Lancaster City Council is top in country for tackling climate change

Climate Emergency UK created the scorecards by assessing seven areas: buildings and heating; transport; governance and finance; planning; biodiversity; collaboration and engagement, and waste reduction and food.

They wanted to find out how councils are doing in their efforts to decarbonise and the city council scored an average of 61%, making it the top performing district council in the country.

The district council average is 29% and only four district councils scored over 50%, with Lancaster the only district council to score over 60%.

Councillor Gina Dowding, cabinet member with responsibility for climate action, said: “This is an incredible achievement and a testament to the hard work of councillors and

officers who have worked together and made achieving net zero a priority.

"Thanks also go to our partners and stakeholders for their commitment and support in delivering some big projects that are making a huge difference.“Since declaring a climate emergency in 2019 we have taken some bold decisions and it is great to see that they are being recognised on a national stage.

"The scorecard also helps us to identify areas where we can make improvements for the future and how we can go even further in our efforts to tackle climate change.”

Some of the projects that the council has undertaken and have helped it to achieve top place include the decarbonisation of Salt Ayre Leisure Centre and the introduction of a car club with Co Wheels to make electric vehicles more accessible.

The council has also reviewed its Local Plan to include more measures to mitigate the effects of climate change and reduce carbon emissions.

To find out more about the action being taken visit https://www.lancaster.gov.uk/sites/climate-emergency

Visit https://councilclimatescorecards.uk/