Councillors and officers at Dorset Council have been celebrating success recently as their efforts to care for the environment and fight climate change have been recognised by several organisations.
Waste management and vehicle emissions are two of the most important areas of work Dorset Council is focusing on when acting to help prevent climate change, especially in the wake of their Climate Emergency declaration earlier this year.
Eunomia, an independent environmental consultancy, compiles the Local Authority Recycling Carbon Index each year which measures the environmental performance of councils’ recycling services.
Now in its seventh year, the index gives councils an alternative and arguably better measure of the environmental performance of their waste and recycling services. With this indicator, it shows which local authorities’ recycling services deliver the greatest carbon benefits.
The latest Carbon Index for 2017/18 saw the Dorset Waste Partnership – Dorset Council’s waste services – return to first place in the list of over 120 English local authorities with 108CO2e – which works out as the equivalent of 108 kilograms of carbon dioxide saved per Dorset resident.
In addition to this fantastic achievement, Dorset Council’s Recycling Team recently won Best Team of the Year at the national Local Authority Recycling Advisory Committee (LARAC) Conference Celebration Awards 2019.
The award was in recognition of the team’s contribution to raising and maintaining the council’s kerbside recycling rate, which currently stands at 59.7% and is one of the highest in the country. This has generated savings of over £90,000 in the past year alone.
The Dorset Waste Partnership’s Enforcement Team was also shortlisted for the Best Partnership Award, regarding its work to combat rural crime, setting up pro-active partnerships with Dorset Police, the DVLA and the community initiative Litter Free Dorset, as well as working with private landowners, the Environment Agency, Keep Britain Tidy, and various housing associations.
And finally, Dorset recently featured in the Top 20 local authorities recognised by Friends of the Earth (FotE) for its performance in mitigating climate change through eco-friendly working and sustainable initiatives.
FotE looked at every council area in England and Wales and graded its performance by reviewing data on various factors, including but not limited to household energy efficiency, eco-heating, renewable energy, and the reuse, recycling and composting of household waste. From this data, FotE awarded Dorset a score of 80%, placing it in the fourth highest-scoring band.
Cllr Tony Alford, Portfolio Holder for Customer, Community and Regulatory Services at Dorset Council, commented:
“Congratulations to everyone that has been involved in these wonderful achievements. We’re very proud of the hard work that has gone into transforming our waste services over the years and this recognition is proof positive that our efforts are making a huge contribution in the fight against climate change, as well as maintaining high quality services and saving money.”
Cllr Ray Bryan, chair of Dorset Council’s Climate Change Executive Advisory Panel, added:
“Dorset has always had a strong legacy of caring for the environment. We will build on these recent successes as we put together our Climate Emergency action plans and seek to perform even better in the future. Well done everyone and keep up the good work.”
Declaring a Climate Emergency (along with the UK Government and many other Local Authorities) is just the first step. Having done it we now have to step up our efforts MASSIVELY in order to take genuinely effective action. Carrying on business as usual is not an option. Neither is making minor teaks and adjustments here and there. There are difficult decisions to be taken but we HAVE to be brave and take them. They will require nothing less than radical changes to the way we lead our lives, and although some of them will require us to forego the standard of living we’ve become used to if we don’t do them then our standard of living will ultimately be totally destroyed … as will our civilisation, as Sir David Attenborough has plainly stated. As inconvenient as some of the changes will be they are as nothing compared to the ‘inconvenience’ that uncontrolled climate change will force upon us. So come on Dorset Council, be brave and do what has to be done ! Tell the people the truth and they will understand what has to be done.
And yet I can’t get a satisfactory response to my concerns about the constant cutting of the grass and wild areas up at the council-run/owned Monkton Park in Dorchester. Dorset Council claims to recognise the ecological crisis, yet it is still destroying areas that could be wildlife havens over five months after their claim to have recognised the problem. If they haven’t cascaded the facts to their council workers and even SAVED MONEY by reducing needless cutting by this point, what hope is there?
Well done! Great news all round.
You would be able to bring the carbon down a lot more if you started fining people for idling, like you have the authority to do.
Last week I counted 87 vehicles parked outside shops, schools etc, engine running. 82 of these were using their mobile phones and 2 of the drivers were not even in the vehicles. I can`t walk through Christchurch high street as I suffer from asthma and the level of pollution is so bad. Every day there is a Hurn waste recycling lorry parked outside the card shop with it`s engine running for an hour, whilst he drinks his coffee, eats his lunch and makes his phone calls!
Well done, let’s us all keep up the good work. Proud to live in Dorset with results like these. Happy to pay more rates if we can help the environment.
Delighted that Dorset Council is doing so much to tackle climate change. As someone who spend many years in local government I appreciate how important these initiatives are. Times are tough financially for local authorities so it’s great to know they can be part of positive change despite these pressures.
Fantastic news. Congratulations to all involved in protection of our precious environment and contribution to holding back climate change.
These are great results but we can and MUST do more, so much more and quickly. Traffic reduction or more sustainable transport across our county must be one area which can produce rapid beneficial outcomes. We need elected decision makers and influencers to be brave, start the ball rolling and know that there is a growing mind set and determination for change aong the population that supports it, however uncomfortable it will sometimes inevitably feel.
All of the efforts at reducing carbon emissions and tackling climate change are to be applauded. But the proposed planning consent for new build houses in small Dorset villages, I refer to Okeford Fitzpaine in particular, must surely be counterproductive. In villages where there are no employment prospects and education limited to primary schools as well as poor public transport must lead to a massive use of private vehicles. 30 new houses must lead to at least 60 road trips by residents each day to access work, schools and purchases. The resulting vehicle emissions will cancel out and exceed many of the best intentions of other endeavours to combat climate change?
Is there no joined up thinking by the county authorities?
I so agree with this. This kind of development does nothing to ease the housing crisis. And, as well as causing additional traffic, they reduce the amount of land available for wildlife. Dorset Council would do well to challenge Government quotas for newbuild, as some other West Country planning authorities have done.
Lynne Crowe
20 Fancy’s Close, Portland, DT5 2AJ
Oh, so good, but what about the REALITY of filth, i.e. debris of all types along Dorset highways, roads and even rural lanes? This is a problem you have not really tackled, despite what you say: drive around Dorset and you soon see rubbish discarded by the public too lazy to dispose of it properly, and who do not care about the environmental consequences. You are not tackling the root of the problem. People should be caught on cameras strategically placed and named and shamed and hit with large fines. You might be trying to clear rubbish sporadically, but this does nothing, apart from spending tax payers’ hard earn taxes, to remedy THE CAUSE. Why can you not see this? Or is it too big a problem and thus you bury your heads in the sand? I report fly tipping, I go along my road and collect discarded rubbish, but this is NOT the answer. Grasp the nettle and meet the problem head on. I have written to 52 councillors in the past on more than one occasion, but to what avail? Some of the answers I received were quite pathetic. Other European countries, where I drive extensively, put us to shame.
Congratulations to the DWP team!! Some good news for those of us living in and loving Dorset. Thanks for the work you all do.