In 2019 Telford & Wrekin Council declared a climate emergency.
In 2020 we published our report and action plan which will begin the conversation around what we need to do, as a Council and as a borough to limit the impact of climate change and to meet our commitment to be carbon neutral in 10 years’ time.
The Action Plan sets out the ways in which we will achieve our goal. Among the headline ideas to help the Council achieve this goal are:
- Bringing forward a strategy for woodland management, mapping opportunities for restoration, restructuring and new planting and scoping the potential to create a series of new community forests – reflecting the borough’s place as a “forest community”. Trees are a vital means to capture carbon and the borough is already blessed with over 15 million trees.
- Heat the borough’s swimming pools with solar power – work to make Wellington Pool a partially solar heated pool will start in the spring. New Solar Photovoltaic Panels will also be installed on Newport Swimming Pool.
- With private sector support, seek to develop an “electric fast filling station” for electric vehicles on one of the borough’s main roads. Here e-vehicles could quickly recharge their batteries, using 100% renewable energy.
- Increase the number e-vehicle charging points on council owned car parks and in other publicly accessible locations such as supermarkets. This will help meet and stimulate more demand for e-vehicles in the borough, underlined by the Government’s commitment to end production of diesel and petrol fuelled vehicles by 2035.
- Expand a district heating network to power the flagship Southwater development. This large scale district heating network would build on an existing low carbon system that already powers Telford Ice Rink and the nearby SW1 library building. The plan would be to work with partners to expand this to cover other businesses in Southwater and explore extending it to supply Station Quarter – the next phase of Telford Town Centre transformation.
In March 2021 we presented an annual update to Telford & Wrekin Council's Cabinet detailing that emissions from the local authority’s operations in 2019/20 fell by 36% compared to the previous year.
View more and read the Cabinet report dated 18th March 2021.
In November 2021 we presented a six month update to Telford & Wrekin Council's Cabinet stating that compared to 2019/20, the Council's carbon emissions in 2020/21 reduced by approximately 1,687 tonnes CO2e (33%) from 5,055 tonnes CO2e to 3,368 tonnes CO2e.
View more and read the Cabinet report dated 4th November 2021.
In September 2022 we presented an annual update to Telford & Wrekin Council's Cabinet stating that compared to a re-baselined 2018/19, the Council's carbon emissions in 2021/22 reduced by approximately 3,260 tonnes CO2e (57%).
View more and read the Cabinet report dated 22nd September 2022
View more and read our Becoming Carbon Neutral Action Plan here.