Dorset Council are looking for members of the public to submit ideas on how the Council might be able to help tackle climate and ecology concerns.
Since declaring a Climate and Ecological Emergency, Councillors and officers have been working hard behind the scenes to develop ideas for a climate change strategy and action plan.
They are now calling on all Dorset residents to submit their ideas for how they think Dorset Council can reduce carbon emissions and protect the county’s plants and wildlife.
This Call for Ideas is open to everybody, and each submission will be reviewed by the Council’s Task and Finish groups.
The areas that are being looked at are split into five themes: –
- Buildings
- Natural Environment
- Waste and Energy
- Transport
- Leadership and Influence
Dorset residents are being asked to submit their ideas under one or more of these categories via an online form. There are also questions around barriers to action, benefits, priorities and funding that participants are being asked to answer.
Some people will be invited to present their ideas to the Climate Change and Ecological Emergency Executive Advisory Panel in the new year as part of the Council’s forthcoming Climate and Ecological Inquiry Day, which will take place in February and be open to the public.
Every proposed policy and practical action submitted will be passed to the appropriate Task and Finish Group for investigation, each of which is made up of Dorset Council members and officers.
Cllr Peter Wharf, Deputy Leader and portfolio holder for Corporate Development and Change at Dorset Council, said:
“Climate Change is something that affects us all, so we wanted to tap into the wealth of knowledge and ideas that Dorset residents may have in how we could tackle this emergency.
We know that local businesses and local people of all ages have the creativity and ambition to come up with some brilliant solutions for addressing climate change and we want to hear them.
The online form is easy to complete, and people can submit as many ideas as they like. I’m excited to see what suggestions are out there and look forward to seeing some of the more developed ones presented to the panel early next year.”
The Call for Ideas is now open until 28 February 2020, but if participants wish to have their submission considered for presentation to the panel, they should submit their idea before 16 January 2020. The results from the process will be published alongside Dorset Council’s draft climate change strategy and action plan in Spring 2020, that will be open to public consultation.
Dear Dorset Council
(1) Could you consider making it a requirement that new build properties and significant extensions are carbon neutral at least and at best can sell energy to the grid
(2) Consider improving inter-town and local public transport – it’s not convenient now so under-utilised.
(3) create a walking, cycling path along the old railway line at least between Lyme Regis and Axminster like they did along the Tarka Trail in Devon, offer cycle rental along it
(3) consider a Dorset-wide lift-share network perhaps like Airbnb where people can offer or request lifts locally
(4) offer sustainably-sourced community meals for working families and people living alone to build community and to provide examples of good simple food to children. This could be away of getting residents interested in growing food, cooking skills, and looking out for each other.
(5) Rewild all road verges, any in un-developed land
(6) continue drives to reduce single use plastic; encourage returnable/reusable punnets for fruit and veg
Will there be a cycleway off road from Sandford to Lytchett school soon? There was a public right of wAy once.
All new buildings have gray water collection for toilet flush.
Planting Trees:
Trees store Carbon but release it when felled or burned .
In some more urban areas of Dorset large numbers of trees are felled to make space for development ( usually two or more large houses ) . A policy whereby developers should replant ( semi mature ) trees to equal the number they destroy . Considerate development !!
I would like Dorset Council to ensure that ALL new housing incorporates solar power, non-fossil fuel heating (eg air /ground source), grey water collection etc in addition to high levels of good home insulation. This will help the environment, the home occupier will have lower bills and any excess power created can be fed into the grid for the benefit of everyone. I would like to see a policy whereby no new planning is granted without these minimum requirements.
Ban bonfires.
Fines for burning non smokeless fuel in log burners.
stop eating animals
Inviting cessation of the eating of animals can be extrapolated onwards to the need therefore of people eating vegetation. Humans are not easily able to digest high levels of vegetable matter without themselves producing gases which result in themselves (by volume} taking over from animals in polluting the atmosphere. This result means a need to reduce the number of humans on the planet. The population of this planet has reached, and exceeded, plague proportions. This has resulted in the extreme defoliation and destruction of vast tracts of land and forest to then grow ‘filler’ crops such as soya, palm oil and rear vast herds of meat animals. Urgent birth control measures would helpto resolve so many of the problems now besetting the wrld and its resources.
I thoroughly agree with all these suggestions, in particular regarding generating electricity and heat in residential properties.
