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Home energy efficiency, bus service reform and local food among recommendations to tackle climate change locally

Posted on - 7th September, 2024 - 7:00am | Author - | Posted in - Preston Council, Preston News, Redevelopment
Preston's People Climate Jury
Preston’s People Climate Jury

Improving home energy efficiency, making it easier to charge electric vehicles and encouraging people to grow their own food are just some of the ways in which Preston plans to help tackle climate change.

The measures are amongst a raft of recommendations delivered by a group of residents who sat on the city’s first climate jury.

A 21-point action plan – drawn up after more than 30 hours of deliberations and listening to presentations from experts – has now been committed to “in principle” by Preston City Council.

Read more: Changing Preston climate shows ‘definite’ need for action

The authority acknowledges that the power to make many of the proposals a reality rests with other public and private sector organisations, the government – and ordinary Prestonians.  However, councillors supported the aims of the plan and agreed to receive twice-yearly updates about how it is progressing.

The recommendations of the 27 jurors – selected to be a representative cross-section of the city –  were dominated by three themes:  housing, transport and food.  They gave rise to some more detailed suggestions regarding how the ambitions could be realised.

In an attempt to make the city’s homes more energy efficient, the council will promote the so-called ‘retrofitting’ of social housing to keep properties warm while being less wasteful – and will also explore how an ongoing review to improve the private rented sector in the city can be harnessed to achieve the same outcome for those dwellings.

Town hall officers will develop a strategy to prioritise access to on-street electric vehicle charging points and investigate the establishment of ‘car clubs’ – where vehicles can be rented and picked up from designated points in the city. Public ownership of buses and reform of the current bus service has also been recommended

Meanwhile, consideration will be given to the creation of a Preston or Central Lancashire-wide local food partnership – along with work to address the current “bottlenecks” in the city’s allotments service, so that more people can grow their own produce.

Thanking the People’s Climate Jury for its efforts, cabinet member for climate change Carol Henshaw told a recent meeting of the full council that the authority was “already under way” with many of their suggestions.

Deputy Liberal Democrat opposition group leader Neil Darby said it was important for the council to “focus on what we do have power [over] rather than what we don’t” – and called specifically for the recommendations to be incorporated, wherever possible, into the forthcoming Central Lancashire local plan.  That document will guide housing and other development across Preston, Chorley and South Ribble for the next 15 years.

His Lib Dem colleague Mark Jewell sought reassurance that the work to implement the action plan would be properly funded, while Conservative group member Stephen Whittam – in welcoming the action plan – cautioned against the council “spreading [itself] very thin”.

Cllr Henshaw said that the plan had either been “resourced or we’ve got outside organisations involved”, where responsibility for recommendations lay with others.  She added that the jury itself would also be monitoring how their vision was coming together.

“We’re going to be revisiting this every few months – we’re still in contact with the jury, which doesn’t happen normally. [Ordinarily], the climate jury do their work and then that’s the end of it – but ours are very committed to helping still,” Cllr Henshaw said.

The jurors will also be involved in organising a climate festival in the city.

Recommendations in full

These are the 24 recommendations of the climate jury – those in italics do not form part of the action plan to which the Preston City Council has agreed in principle.

Transport/travel

***Improving information about bus services and quality of bus stops.

***Public ownership and reform of the bus service.

***Integrated public transport.

***Improve planning of bus stops and routes.

***Use price incentives to encourage public transport, especially trains.

***Affordable bus transport for young people/school children.

***Understand/address poor condition of roads and pavements, which discourages walking and cycling.

***Encourage cycling by providing bike storage/access to cheap bikes/skills/cycle routes etc..

***Reduce number of cars on the road.

***Promote electric vehicles  – awareness raising, incentives, changing infrastructure, hire cars.

***Consider alternatives to electric vehicles.

***Local research on use of e-scooters in other cities and how learning could be applied in Preston.

***Investigate feasibility of an electric tram system in Preston.

Housing

***Promoting energy efficiency measures and retrofitting.

***Engage with and incentivise landlords to take action on energy efficiency measures.

***Reducing the carbon impact and increasing the climate resilience of new housing.

***Long-term policy commitment to energy efficiency standards across the built environment.

***Developers of commercial/industrial buildings mandated to install solar panel or green roofs.

Food

***Increased access to locally produced food.

***Support the revival of the horticulture industry.

***Encouraging people to grow their own food.

***Reduce meat and dairy consumption.

Community power

***Harness ‘power of community’ to bring about change, including via a Preston climate festival.

Monitoring progress

***Baseline data, monitoring and ongoing updates on climate action plan

The verdict is in

Nadine Johnrose, a member of the Preston People’s Climate Jury from Ribbleton, said after its work was completed earlier this year:

“At the start, I didn’t really know much about climate change. I’ve now left the experience with a good understanding and being part of the jury has been both educational and enjoyable, learning about what changes I can make that can have an overall impact.

“I’ve always felt that it’s something the world has to do, but actually one person can make a difference.”

She said agreeing the recommendations was “an achievement”, because “there were lots of different views and people representing different values”.

“So I’m really proud that we got to this point. I do feel like we have represented Preston in a very fair way because everyone has their say no matter where they are from. Now we want the people of Preston to help implement them.”

Fellow juror, Luke Woodison, who lives in Ashton, added:   “It’s very important, if not the most important issue of our generation. There’s not a lot of information out there about climate change or discussions being had.

“I want to do something to help the local community and help tackle the issue of climate change. I can use what I have learnt and pass that down.

“I hope that the recommendations we have put together are seen and acted on. I want the people who can influence decision-making to take our recommendations seriously. I want everyone to understand that they can play their own part in tackling climate change,” Luke said.

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