Facilities department faced a minor crisis on Thursday of Week Four, as the heating system providing for the whole of campus temporarily failed. The Press Office was quick to communicate the issue to all affected and reassure both staff and students that work was in progress to rectify the issue.
Press officer Vicky Tyrell issued a statement the following Monday to clarify the status of the problem. The fault, it was reported, was owing to a pipe failure in the early hours of Thursday morning following the detection earlier that week of a problem with the underground district heating system. Tyrell stated that upon this initial discovery, “investigations [had] followed and contingency plans were implemented to provide a temporary boiler to maintain heat, [thus enabling] the pipes to be replaced.” This fault was identified by the site-wide monitoring system, which serves to guard against being caught out by sudden infrastructural problems such as was apparent that morning.
By the time that the campus population was notified, the heating system to the main campus had in fact been reinstated, with the only areas left without heating being University House, the Human Resources building, the Reception building, and the Chaplaincy Centre, all of which are clustered to the south-west corner of Alexandra Square and are close to the perimeter road. Further works were undertaken to restore the heating system in its entirety and works were completed by Friday the 2nd November.
Fortunately, hot water was not affected by this problem and many students were unaware that any issue had arisen at all until they were notified via their Webmail accounts.
A third-year biology student remarked that it is of critical importance that, given the sudden drop in temperatures over the last couple of days, the Facilities personnel ensure that the standard of heating-provision on campus is maintained at its optimum.
Anyone with issues pertaining to facilities on campus should contact the Helpdesk on Facilities Helpdesk on facilities.helpdesk@lancaster.ac.uk or by using the extension number 93333.
