Knowsley Council
The Government has highlighted that local authorities are at the forefront of addressing climate change at a local level and Knowsley Council is taking this responsibility seriously, writes Nick Kavanagh, executive director of regeneration, economy and skills at Knowsley Council.
There are many ways in which we are addressing this as an organisation, with our staff, our buildings, residents and partners, developing policies that are proactive in tackling and preventing climate change.
Knowsley has had an Environmental Policy in place for over 10 years. In October 2007 we signed the Nottingham Declaration on Climate Change and in October 2008 the council's first Climate Change Strategy was approved.
More recently we have started work on a Climate Change Strategy for the Local Strategic Partnership and following consulting on this will be launching the final action in autumn 2010.
One new element will be participation in the Carbon Trust's carbon management programme from May 2010 having successfully been awarded partner status. This will build on existing carbon reduction activities such as: landfill diversion through waste reduction and recycling such as our Love Food Hate Waste campaign with WRAP; eco driving as part of our green fleet review with the Energy Savings Trust; and sustainable urban drainage developments (SUDs) as part our green space ranger service.
Reducing carbon emissions from council buildings
The council has its own dedicated Energy Conservation Team whose role is to work across the council to reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions. As part of this, we have real time energy monitoring, also known as Eco-warrior, installed at 31 sites and 18 schools. This allows us to see how much energy we are consuming and make adjustments. Since 1998, we have run an 'Energy Recycling Fund' to help service across the council install energy monitoring and energy efficiency measures. This is basically an interest free loan to install energy saving measures and the loan is repaid from the savings made on reduced energy bills. Over 70 projects have been financed using this fund.
As part of the Government's Building Schools for Future programme all of Knowsley's secondary schools have been replaced with seven new Centres for Learning within a year. The Council has a Merton-rule style planning policy which states that 10% of energy requirements must be generated on-site by renewable energy for any development over a 1,000 sq m.
To comply with this, all of Knowsley's Centres for Learning have ground source heat pumps installed. Energy efficiency is also incorporated into the design of the new centres.
Staff travel
In 2008 a Staff Travel Plan Co-ordinator was appointed to work jointly for Knowsley Council and NHS Knowsley. Since then 157 members of staff have ordered bikes through the 'Cycle to Work' salary sacrifice scheme.
A Green Commuter Club and car sharing scheme have been established and around 100 of the council's fleet drivers and 70 other staff who drive on council business have taken part in 'Smarter Driver' Training.
We are also working with the Energy Saving Trust to carry out a green fleet review for all council owned vehicles.
Future plans
We are in the process of developing a pilot Environmental Management System in accordance with the voluntary ISO 14001 standard and we will also be part of the Government's mandatory Carbon Reduction Commitment and preparations for this are already in progress.
Residents
We are also doing a lot of work with our residents to raise awareness of how they can help Knowsley as a borough become more energy efficient and at the same time, make their homes more energy efficient and save themselves money. A survey carried out by British Gas in 2005 that said Knowsley was the most energy efficient borough in England.
Renewable Energy Report
Knowsley has recently commissioned a study to identify more medium to long term options for the borough to increase its capability to produce renewable and low carbon energy supplies.
The study shows that the Council and our partners have made notable progress already, but need to be more conscious of and adopt a more proactive approach to the implications of the climate change agenda whenever decisions are being taken on: existing buildings, any proposed new buildings, all new or existing development sites including business parks and other administrative offices, all housing developments, transport and other infrastructure proposals.
Since the study, we have worked with partners to develop an action plan and a number of projects are already underway including:
- Major regeneration projects such as the redevelopment of Stockbridge Village include a renewable energy component,
- Influencing Employment and Skills policy to ensure our residents are equipped with the necessary skills, including retraining to succeed in this growing economy.
- Maintaining and strengthening the links between the borough and the Liverpool city region to deliver against the Multi Area Agreement Economy platform which includes developing the green economy across the region.