The cost of photovoltaic panels is now an extremely small addition to the cost of building a house, therefore why not make it a planning requirement of all new housing (and office/industrial units) to have photovoltaic panels fitted… unless there is a very compelling reason why this is not possible. The properties would as a result also have to meet insulation/draught requirements to qualify for panels. Panels for hot water and air source heating are also now very small in relation to new build costs, and could be another factor in granting planning consent.
The County could also lobby for these to become a National Planning requirement.
Ban drilling for oil in Dorset. support offshore and onshore wind – invest in renewables and divest from O&G. Establish North South county high speed bus routes – Support electrification and twin track rail Salisbury to Exeter .. issue a Dorset £ to keep cash in county..
Why ban drilling and just export the problem to somewhere with lower environmental standards and waste CO2 moving the energy around, until we stop using it completely ? We still have diesel trains and buses, heat our homes with gas. Using all local local energy sources is less carbon intensive than importing LNG. The LNG we import from Russia and Qatar uses 20% of the energy and the resulting CO2 emissions just to liquify it. Until we phase out oil an dgas, why should we export our problems, rather than manage them locally ? I woudl rather see continuing to use Dorsets oil and gas, well managed environmentally, tha cover the county in wind farms and still ned an alternate on a cold windless winters day.
I completely support your comment on electrification and twin track railway though !
Yes please. Certainly work to reduce fossil fuels in every way possible: drilling, cars, transport, home gas heating. Needs to start today using incentives to go renewable and disincentives to use fossil fuel.
They all sound like great ideas.
What about a community farm as well.
Perhaps transition towns could be promoted so it becomes more widespread i.e like Totnes in Devon.
You might be interested in the Dorset Green Living Project, Irene. Please see https://www.sustainabledorset.org.
31st December 2019
Dear Dorset Town Council
a) Rewild grass verges. Rewild a section of community spaces.
Make a wildlife corridor through Dorset.
Encourage farmers to leave a section of hedging uncut.
b) Create more Transitional Towns like Totnes in Devon. There are 400 globally.
c) Provide more community education and good speakers to educate us about the necessity to change our approach to comsumerism, allowing our gardens to be spaces for wildlife, plant based nutrition.
d) More community make and repair shops.
e) More community farms projects like the one in Blanford.
f) More public contractors using recycled materials as the Dutch are doing in Rotterdam and Amsterdam.
g) stricter housing regulations where new builds and extensions are carbon neutral, or close to being carbon neutral.
h) Community food projects providing meals for those who need them. These would encourage large retail outlets to donate food and discourage waste.
Please look at Helena Bonastre illustration titled ‘Things we can do to help climate change” – an amusing ( but with a serious message) list of lots of changes many of us can do or at least try before saying no.
i think it would be a good idea to have a park and ride at corfe castle swanage cant take the traffic anymore
Stop building more damned houses.
The council should also be only considering housing genuine locals in any case.
You will never be taken seriously unless property development is CRUSHED and large property firms are put out of business.
This is the one single policy that matters – get rid of all these blasted developments.
Hi
1. Can we go back to paper carrier bags for shopping like we used to?
2. Glass milk bottles?
3. Stop building houses on known flooded areas and in fields that have natural beauty.
4. Electric points for cars.
There are lots of good things we can do to make life more sustainable in Dorset, though personally, using the term Emergency is wrong, and does not always drive the right outcomes.
We should though ensure all new homes meet higher insulation standards.
We have many older and listed buildings where it is hard to improve the energy efficency, and a improving the options for listed buildings would be good. I fail to see why inserting double glazed panes into a sash window of a listed building should still be illegal.
Tie the linking of busses into the renewal of the Southwest train franchise, so buses from Bridport link into the rail line at Crewkerne. Support electrification of the rail line to Exeter.
Publicise the option to voluntarily donate your winter heating allowance if you can live without it to the : https://www.dorsetcommunityfoundation.org/appeals/surviving-winter/
Support a “Grown and raised in Dorset” labelling scheme for farmers and growers so people can reduce their food miles in confidence.
Stop the cutting down of trees in the conservation area of Nordon Blandford, the old north dorset council site, to make way for houses, this area is also a animal and reptile haven , a green lung in the middle of Blandford.
I am looking to instigate a community solar farm in Martinstown to serve the residents. Does the council have land that could be used? Is the council in favour of such an idea and in what way could the Council help?
Many thanks for your time.
Colin
I strongly support local community energy generation, especially solar or wind. Local residents could then take from or supply to a local grid.
