Council vows to do even more after Worthing is named second cleanest in England

Worthing is the second cleanest town in the country, according to an in-depth environmental study - but the Council insists the journey to become greener and cleaner has only just begun.

Worthing is the second cleanest town in the country, according to an in-depth environmental study - but the Council insists the journey to become greener and cleaner has only just begun.

The town was only pipped by Exeter, in Devon, in the rankings of the country's 55 largest primary urban centres in the ENDS REPORT index, which is based on more than 30 environmental factors grouped into five categories. These are air quality, climate, water quality, public realm and green behaviour. Near-neighbour Brighton was named third.

Worthing ranked highly on climate in the study. According to the data, the town has the highest volume of installed renewable electricity capacity per 10,000 households of any of England's primary urban areas, and the second lowest CO2 emissions per capita.

However, despite the impressive ranking, Cllr Edward Crouch, Worthing Borough Council's Executive Member for Digital and Environmental Services, insisted there is still much more to do. He said: “It is fantastic news to be ranked so highly and gaining recognition for being such a clean town and is recognition for all the work that has been done by the Council, businesses and residents.

“Together with Adur District Council and other neighbouring authorities, we have worked incredibly hard to become more environmentally friendly, but that work is only just beginning and the journey to become even cleaner and greener still has a long way to go.

“We are very fortunate to live where we do but there is so much more we can still do to improve our record even further and ensure the town and surrounding areas continue to get even cleaner, now and for future generations.”

ENDS' Clean Cities Index was created following an extensive data project, drawing on data at 'primary urban area' level - a measure of the 'built-up' area of a town or city, rather than individual local authority districts. More than 30 environmental indicators from external data points were compiled and ranked in order to provide a list of England's cleanest - and dirtiest - urban areas.

The ENDS REPORT is a news and data-led publishing platform for environmental experts. It is owned by Haymarket Media Group, an established global, specialist media and information business.

Jamie Carpenter, editor of ENDS Report, said:

“The Clean Cities Index is intended to start a debate about the state of the environment in our biggest towns and cities, and shine a spotlight on some of the wide environmental disparities that exist between them.

“We need to 'level up' our cities so that all city dwellers, from Brighton to Burnley, and from Milton Keynes to Manchester, can enjoy a clean and green living environment. While we have seen welcome progress against some environmental indicators, this has not been uniform, and much more needs to be done.”

Worthing Borough Council has displayed its commitment to becoming greener and protecting the natural environment with a string of initiatives, as well as setting the target of becoming carbon neutral by 2030.

One of the Council's most ambitious plans is the Worthing Heat Network (WHN), a pioneering district heating network powered by heat pumps using waste heat from the sewers. The scheme will link up 27 buildings including the Town Hall, library, hospital, leisure centres, law courts and possibly even schools.

Worthing Borough Council is also planning to create more than 200 sustainable flats on the brownfield site of the former gasworks in the town to further reduce carbon emissions, while embarking on a series of tree planting and regeneration projects.