This report covers the period 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024, representing the third annual summary of the council’s progress against our Climate Change Strategy.
As the Executive Member for climate change, I am delighted to present the council’s work to both mitigate and adapt to the effects of climate change to council.
Following my election as Leader of Bracknell Forest Council in May 2023, I have been focused on ensuring that climate change action is at the very heart of all that we do. I care so passionately about this subject area that I have personally taken the lead as portfolio holder for climate change. The impacts of a changing climate can be seen and felt by all of us, most notably in the form of increasing summer temperatures but also in the severity of winter storms and surface water flooding which the borough is increasingly facing.
Politically, climate change knows no boundaries, which is why I am delighted to have fostered cross-party agreement on the importance of tackling its impacts. Not only do we now have a cross-party working group dedicated towards taking climate action on behalf of the council, but we also have significant councillor engagement within the borough-wide Joint Climate Action Board (JCAB) who are focused on supporting initiatives by a diverse range of sectors across our borough area.
The JCAB itself arose as a bi-product of the inaugural Bracknell Forest Climate Change Summits which I was proud to host in the council’s offices in July 2023. The summits bought a diverse collection of individuals, groups and organisations together to focus on emerging priorities for climate action. For me it is vitally important to engage as many people as possible in climate change action.
In addition, a revised cross-party Climate Change Motion (05/2023) was passed by Full Council on 19 September 2023 to tighten our determination to make climate change a priority for this council. The motion stated that we will:
I am delighted to report that the JCAB met twice during the year and is currently supported by 10 separate working groups who collectively have started work on an emerging Community Climate Emergency Strategy (CCES). That strategy, primarily driven by our residents, communities and partner organisations will continue to be developed during 2024 to 2025. The council’s own Climate Change Strategy will be refreshed next year too and I look forward to presenting it to Full Council in the coming autumn.
Looking forwards on a more regional level I am delighted to have been nominated to take the political lead on climate change within the Berkshire Local Authorities’ Prosperity Board. I am also keenly anticipating hosting a further Climate Change Summit for Bracknell Forest in July 2024 and attending schools’ climate change conferences too.
Cllr Mary Temperton
Leader - Bracknell Forest Council
This report seeks to summarise the activities of Bracknell Forest Council towards mitigating the impacts of climate change over the last financial year. It is always useful to remind ourselves of the wider context in order to relate our local actions.
National legislation means the UK is legally obliged to reach net zero by 2050 and reduce emissions by 78% compared to 1990 levels by 2035. Progress towards these national targets and on adapting to the effects of climate change are prepared by the Climate Change Committee (CCC), an independent statutory body which reports to Parliament.
National government has relaxed a number of key targets in specific areas within the last year - notably around the speed of phasing out diesel and petrol fuelled vehicles and the pace at which gas boilers are to be phased out. With the recently announced general election in July 2024 bringing about the possibility of a change of government, a degree of uncertainty surrounds current national policy.
The sixth carbon budget in the UK covers the period from 2033 to 2037. This budget was recommended by the CCC to align with the UK’s commitment to reach net zero emissions by 2050, as well as the goal to limit global temperature increase to below 2oC by 2050, as set out in the 2015 Paris Agreement. The budget acknowledges the critical role of local authorities in driving down emissions and advancing climate action across the UK. The budget itself primarily sets national targets and strategies, but seeks to empower local governments to devise customised solutions and foster community engagement, thereby catalysing efforts to reduce emissions and facilitate the transition towards a low-carbon economy.
As outlined in the sixth carbon budget, local authorities are well positioned to:
The Bracknell Forest Council Local Plan was formally adopted in March 2024, providing the template for planning and development through until 2037. The plan will enhance several requirements related to improving the environment and mitigating the impacts of climate change but draft proposals to include even more stringent environmental requirements were unfortunately removed by the inspectorate.
The Local Transport Plan is up for review in 2024 and will seek to incorporate several climate change related principles within it. The Transport Working Group associated with the Joint Climate Action Board are already engaged in activities supporting the review.
The council successfully switched to current kerbside domestic waste collection arrangements in March 2021. A switch which resulted in a 12% increase in recycling rates. The latest intentions signalled by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) in May 2024, state that they intend to issue statutory guidance to make sure that minimum service standards are maintained around residual waste and that local authorities collect refuse at least fortnightly. There is also to be new legislation known as Simpler Recycling. This will mean all local authorities have to collect the same items and materials for recycling. The impacts these changes may have on overall recycling rates are as yet unknown.