Fix the roads first such as Shaftesbury Rd Gillingham. This will first reduce damage to cars etc that leads to increased emissions both from fuel burnt and tyre particulates. It will mean it is safer for cyclists when there is not holes and rough surfaces all over the place . But no you would not do this and have not done it, I feel this is because you have no brains and will love to get on the TV etc making out how sorry you are when a cyclist dies. It is a simple thing to do and will improve pollution and may get more people on to bikes and may even save lives, But the state of road such as i have mentioned is a guide to just how little you really care!!
Source only locally produced food for all foodservice contracts arranged by the council and avoid soya palm oil and imported products that require air or sea or road freight in foodservice with an emphasis on serving locally produced in season meat an vegetable in any council run canteens
Source only locally produced food for all foodservice contracts arranged by the council and avoid soya palm oil and imported products that require air or sea or road freight
Switch all council buildings and operations to clean energy supplier like ecotricity.
Turn off street lights at night.
Adopt the Transition Towns Model – each area organise an open event to brainstorm ideas. Focussing on key themes such as Energy, Transport, Food, Housing, Biodiversity, Genuine Sustainable Development, Food, Waste, Circular Economy, Pollution. Create Transition Streets
Reduce, Repair, Reuse, Recycle
Adopt a Principal Residency Policy so that in future all properties will only be built as HOMES for Need not Greed. We are told that 1000’s of houses are Needed, however this cannot be the case as frequently throughout Dorset properties are built and not lived in. ie are used as second homes/holiday lets. This is unsustainable and no longer an appropriate way to continue in light of Climate Emergency/biodiversity/habitat/land for planting trees/growing food etc.
Environmental/Biodiversity/Habitat/protected species regulations to be upheld
Focus on local Transport links such as Swanage to Wareham train (special rates for locals/working people travelling daily)
Promote and support Human Scale Education – to enable students to identify with their community and understand the importance of being an integral part of that community – to create resilience and localism
Support the ‘Walking (school) Bus’
Continue to support and uphold Eco Schools
Dorset council to support genuine sustainable communities policy – support bottom up development in all areas of Dorset – using the NPPF (Sustainable Development Policy) based on the Brundtland one planet resource agreement when deciding planning outcomes. The Dorset Plan to accept that a new policy view needs to be taken to address climate emergency, habitat/biodiversity extinction – that economic growth at all costs to social and environmental concerns is unacceptable and no longer sustainable in terms of facing climate emergency.
Dorset Council to agree that Mitigation, Biodiversity Offsetting, Community Infrastructure Levy and SANGS are not equal or excuses for supporting unsustainable development.
The planning system to be changed to work for the benefit of local communities – in that the process works in support of Community Land Trusts rather than against. The current process gives hope value to the landowner, developer and agents, making it increasingly challenging to provide genuine affordable housing.
Support local energy projects,
Support off grid applications – adopting the One Planet Policy used in Wales. Stop selling off council farms. Break them down into community smallholdings. Use Fivepenny Farm as a model and also Lammas (Pembrokeshire), That Roundhouse, Ben Laws house, as examples.
Promote Permaculture principals.
Strengthen the change of use policy that at present enables key shops to be closed when owners decide they wish to change from business to residential. Outcome loss of key village facilities such as village shops and pubs.
Very much agree. Regarding air pollution, I believe that the public responds to monitoring information. Some strategically placed PM2.5 monitors (especially on roads where young children walk, play or are pushed in prams) with results widely disseminated would make people push for cleaner air. We all need a stimulus to change our behaviour, whether it be buying/using wood-burning stoves, choice of car from large internal combustion engine SUV to smaller electric only vehicles and many other machines (towards e-bikes, e-lawn mowers, e-boats). The Council needs to study how people make choices and how these can be influenced by ‘nudging’.
We need to plant more trees, LOTS more trees.
We held an ‘Eco Day’ in Marnhull last autumn, and people from the village and surrounding area have been discussing next steps. We intend to begin with an evening of talks and discussion about solar power on 30 March, and another on planting trees and developing meadows, probably in April. We are also working on an area-specific guide to reducing, reusing and recycling. We look forward to working with the Council and other interested parties on these and, in due course, other projects.
Make it obligatory to install photovoltaic generation on all new builds.
Install more charging points for electric cars and encourage their use
Encourage all towns to become transitional
Plant more trees in any available spaces to fix carbon back
I aim to make a submission but the time constraints might make that impossible so I thought I’d summarise my thoughts here. Firstly, it’s worth reminding ourselves that it’s called an emergency because it requires radical and effective action, not just tinkering around the edges. I am assuming DCC are committed to that.
