James Kelly MSP has lodged a motion with the Scottish Parliament congratulating West Whitlawburn Housing Co-operative (WWHC) on wining a top national environment award.

WWHC was honoured by the Chartered Institute of Housing in Scotland after it scooped top prize in the Environment and Sustainability Award category for its ground-breaking and innovative Biomass Energy Project which was deemed by the judges to be “the best in Scotland”.

The judges were particularly impressed by the manner in which WWHC had combined significant environmental benefits by using biomass fuel and had also become the tenants’ not-for-profit Energy Supply Company and was addressing fuel poverty, by freezing tenants’ energy bills for 27 consecutive months.

Glasgow MSP James Kelly’s motion, which was supported by Richard Lyle, Stuart McMillan, Claudia Beamish, Clare Haughey and Johann Lamont, warmly congratulated WWHC on achieving the award category.

The motion said it “understands that WWHC, which is based in Cambuslang, received the award as a result of its ground-breaking and innovative Biomass Energy Project; notes that the judges were particularly impressed by the manner in which WWHC had combined significant environmental benefits by using biomass fuel and that it had also become the tenants’ not-for-profit energy supply company; notes that the company sought to tackle fuel poverty by freezing tenants’ energy bills for 27 consecutive months; commends the entire team at WWHC for their outstanding efforts, and wishes them all the best in moving forward with the project.”

The glittering annual awards dinner held recently in the Hilton Double Trees Hotel in Glasgow was hosted by Radio Forth’s Arlene Stuart with entertainment from comedian Des Clarke.

Depute director Stephanie Marshall, who has been the projects inspiration and project leader, was in attendance at the awards ceremony.

Stephanie said: “The project has been a very difficult project to finance and manage. It was not without its difficulties in the early stages, but it is delightful to see very high levels of tenant satisfaction with the project currently and also that the Institute has chosen to honour us in this way.”

Chair Susan Anderson added: “It is a great honour to receive this award and the project is certainly ground breaking, it is fantastic our efforts have been recognised in this way.”