Tree planting and grants for community climate projects highlighted in latest Climate Action report
Tree planting and grants to help community climate projects have been highlighted in a new report from Vale of White Horse District Council.
As part of its commitment towards tackling climate change, the Vale publishes a quarterly report showing the progress of its Climate Action Plan. The Plan sets out the steps it will take to become a carbon neutral council and how it will support local efforts to reduce carbon emissions across the district.
The Vale’s latest Climate Action Plan report covers October to December 2022.
The report highlighted grants available to help residents make their homes more energy efficient and for communities to carry out climate action and energy saving projects in their local area.
During November, the council promoted events in National Tree Week and encouraged residents and community groups to take part, offering information on how residents and communities could get free trees and how they could apply to plant them on council-owned land.
As well as planting trees, the council also developed plans for a new wildflower meadow at Heron’s Walk in Abingdon to go with the other six existing wildflower meadows across the district.
The council launched the Climate Action Fund, which offered a total of £50,000 to support community organisations and town and parish councils towards climate action projects such as tree planting, a sustainable eating course and improvement work at a nature trail.
Cllr Sally Povolotsky, Cabinet Member for Climate Emergency and Environment at Vale of White Horse District Council, said: “Our commitment to tackling the climate emergency has come through this quarter on so many fronts including proposals to increase biodiversity on our own land with our wildlife meadows and tree planting.
“Mindful of the cost-of-living crisis and the climate emergency we began providing information on how residents can save energy use as well as giving grants for energy efficiency improvements to their homes.”
“This report shows us being committed to working in an open and transparent way. We are not just talking about climate action but are also showing our progress publicly, so we can be held to account.”
The Vale Climate report was presented to the council’s Cabinet meeting on 10 March. The full report is on the council’s Action on Climate and Nature page.
During the same meeting, cabinet members also considered the council’s quarterly Corporate Performance Report which highlighted its work from October to December towards achieving its corporate priorities of providing the homes people need by publishing its housing delivery strategy and action plan. It also worked towards its priorities of building healthy communities and building stable finances by, for example, applying for funding from the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme to help reduce carbon emissions and energy bills at its leisure centres, which could future-proof them for years to come.
As the cost-of-living crisis worsened throughout the quarter, the council’s Community Hub continued to assist those in the community who are most in need.
Notes for editors
For more information about Vale of White Horse District Council’s work on tackling the climate emergency and to view the council’s Climate Action Plan, visit whitehorsedc.gov.uk/climateaction
For more information about all of the Vale of White Horse District Council’s work you can read our quarterly and annual reports on our council performance and data reports page.
