Leader's blog - 5 April 2023
Published: Wednesday, 5 April, 2023
"Two years ago, Stroud District Council committed to do everything in its power to make the district carbon neutral by 2030, and we saw in the annual report brought to last week’s Environment Committee the many ways the council, our partners, and our communities have already acted to limit, adapt and respond to a changing climate.
The full report will be published soon, but a few highlights: we’ve secured £5m to replace ageing gas boilers with low carbon technologies at three major council buildings, and sponsored a successful bid for a green skills centre at Berkeley Green. We’ve built 24 ‘A’ rated council homes, saving an estimated 75 tonnes of carbon a year, and with partners we have put in place eight new natural flood management schemes, 450 trees and two new ponds. Our 2022 emissions as an organisation were less than half those in 2015.
Last week the committee also approved the electric charger strategy for our car parks – this sits alongside the county council’s upcoming rollout of on-street chargers, and officers from the two councils have been working closely to ensure that the chosen locations make sense for our communities.
We also agreed a new strategy for our vehicle procurement, balancing environmental considerations with the need to provide reliable service. Most of our new purchases will now be electric, but while we wait for the technology for the largest vehicles to catch up with our hillier terrain, a variety of interim measures will reduce our fleet’s carbon footprint.
Plenty more to do, of course, and our Community Engagement Board, made up of volunteers from communities within and across the district, is drawing up its first workplan to support local work on protecting our environment. If you’d like to know more about this work, find information on our webpages and follow our social media on #StroudDistrict2030.
There are no changes to collections over the Easter weekend, so please put your waste and recycling out as normal on Good Friday and Easter Monday. Don’t forget to recycle all cardboard, foil and plastic packaging from your Easter eggs.
Happy Easter!"
This week's blog was written by Cllr Chloe Turner, Chair of Stroud District Council Environment Committee