There has been something of a step-change in the council’s approach to fostering greater engagement and collaboration around climate change in the last year. The borough will hopefully benefit from this approach over the next few years as we seek to build on our initial foundations and support the delivery of a Community Climate Emergency Strategy.
The council’s current Climate Change Strategy (2020 to 2024) was published in January 2021 and set out the council’s initial 4-year framework towards reaching our then-stated ambition to be carbon net-zero by 2050.
The strategy can be summarised as below. It is worth noting that direct carbon dioxide equivalent emissions (scope 1 and 2) within the council’s control represent around 2% of the entire emissions associated with the borough as a whole.
Bracknell Forest Council: 2020 to 2024
Adopt 4 Strategic Principles for the council’s approach to tackling climate change
We will achieve our 2050 objective of being carbon neutral through:
Develop a high-level implementation Climate Change Action Plan.
Action plan to reduce carbon emissions that are under the council’s control.
Action plan to influence and lead community action against change.
Following the change of administration during 2023 to 2024 there has been an even stronger emphasis placed on wider engagement with groups and organisations outside the council itself, given the scale of impact their own emissions have on the entire borough.
The Climate Change Strategy itself will require a refresh during 2024 to 2025 and work has already begun on that process during the current reporting year in terms of initial research and engagement phases.
The council’s Climate Change Strategy is supported by an action plan which charts progress made against current climate change mitigation projects or streams of work. The action plan is therefore a ‘live’ document which is updated and consolidated at the end of each quarter. Updates are provided by nominated officers within various sections and directorates of the council. These quarterly updates are reported to the Climate Change Officer’s Board and progress is updated and published on the council’s climate change web pages. At any point in time the action plan represents a snapshot of all known ‘live’ pieces of work being undertaken that can be demonstrated as having tangible benefits to minimise the man-made impacts of climate change. Projects or workstreams are only added to the action plan once they have been approved at Department Management Team (DMT) level.
At the end of quarter 4 in 2023 to 2024 there were 40 current projects referred to within the action plan and a further 6 at the proposal stage. A total of 24 projects have been closed, redefined with current projects or completed. Commentary on any completed projects this year is covered elsewhere within this report. The activities represented reflect a mix of those which solely benefit the council estate, those which solely benefit the borough and those which benefit both.
Bracknell Forest Council has collected emissions data in scopes 1 and 2 since 2019. Emissions are reported on a calendar year basis. The data was re-baselined in early 2024, updating the numbers from 2019-2022 to consistently apply the location-based approach we are now taking. Following this rebaselining, the council’s historical scope 1 and 2 emissions footprints are outlined in the graph below.
| Council scope 1 and 2 emissions by year | Tonnes CO2e |
|---|---|
| 2019 | 4348 |
| 2020 | 3669 |
| 2021 | 3966 |
| 2022 | 3275 |
| 2023 | 3649 |
The data for the 2023 calendar year showed that our total CO2e emissions from the council’s transport fleet, plus gas and electric consumption was 3,649 tonnes (scope 1 and 2 emissions). This compares to last year’s figure of 3,275 tonnes and the initial figure of 4,348 tonnes in 2019.
The overall trend is a 699 tonne reduction across the 5 years, although CO2e emissions actually rose by 374 tonnes over the most recent year. That increase came from both electricity (249 tonnes) and heating (128 tonnes). Some of the change in heating figures is attributable to converting heating systems from oil to gas, but there was still a general incremental increase in both gas and electricity use across the estate.
Indirect emissions (those from our supply chain and our contracted services, referred to as scope 3 emissions) are a much larger proportion of the council’s overall carbon footprint, but are also a much harder parameter to define. We already collect some data in this area such as emissions from water consumption and our waste collection vehicles, but further work is planned during 2024 to 2025 to better quantify the scale of such scope 3 emissions.
Estimates for total CO2e emissions by local authority area are provided by the governments’ Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ). Statistics are released annually each June, approximately 18 months in arrears, so the most recent release is that from June 2024 which reports on emissions in the 2022 calendar year. The first such set of figures were provided for 2005.
For the Bracknell Forest borough area, the 2022 figure was 386.1 kilo tonnes CO2e which was down by 33.9 kilo tonnes from 420 kilo tonnes in 2021.
