Consultation to be held on Chichester District Council’s second climate emergency action plan

The first plan was put in place after the council declared a climate emergency in 2019. That plan is due to expire in 2025, so work has started on a new one, which will run until 2030.

The situation was discussed during a meeting of the cabinet on Tuesday (April 16). While the current plan focuses mainly on carbon emissions generated by the council, Jonathan Brown, cabinet member for environmental strategy, said a lot of action had already been taken and ‘the low-hanging fruit has been plucked’.

So the new action plan will focus on how the council can use its leadership position to encourage and drive wider change across the district. Mr Brown acknowledged that there was only so much the council could do, legally, to influence the actions of others.

He added: “We want to consult on the proposals and to make them as meaningful as possible and so have produced a list of options that we think are worth pursuing, because we think they are things that we can influence.”

The list includes improving the energy efficiency of private housing stock, street tree planting schemes and green travel plans for new developments, creating a Local Area Energy Plan, and funding a feasibility study for part of a new cycling, wheeling and walking route across Oaklands Park.

Mr Brown said: “With the current level of resourcing, we cannot do all of these things, so the public consultation will be genuine in helping us make that prioritisation.”

He added that not all of the projects would be able to go ahead without funding from elsewhere. He said: “All of the proposals are considered to be both important and realistic enough to be worth at least seriously considering taking forward.”

The consultation will run from July to September. After that, a draft version of the plan will be drawn up by April 2025.

It will be considered by the environment panel in May 2025 and then will go to the cabinet and full council for final approval in July 2025.

The cabinet approved the use of £15,000 from reserves to pay for the consultation.