SCHOOLS across the district have been urged to follows a Shipley school's example after it has saved more than £4,000 in bills since it installed solar panels.

The panels were installed on the roof of Saltaire Primary School in September 2013, making savings of £4,356 between then and the end of December.

Other schools are now looking at similar energy saving measures.

A Bradford Council scheme was set up in 2013 to allow schools to install solar panels without having to enter into long term contracts with private companies, which then take most of the income, leaving the schools little to show for their good intentions.

Haworth Primary School has used the scheme to have LED lighting installed, and both projects will be used to publicise the benefits to schools of going green.

Schools that express an interest in the scheme are audited to see if they are suitable, the school produces a business case to apply for a loan for the grant.

Schools that have now been assessed are Cottingley Village Primary, Crossflatts Primary, Marshfields Primary and Burley Oaks Primary. Others, such as Oakworth Primary School and Midland Road Nursery in Manningham were audited and deemed unsuitable for solar panels.

Council officers hope to meet Baildon Friends of the Earth about getting more schools in the town to join the scheme.

Saltaire Primary School borrowed money from the Council to fund the 66 panels which have been installed so they are hidden from general view at the World Heritage Site in the first scheme of its kind in Bradford.

It cost £23,000 to install the panels, and the school expects it will be paid back in eight years based on what has been saved in the past year and a half.

Last year the school won the Science and Technology award at the Telegraph & Argus Schools Awards because of how staff got the entire school involved in the green project.

Pupils were taught about green energy and how the panels would save them money.

Staff plan to install a screen in the school to allow pupils to see live figures of how much power the panels are generating and how much money the school is saving.

Business manager Fiona Cressey said: "We still talk about the panels a lot with our eco club. We tell the children about what they've saved and we use it as part of our lessons. They talk about how sunny it is and how much power that is generating.

"We've installed new LED lights so we've talked to them about how much they save too.

"We think the pay back for the scheme is going to come in about eight years."

Bradford Council's environment scrutiny committee will discuss the scheme at a meeting at City Hall next Tuesday from 5.30pm.