The overall reduction trend from 2005 to 2022 is shown as the blue line in the chart below. The orange line shows a projected reduction based on the UK target of achieving a 78% reduction against a 1990 baseline by the year 2035*.
The Bracknell Forest area is approximately 21 kilo tonnes above the government’s projected position as of 2022.
During the 2023 to 2024 year the council re-aligned our greenhouse gas emission ambitions for the borough to be net zero by 2030, or as close as possible. Given the government’s estimated figure of 386.1 kilo tonnes CO2e in 2022 that would require a further linear reduction of around 42.9 kilo tonnes per annum each year for the next 9 years. This is roughly equivalent to doubling the rate of reduction achieved since records began back in 2005.
*Please note that this is an estimated projection line as local area figures do not extend back to the 1990 UK baseline.
| Year | Actual | Projected |
|---|---|---|
| 2005 | 757 | 603 |
| 2006 | 757 | 589 |
| 2007 | 745 | 575 |
| 2008 | 734 | 561 |
| 2009 | 656 | 547 |
| 2010 | 665 | 533 |
| 2011 | 602 | 519 |
| 2012 | 636 | 505 |
| 2013 | 620 | 491 |
| 2014 | 547 | 477 |
| 2015 | 514 | 463 |
| 2016 | 485 | 449 |
| 2017 | 462 | 435 |
| 2018 | 464 | 421 |
| 2019 | 440 | 407 |
| 2020 | 398 | 393 |
| 2021 | 420 | 379 |
| 2022 | 386 | 365 |
Domestic emissions primarily from gas and electric consumption remain the highest contributor to borough emissions (37.6%) followed by emissions from transport (32.7%), with commerce (19.5%), the public sector (7%) and industry (2.7%) being the next most significant.
| Area | Kilotonnes CO2e |
|---|---|
| Domestic | 145.1 |
| Transport | 126.4 |
| Commercial | 75.2 |
| Public sector | 27.1 |
| Industry | 10.6 |
| Agriculture | 1.7 |
| Waste management | 0.1 |
Bracknell Forest’s emissions per capita for 2021 were 3.3 tonnes: lower than the 3.7 tonnes south-east England average and the 4.1 tonnes national (England) average.
The council’s first ever Climate Change Summit was delivered in July 2023. The summit, hosted by the Leader of the Council gathered together over 130 representatives from different organisations around the borough to discuss tackling climate change together with the ambition of kick-starting greater levels of collaboration.
One direct product from the inaugural Climate Change Summit was the creation and launch of the Joint Climate Action Board (JCAB) in the autumn of 2023. The JCAB brings together representatives from 10 different sectors to drive climate change activity around the borough. The JCAB is chaired by The Leader of Bracknell Forest Council and meets on a quarterly basis. The model for the JCAB is as shown below.
The JCAB is supported by 10 working groups. It is chaired by Cllr Mary Temperton, Leader of Bracknell Forest Council.
As of 3 July 2024, the groups are:
Each working group is self-governing and have their own terms of reference. They determine the frequency in which they meet and set priorities for action within their own specific sectors. The working groups each have at least 2 representatives who participate in quarterly JCAB meetings and have started to contribute towards the creation of a Community Climate Emergency Strategy (CCES). This strategy has the ambition to set themes, goals and priorities for climate change action across the entire borough and will be developed over the 2024 to 2025 year.
2023 to 2024 saw the council’s participation in promoting the delivery of ‘Solar Together’, a joint purchase scheme supporting residents to install solar panels and battery storage systems.
Through the scheme 135 households benefited from the installation of solar panels or battery storage systems and electric vehicle charging points. Almost 1,500 solar PV panels were installed with an estimated reduction of around 115 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) being removed per annum as a result.
HUG2 is a government funded housing retrofit scheme. It seeks to provide energy efficiency improvements to homes whose primary heating source is anything other than mains gas. Certain other eligibility requirements include residents meeting low income thresholds and living in low energy performance rated housing.
The scheme which will also run throughout the 2024 to 2025 year is being delivered regionally on a Berkshire-wide basis.
The council’s role is to identify and target market the scheme to likely eligible properties, who then register with a Managing Agent for the purposes of participation. In 2023 to 2024, 36 eligible households in Bracknell Forest were identified, almost meeting our target of 39. A further target will be set for the coming year.
