Latest on Climate Emergency Action Plan for Chichester

Chichester District Council has adopted its new Climate Emergency Action Plan.

The plan for 2025-2030, which includes housing de-carbonisation and the extension of the Chichester Tree Project, was approved during a meeting of the full council on  Tuesday (July 15).

Its aim is to reduce the council’s carbon emissions to net zero by 2040, while helping residents and businesses to make their own improvements.

Jonathan Brown, cabinet member for environmental strategy, said: “We can’t do everything that we would like to do, so it’s important that what we are taking forward has local support. And there is a general sense that we’re all prioritising the right things.”

Project Initiation Documents have already been drawn up for the de-carbonisation and tree projects. Members approved the use of £307,000 and £200,000 respectively to pay for officers to oversee the projects for five years.

That approval was not unanimous, though, with a handful voting against the idea.

Brett Burkhart (Con, Fernhurst) spoke of the ‘inhouse talent’ the council already had and said of the money earmarked for a tree project officer: “We could plant 40,000 trees with that money rather than lining the pocket of a new employee.”

She also raised concerns that money for the government-funded project could ‘dry up’ over the next five years.

Stressing the importance of a tree officer, Mr Brown pointed out that the council had planted 63,000 over the last three years as a result of the post.  He said the idea of the money drying up was not ‘a realistic prospect’, adding: “All local government decisions are based upon a certain number of assumptions. You do work to ensure that those assumptions are as realistic as possible.

“Climate change is real. Either we’re all going to fry or drown or we are going to start to deal with climate change and climate mitigation.”

A public consultation into the plan saw the highest response ever received by the council. Rather than focussing on high-emission areas such as traffic, which the authority has little control over, the aim was to focus on things that could actually be addressed.

Among the projects included in the plan are: setting policies to ensure taxis meet the emissions criteria, street tree planting schemes for new developments, working with schools and students to come up with ideas about local climate change projects, and producing template climate change policies for community organisations to incorporate into their procedures.

Mr Brown said: “I would, of course, like to be able to do more but I am very pleased with the ambition of this plan. It’s a commitment to get to grips with some large-scale, challenging subjects, which shouldn’t have been put off for so long.

“It will be nice to think that government might one day give local authorities more power and responsibility for tackling climate change at a local level. But until then, I’m proud to say that this action plan will enable us to do as much as we can.”