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CPRE Cheshire response to CW&C Climate Emergency Response Plan engagement

29th August 2024

Cheshire West and Chester Council are asking what they should include in a new Climate Emergency Response Plan. We make a number of suggestions, but stress the need for publicly available progress updates on actions suggested in the current plan.

In the absence of information relating to progress on CW&C’s current Plan, we looked at Climate Emergency UK’s local authority scorecard data. This covers completed actions in respect of seven environmental themes between Jan 2019 and March 2023. We started our response by pointing out that for six out of the seven themes, Cheshire West and Chester performed poorly. The exception was Collaboration and Engagement.

Cheshire West and Chester Climate Emergency UK score card results

Collaboration and engagement – 76% (average 53%)

Transport – 14% (average 22%)

Building and heating – 47% ((average 49%)

Planning and land use – 33% (average 35%)

Government and finance – 28% (average 27%)

Biodiversity – 31% (average 27%)

Waste reduction and food – 48% (average 48%)

Climate Emergency 2023 UK scorecard results for Cheshire West and Chester

Section by section comments

Transport

We note that the low Climate Emergency UK score for transport partly reflects an issue in the survey’s grading system. The system – which has been corrected for the next survey, currently under way – penalised lack of action on clean air/low emissions zones without recognising that largely rural authorities would be unlikely to introduce such zones. But this would only have been one factor in being awarded such a low rating.

We welcome CW&C’s recognition that it is important to use technology to reduce travel, and recommend the adoption of CPRE’s sustainable transport hierarchy. This prioritises the use of digital communications where appropriate. The emphasis overall must be on sustainable transport modes. It is not sustainable to keep providing more highway capacity, as this just leads to more traffic and calls for yet more capacity. We refer to our response to the Local Transport Plan consultation in January 2024. This highlights the effect of transport on climate change.

We also comment that it is important to stop planning future transport needs based on ‘peak demands’ for transport infrastructure. The growth of home working and the changing timings of school transport trips (because of longer school days, with breakfast clubs and more after school activities) make the concept of peak demand outdated.

Housing

Oddly, the current Plan incorporates commercial and non domestic buildings under the heading of Housing. The Plan lists a number of recommended interventions, but there is no obvious information available online explaining what progress has been made.

We ask whether CW&C have a costed retrofitting plan for their own buildings.

We also note that as CW&C are currently at the early stages of preparing a new Local Plan, this gives the ideal opportunity to set high environmental requirements for future new developments.

Land use, adaptation, climate repair

The term ‘Land use’ is normally used in relation to spatial planning. However, CW&C have used it to cover the descriptions of habitats, farming, woodland and land management. We suggest these issues should be covered under a ‘Biodiversity or ‘Natural capital and biodiversity’ heading.

A separate ‘Land use’ section should then cover how land is allocated for development or otherwise, and include actions relating to non-domestic buildings, air quality and carbon capture. This section should explain why building on brownfield land should be prioritised as the more sustainable option, and be cross-referenced with the Local Plan.

Business and industry

Unusually, CW&C declare that emissions from industry are the largest component of the borough’s overall greenhouse gas emissions. Elsewhere, this is normally transport.

We note the encouraging Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) data showing a drop in local carbon emissions to 2022 (as part of a fall nationwide), and hope this trend continues.

CW&C emissions figures:

2021 – 4.021 million tonnes

2022 – 3.201 million tonnes

Energy

We draw attention to CPRE’s rooftop solar campaign, which calls for much greater use of rooftops for solar energy to reduce the need to build solar farms in the countryside.

CPRE rooftop solar campaign

We note our support for heat pumps, while recognising the cost issues need resolving.

We state our opposition to fracking, which contributes to climate change and is a serious threat to the countryside.

Waste, recycling and the circular economy

We query a number of issues including:

Whether earlier successes in reducing waste (as noted in the current policy) have continued.
Whether the council has produced a waste management strategy (which it committed to do).
What progress has been made towards the current Plan’s aims to reduce the emissions from waste vehicles, reduce food waste in schools, and explore creating a community-led award scheme for sustainable businesses.