The Warm Safe and Well scheme is funded by the council’s Public Health team. It aims to support residents who are particularly vulnerable to the impacts of the cold by helping fund energy efficiency improvements to make their homes warmer and also subsequently cheaper to heat. During 2023 to 2024, £25,000 worth of funding was provided to help improve 16 homes.
The property services team have delivered energy efficiency and renewable energy retrofit works to several of our own buildings. In total works were completed to seven different
properties. One example is Great Hollands Library, community and children’s centre, which benefited from flat roof and loft insulation, cavity wall insulation, double-glazed windows, LED lighting and suitable heating controls to support efficient energy use.
A second example is Mallard House in Waterside Park, now home to the Emergency Duty Service and Forestcare. Improvements on this building included roof insulation and solar
PV, resulting in projected electricity savings of 60%. When taken together all of these schemes will reduce energy consumption by approximately 357,966kWh (estimated 67.7 tonnes reduction of CO2e).
This council led development project incorporated some significant energy saving and greening elements including a green roof providing thermal insulation and the installation of solar PV panels. In addition, the main buildings are heated by an air source heat pump and there have been several additional electric vehicle charge points provided.
A planning pre-application was submitted for consideration by the council’s planning section. We will now take their comments and recommendations forwards to seek permission from the other five Berkshire authorities who have ongoing responsibilities towards the site to carry out further feasibility work on the revised schemes. The current plan retains options for an EV charging station, a solar farm, and the use of the site for biodiversity net gain.
8 new EV chargers have been installed in Great Hollands, including a dual 75-kilowatt rapid charger. Our network of chargers saw a 40% increase in use in quarter 3 and a further 25% increase in quarter 4.
The roll out of charge points has also continued within the private sector. For example, super-rapid charge points have been installed at BP on Wokingham Road and Waitrose in Bracknell, and a number of planning applications have been approved for further high powered chargers.
The cumulative total of miles of sustainable travel logged through the Eco Rewards scheme, which gives people rewards and prizes for walking and cycling, has now exceeded 500,000 miles.
That is an equivalent saving of 147 tonnes of CO2e when compared to driving.
Bikeability training was delivered to almost 950 schoolchildren during 2023 to 2024, to support confidence in cycling from a young age.
698 riders and 33 workplaces have signed up to Bracknell Forest’s Love to Ride programme, with 940,000 miles now covered by riders over the last 4 years. Registered participants can log miles travelled, calculate carbon savings and set their own goals.
Formal crossings have been built on key routes to 4 schools in the borough to encourage more walking and cycling to school. Annual pedestrian counts recorded the highest levels of walking in the borough in 2023. The figures represented an overall increase of 2% against the previous year.
Over 400 residents have registered to receive regular updates on the My Journey site.
The platform provides a one-stop destination for travel advice and real-time information within the Bracknell Forest area.
The council was delighted to promote the provision of a free bus service offer on Saturdays in December 2023 which led to a 10% increase in bus use. New low-emission buses were introduced on the 171/172 service by Thames Valley Buses and on the 4/X4 service by Reading Buses.
Development of a new Biodiversity Action Plan which reflects the impact and relevance of climate change to the natural environment as a central theme started during 2023 to 2024. The Plan itself will be published in the 2024 to 2025 year following wider consultation.
The natural estates team have been working to improve local woodlands for wildlife. This has typically entailed removing rhododendron and cherry laurel which are invasive, non-native species that grow into big bushes, blocking out sunlight for other plants.
To help the woodlands to regenerate, they have planted native trees and shrubs providing better homes for wildlife, including insects, bats, birds and hedgehogs.
The rangers team have been using locally sourced wood to replace rotten fencing at Wildmoor Heath and Tarman’s Copse.
The wood is a by-product of our natural estate management. Re-using it in this way makes sure it doesn’t go to waste and avoids us having to transport timber.
When these fences eventually need replacing, our rangers will recycle the wood; something which wasn’t possible with older styles of fencing, which contained chemicals and needed to go to landfill.
The council has worked in partnership to plant new hedgerows as part of a Bracknell-based hedgehog conservation project. Bracknell Town Council has planted a mixed native hedge of 200 tree whips at the front of Ringmeads allotments and our rangers have also planted a new hedgerow at Jennett’s Hill.
Both of these projects provide a place for hedgehogs to find food and shelter and double up as wildlife corridors. Hedgerows also sequester and store carbon in their biomass and in the soil beneath them.
