South Ribble Council has landed the highest marks of all district councils in Lancashire during a climate change assessment.

Climate Emergency UK assessed all UK councils based on climate action plans published online, with South Ribble Borough Council performing well with a score of 60 per cent.

Including unitary councils such as Blackpool and Blackburn with Darwen, South Ribble narrowly missed the top spot by 1 per cent to Blackpool Council, who scored 61 per cent.

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Councillor Mick Titherington, Deputy Leader of South Ribble Borough Council, said: “We developed our comprehensive Climate Emergency Strategy in 2020.

“It was before allowing residents and businesses to give their views on this, which led to the development of the Climate Emergency Action Plan published in summer 2021.

“We’re delighted that we scored highly when our climate emergency plans were assessed by Climate Emergency UK, as these plans outline our objectives, but it is the delivery of the actions within these plans that counts.”

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Councillor Titherington said the council set a goal for South Ribble to become carbon neutral by 2030, and they will continue to deliver action plans to achieve this.

The recent climate action includes tree planting and encouraging residents to participate in tree giveaways, with two events held in January 2022 and another planned for March – contributing to the goal of 110k trees planted in South Ribble by 2025.

The council estates were audited, leading to solar panels, LED lighting and systems to improve energy efficiency at the Civic Centre.

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They enhanced electric Vehicle charging infrastructure, and the council committed to eliminating single-use plastics by 2025.

The Council Climate Scorecards created by Climate Emergency UK aim to allow residents and campaigners to understand the quality of the plans and help councils see where they have done well and where they could improve.

They also allow councils to share best practice examples, as it is easy to see which plans have scored the highest in various sections. 

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During the assessment, carried out by a team of 120 volunteers, the scoring was based on:

• Whether the climate actions are costed
• Do the actions have a clear goal?
• Are local residents being engaged with climate action?
• Does the plan include strategies to decarbonise waste, planning, homes and other services that the council is responsible for?
• Does it go beyond cutting the council’s own emissions and plan to work with others to cut the whole area’s emissions?
• Does the plan cover re-skilling the workforce, climate education, governance and funding for climate action?

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For more information on the Climate Emergency UK Scorecard, visit – climateemergency.uk

To view the South Ribble Borough Council Climate Emergency Strategy and Action Plan, visit – southribble.gov.uk/climatechange  

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What do you think can be done to improve the score? Let us know in the comments below.