Updated action plan to tackle climate change and help environment

20 Aug 2024

An action plan, which is already helping the council, residents and businesses cut carbon emissions and help the environment, is now set to achieve even more.

West Suffolk Council, whose four strategic priorities include environmental resilience, has just published its environmental statement and updated its Environment and Climate Change Action Plan. The statement captures the environmental performance of the council while the action plan sets the work being done not only to improve on this, but to also help residents and businesses for the benefit of the whole of West Suffolk.

Both reaffirm the council’s ambition to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2030, as well as supporting residents and businesses to cut emissions, improve air quality and save on their own energy costs.

The achievements of the Action Plan have been reviewed by the council’s Environment and Sustainability Reference Group (ESRG) chaired by Cllr Julia Wakelam. They included:

• a 20% increase in renewable energy generation since 2022-23.
• 421,490 electric vehicle miles powered by the council’s public EV charge points which collectively can recharge 70 vehicles at any one time. More public charge points are to be installed within this financial year.
• 136 new trees and 600 whips planted by West Suffolk Council in 2023-24.

Other highlights captured in the action plan review include:

• 151 Flagship housing association homes retrofitted to improve energy efficiency between 2023 to 2024. 
• solar panels installed on 21 solar for business buildings in 2023-2024, saving 459 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year, saving businesses money on their energy costs. The whole scheme now contributes £690,000 to council finances in 2023-2024. 
• Close to 6,000 pieces of recyclable rubbish deposited into reverse vending machines in Bury St Edmunds and Newmarket during the opening four months of a pilot scheme being delivered in partnership with Trovr, Love Newmarket Business Improvement District (BID), The Guineas Shopping Centre, Abbeycroft, Eastern Education Group and Our Bury St Edmunds BID.
• the council launched the Decarbonisation Initiative Fund in March 2024 and has since converted over 1600 town and parish council owned streetlights to Light Emitting Diodes (LED), which are more energy efficient and better for the environment. Mildenhall High Town Council was the first to benefit from the scheme. The work will save around 200 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year. 
• £27,000 secured from the Local Authority Treescape Fund to plant 112 semi-mature heavy standard trees and three years’ worth of watering and aftercare.

But the review also highlights the need for the council to do more if it is to meet its ambition of net zero carbon emissions in just six years’ time. 

To help to try to achieve this, the Environment and Sustainability Reference Group recommended a host of new actions which were agreed by the council’s Cabinet last month. These new actions include:

• exploring costs, opportunities, and implications for electric vehicle waste freighters.
• scoping the phasing out of gas use in all the council’s buildings.
• developing a business case to end the use of Combined Heat and Power (CHPs) in all council leisure centres.
• exploring opportunities to require more stringent building standards than the national standard to ensure efficient buildings. 

Cllr Gerald Kelly, Cabinet member for the Environment, said: “I’d like to thank the Environment and Sustainability Reference Group (ESRG) chaired by Cllr Julia Wakelam for all the important work they have done. 

“We know there is good progress being made, but we also recognise that there is much more that needs to be done to cut the council’s carbon emissions and to support residents and businesses in taking similar action.

“Our strategic priority for environmental resilience isn’t just about the council meeting its own ambition of achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2030. 

“Real action to tackle climate change and help the environment requires each and every one of us to take positive steps. That’s why it is vital that we look at how we further strive support communities and businesses to the benefit and protection of the environment that we all share, for the benefit of our health, our lives, and our planet.”

You can read the updated Environment and Climate Change Action Plan and environment statement at: Tackling climate change

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