Our rangers have been installing dead hedges at various sites, including Buckler’s Forest and Lark’s Hill. Dead hedges are formed by weaving small branches and twigs between upright stakes. They provide food and shelter for wildlife and protect areas from disturbance. They also recycle green waste and release carbon and nutrients slowly back into the soil.
During 2023 to 2024 we collected and processed 5,169 tonnes of food waste. The accompanying chart shows this is still well above target tonnage levels. Food waste collections are also now available to 1,800 flats across the borough.
| Month | Target | 2020/21 | 2021/22 | 2022/23 | 2023/24 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| April | 333 | 545 | 448 | 402 | |
| May | 333 | 486 | 465 | 435 | |
| June | 333 | 552 | 457 | 445 | |
| July | 333 | 513 | 435 | 410 | |
| August | 333 | 471 | 447 | 432 | |
| September | 333 | 513 | 449 | 423 | |
| October | 333 | 455 | 416 | 435 | |
| November | 333 | 508 | 462 | 450 | |
| December | 333 | 495 | 453 | 409 | |
| January | 333 | 525 | 487 | 506 | |
| February | 333 | 432 | 395 | 413 | |
| March | 333 | 536 | 488 | 447 | 409 |
The landfill rate for 2023 to 2024 was 8% of all collected waste, representing just 4,000 tonnes of waste. Since the introduction of the food waste recycling service the landfill rate has fallen and remained below 10% and the tonnage of waste being landfilled has halved as shown in the chart below. The diversion of food waste away from landfill produces an approximate carbon saving of around 3.2 million kilograms of CO2e being prevented from entering the atmosphere per annum.
| Year | 2018/19 | 2019/20 | 2020/21 | 2021/22 | 2022/23 | 2023/24 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tonnes | 8342 | 8324 | 8289 | 3627 | 3971 | 3992 |
Our reuse, recycling and composting rate (as a % of all household waste) was 55.7% for 2023 to 2024. This compares to 54.5% the previous year. Much of that increase is due to higher garden waste tonnages throughout the year primarily caused by a wet summer and a mild winter.
In March 2024 Bracknell Forest Council began a trial for the collection of soft plastic packaging.
This government funded trial has been rolled out to 10,000 properties in Bracknell Forest. The scheme allows those households in the trial to put plastic bags and wrapping into a blue bag that can then be put in their blue recycling bin alongside their other recyclables.
The total amount of waste produced in 2023 to 2024 was 48,000 tonnes - a 600 tonne increase compared to the previous year. This increase is partly attributable to the garden waste increase mentioned above but is also likely to be the result of some household’s buying habits changing (compared to the year before) when many household finances were under a lot of pressure from high inflation and high energy costs.
The new Local Plan for Bracknell Forest was finally adopted in March 2024 following 8 years of hard development work. The plan seeks to identify the sites where development will take place to meet our housing, employment and other needs over the next 15 years. It also updates all the policies that the council uses when determining planning applications.
Adoption of the new Local Plan has raised the bar on sustainable development, setting more stringent requirements for energy efficiency and climate preparedness for new-build homes and commercial spaces.
Our Local Air Quality Status annual report for 2023 demonstrated that monitored levels of nitrogen oxide (NO2) and inhalable particulate matter (PM10) remained well below DEFRA’s allowable limits.
In light of the above a request has been sent to DEFRA to revoke the Bracknell A322 Air Quality Management area (AQMA), as levels of pollutants have consistently fallen below thresholds for the past 4 years at the Downshire Way monitoring station. If DEFRA approves the request there will be one remaining AQMA in the borough – Crowthorne High Street.
Air quality officers continued to engage with Bracknell Forest schools and parents to encourage a reduction in idling outside schools, thereby reducing emissions and improving overall air quality.
Climate Emergency UK co-ordinate a comparison of climate change actions undertaken by all local authorities by scoring councils against Climate Action Scorecards.
Following a lot of coordinated effort at officer level the 2023 results were published in the autumn. Whilst we improved our score by 6% we scored below average in 5 of the 8 scoring categories.
We anticipate further work to refine and build upon our approach to this form of benchmarking during 2024 to 2025.
The council made a climate change e-learning module available to all employees and councillors in late 2022 to 2023 and identified it as part of the mandatory induction process for all new starters. Completion statistics from 2023 to 2024 show that nearly 350 individuals completed the training. The training content is under review for a refresh during 2024 to 2025.
