Harborough District Council (HDC) is at last getting going on developing its response to the Climate Emergency it declared in 2018. HDC set up a working group to draw up a Climate Emergency Action Plan in 2019, but unfortunately had to put this on hold as it diverted money and manpower to tackling the Covid pandemic. But now the council have got started on this vital piece of work again, and are asking local residents to respond to an on-line Consultation Survey. (If you not able to complete the survey on-line, paper copies can be collected from the Council Offices.)
The proposed Climate Action Plan will be based around 6 commitments:
The Council commits to demonstrate political and corporate leadership to act on climate change.
The Council commits to managing its own assets and services, with the aim of reducing carbon emission to net zero by 2030, as far as practical.
The Council commits to working with residents and communities to support their actions in reducing emissions and help them increase their resilience to the impacts of climate change.
The Council commits to working with businesses to support their actions in reducing emissions and help them increase their resilience to the impacts of climate change.
The Council commits to ensuring that new development is designed to mitigate emissions and be resilient to the impact of climate change.
The Council commits to working in partnership to promote resilient natural systems that will help to reduce the impacts of climate change.
On the HDC website, the council gives examples of actions they have already taken in relation to each commitment, and then examples of actions they hope to undertake. The Consultation Survey asks you to respond to a few questions connected to each commitment, in which you are invited to let the council know the sorts of things you think they should be doing (or perhaps not doing!).
The format of the responses is 'free form', and allows you to write as little or as much as you like. Unfortunately there is no facility to answer a few questions, then save what you have done and then go back at a later date to do some more questions. So it is a good idea to do a bit of thinking before you start filling the form in.
Sustainable Harborough Community feel this is a really important piece of work, and would encourage you all to complete the survey. We need to let our Councillors know how important this issue is, and to encourage them to take take bold, ambitious and creative action in response to the Emergency. Hopefully this will be the first of many engagements that HDC will make with the local community before finalising their plan.
The closing date for completing the survey is July 30th