Case studies

There had been intermittent problems with the audio system in the council chamber for some years before the pandemic lockdown which had caused difficulties in public meetings and generated complaints from members of the public. This feedback was taken extremely seriously and resulted in a commitment from councillors and officers to review the current provision because it was no longer deemed fit for purpose.

Solihull Council has embarked on a scheme to deliver an alternative source of affordable low carbon energy to the town centre. The network will distribute low carbon heat and power from a single energy centre directly into town centre buildings. The energy centre at the heart of this network will provide a range of renewable and low carbon energy solutions including air source heat pumps and gas combined heat and power.

Rubicon Regeneration were commissioned as part of the LGA’s Economic Growth Advisers programme to support Southend-on-Sea Borough Council to improve outcomes for 18-25s in Southend-on-Sea.

Building on a culture of partnership working, Colchester Borough Council has intensified existing partnerships and networks to facilitate the area’s recovery from the pandemic.

Langport Town Council, in partnership with neighbouring Huish Episcopi Parish Council, set up an online climate forum in the autumn of 2020, to engage and swap climate adaptation ideas with more than 20 other parish councils that share the fragile ecology of the Somerset Levels.

To meet it’s target to be carbon neutral by 2030, the Council have developed a Carbon Neutral Plan.

In recognition of the climate emergency, West Sussex County Council launched its Climate Change Strategy during 2020. This underpins their corporate plan, making climate change a fundamental consideration of all actions going forward and elevating progress on a wide variety of supporting projects.

In 2014, Telford & Wrekin Council became only the second local authority in the UK to build a publicly owned solar farm. It took less than 18 months between the initial plans being proposed and construction being completed.

The site is significant in contributing to both councils’ housing land requirement (but is appropriately recognised in NCC policy terms as a regeneration site and therefore not unduly relied upon for the purposes of housing delivery calculations). 

Established by endowment by the Milton Keynes Development Corporation at the outset of the New Town in 1967, the Parks Trust manage much of the green space within Milton Keynes, funded through the ownership of local assets as well as income from leisure and recreation uses within the city’s greenspace.