Members of the council’s climate change team undertook training through The Carbon Literacy Project to certify themselves as carbon literate.
Advancing climate change training is aligned to the goals of the Net Zero: Business Change programme which will be developed in 2024 to 2025.
The highways and transport team are already hard at work developing a new Local Transport Plan (LTP) looking to shape future transport schemes and development in alignment with the Local Plan. We currently anticipate adoption of the LTP during 2024 to 2025.
The second Bracknell Forest Climate Change Summit will take place in July 2024. The theme for the summit will be Uniting for Climate Action, Transforming Our Community Together. The summit will also act as a catalyst for progressing the Community Climate Emergency Strategy.
The council will host both a secondary and a primary schools’ climate change conference in July 2024. The aim of both conferences is to inspire our young people to make pledges and commitments towards behavioural changes that can be implemented both in school, but also at home with their families.
We will continue to investigate creating an electric vehicle charging hub at London Road, supported by a solar PV farm and dwell-time facilities. In addition, the council has secured provisional funding to stimulate private investment in EV charging for residents without off-street parking, which we look to progress next year.
The methodology for the 2025 Climate Action Scorecards was released in June 2024. We anticipate working on refining our approach to this form of benchmarking of the council’s climate change progress over the summer and autumn of 2024 to 2025.
We will once again support the Berkshire-wide Solar Together scheme which aims to offer our residents competitively priced, quality assured solar panel, battery storage and electric vehicle charging solutions for their own homes.
We have successfully acquired central government funding for the new Local Authority Retrofit Scheme (LARS) as part of a regional bid facilitated by the Greater South East Net Zero Hub (GSENZH).
The net zero business change programme is primarily focused around changing the culture of the council to formerly embed climate change thinking into the way we work. This 18-month work programme started in April 2024.
The council will consider a trial of Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO) fuel on one of the 12 waste trucks in 2024 to 2025. Whilst being a slightly more expensive fuel, HVO can potentially reduce CO2e transport-associated emissions by as much as 90%.
Climate change news stories continued to be published roughly every 2 weeks. Over the course of the year a grand total of 28 climate change related articles were issued by the council. Example stories include:
Social media channels remained popular with our residents. Facebook, X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram have once again been key communication channels over the past year. The council now has 18,000 followers on Facebook, 13,000 on X and 5,000 on Instagram marking each an important communication platform.
These channels also provide the benefit of two-way communication, with posts generating debates between the users and messages back to the council.
An example of a targeted social media campaign was the Home Upgrade Grant.
Our behaviour change campaign Little Changes, Big Impact continued to push out ideas to our residents on social media and in our newsletters.
The campaign highlights small actions residents can make to become more sustainable and reduce their carbon footprint such as improving biodiversity and avoiding single-use items.
The council also uses press releases, e-newsletters, the Town and Country magazine and the Bracknell Forest Council website to communicate with our residents.
The climate change team’s press releases are often picked up by the Bracknell News, and on local radio or news channels. Some examples are:
We developed a councillors prompt sheet to highlight simple climate change related messaging for our communities.
Forest Views and Forest Views Extra provide us with opportunities to highlight our actions and activities direct to council employees and councillors.
Viva Engage offers a channel for anyone at the council to comment or share climate change related materials, whether they be informative, interesting or potential prompts for behaviours and actions to help tackle climate change.
For those who prefer engaging in-person we convened a new Staff Climate Network during 2023 to 2024. These sessions can be attended either in-person or virtually online and provide a platform for all council officers to discuss general climate change issues and share insights for change.
Staff engagement played an important role in planning the new Climate Change Strategy. Three workshops and a survey were organised for staff, a workshop was held for
councillors, and presentations were organised for the Corporate Management Team (CMT) and the Departmental Management Teams (DMTs).
2023 to 2024 has felt like a year of faster paced, more widespread engagement around the topic of climate change internally within the council itself but more notably in terms of external facing activities. The JCAB and its supporting working groups have given impetus to collaborative, borough-wide involvement in mitigating and adapting to the impacts of climate change.
2024 to 2025 promises not only a refresh of the council’s existing climate change strategy but the creation of a new community-led climate emergency strategy too. Each will be accompanied by a more targeted climate change action plan which will seek to highlight the pathways through which we intend to continue to drive towards making the borough net-zero as soon as possible.
