Swindon Borough Council have recently released details of some of its plans to help make the town more eco-friendly.
The council released the following statement:
"Everyone has a part to play in responding to the climate emergency.
People’s day-to-day behaviour, choices and purchasing decisions go hand-in-hand with Government-led changes to transition the economy away from a dependency on fossil fuels.
The Government has made a commitment to end the sale of new petrol and diesel vehicles by 2030, and all new vehicles will be required to be fully zero emission at the tailpipe by 2035.
Also, through the Future Homes Standard, no new homes will be built with oil and gas boilers beyond 2025.
Local authorities have an important contribution to make too. This month, an updated version of the council’s climate change action plan will go before the council’s cabinet.
This sets out actions to support a commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions generated by the council and achieve net zero by 2030.
Put simply, that means balancing the amount of greenhouse gas produced with the amount removed from the atmosphere. The council has also made a commitment to support residents and organisations on the journey to net zero, which links to the UK-wide 2050 target.
While it remains a challenging financial landscape for all local authorities, the council is looking to build on progress over recent years including:
• Completing the switchover of the borough’s 26,000 streetlights to LED
• Using renewable energy from local solar farms to meet around 40-50% of the town’s total electricity needs
• Planting around 51,500 new trees across the borough, including 18 sites in the Great Western Community Forest area
• Commitment to roll out a borough-wide food waste collection service to an additional 90,000 households from autumn 2023
• Installing solar panels and loft insulation to improve the efficiency of 669 lower income households, through the Local Authority Delivery scheme
• Running a renewable energy group-buying scheme (Solar Together) to give Swindon homeowners easy access to purchasing solar panels
• Installing the borough’s first on-street electric vehicle charging points
• Purchasing new ultra low emission operations vehicles to decarbonise the council’s fleet, which currently includes 27 full electric and seven hybrid vehicles
• Installing new battery storage and vehicle charging points at the council’s operations depot to fully harness solar energy
Find out how you can ‘Be the Change’ and join people across Swindon taking action to live more sustainably: www.swindon.gov.uk/bethechange"
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