As I see it, DCC need to be focussed on those areas of climate change impact that they can realistically influence. These are most likely to be:-
1. Building and energy infrastructure, in its role as a place maker through planning functions. (With the aim of reducing building energy usage, reducing non sustainable transport movements, and switching to renewable energy generation)
2. Transport infrastructure and its unique role in being able to facilitate a transition to public and lower carbon forms of transport (with the unsupported Park and Rides in Dorchester and Weymouth as an example). (With the aim of reducing transport carbon emissions, improving air quality and making healthier places to live and work)
3. Waste management (with the aim of avoiding methane emissions, reducing waste generation and dealing with that that is generated in the most sustainable way).
4. Land use, especially farming practices. (With the aim of reducing methane emissions and improving carbon sequestration and biodiversity)
As far as leadership is concerned, this might be the tricky bit. There should be ample professionals within DCC who know what should be done, but getting the whole authority pointing in the right and same direction, as well as diverse group of elected members (some of whom will be CC sceptics) is what is required for proper leadership in this, especially since many of the measures needed will be locally unpopular in a county which is relatively insular from many of the great things being done elsewhere in the U.K. by future thinking and ambitious local authorities. As someone who has worked as a carbon/energy and sustainability manager for another local authority, as well as in industry and business I have seen first hand how much more difficult it is to get everybody committing to this course of action in local govt than typically happens in most businesses.
Very much agree. Regarding buildings, many will need to be retrofitted to improve insulation. Incentivisation to do this for landlords and owners will be needed. Sizeable reductions in gas consumption will need to be seen year by year. Incentivisation will also be needed to switch from gas boilers to heat pumps using air, river or ground sources.
Is there a home owners solar panel joint buying scheme, solar together or similar solar support scheme available in Dorset? Many councils are now making these available and they are very popular and certainly make a difference to the local CO2 profile. I have looked at the council web site and can’t find anything on this subject.
Find inventive ways to increase recycling.
Reduce toxic particulate airborne emissions by ensuring additional waste incinerators are not built.
Sell on, rather than destroy items from recycling centres (Similar to the recycling depot in Leamington Spa).
Plant more trees to reduce air pollution.
Reduce numbers of lorries , increase rail freight.
Have solar panels on all roofs in industrial estates, council owned buildings and hospitals ( with storage batteries). Give incentives for home owners to have the same.
This would reduce the need for so many fields being used for this purpose. (I find that these reflect the sun and blind drivers in some places).
Give all home owners the option of a free water butt ( to save rain water for use on gardens and car washing etc.
I agree with other suggestions of not having large housing estates.
Build houses near to where there is the infrastructure to cope with the extra traffic and loss of green space or make sure the roads etc are built first to save damage to cars of the tenants. Make sure that developers Keep to their responsibility to provide enough drainage and trees and also don’t bury rubbish on the plots. Encourage developer to provide enough topsoil and lawns.
Often the trees are promised on the plans but don’t get given enough space on the plots to actually have any room for growth of mature trees. Plant more trees near low lands that are prone to flooding. involving the community to suggest places and help with planting. Plant more trees near low lands that are prone to flooding. involving the community to suggest places and help with planting.
Rewild the River Stour and its valley. Work with Hampshire and Wiltshire to rewild the River Avon and its valley. Both rivers currently pollute Christchurch Bay and at times of high rainfall, swimmers are warned off entering the water. Both valleys contain watermeadows, a rare habitat, and could maintain animals such as beaver. It is not right that water extraction due to increasing housing upstream should punish those further down the watercourse.
So many used children’s car seats end up in land fill, even though a high percentage of a seat’s material can be recycled. As they are unable to be donated to charity shops, donation stations etc due to uncertainty over their safety once used, how about encouraging manufacturers to set up some sort of trade in scheme where someone can upgrade and get money off their next seat and then the manufacturer can dismantle and recycle. Or even put a straightforward deposit on every seat sold to encourage people to hand them back to a collection point, get their deposit back and the seats can be returned to the manufacturer for recycling.
There are many ideas and suggestions that have already been published and promoted in response to our increasing understanding of the climate and ecological emergency. It is however essential that all strategies and action plans focus on the most important causes of this emergency.
If I understand the current consensus view, this means prioritising on areas that will have the greatest impact- burning of fossil fuels for energy, agriculture and deforestation, and the manufacture of cement, chemicals and metals. It is these areas that need to be the focus as Dorset Council considers its important contribution, not particular service areas. All services need to be challenged to radically change, not just consider “climate implications“.
There also needs to be leadership and communication that adequately and consistently names the issue we are facing – an EMERGENCY. The “climate and ecological emergency” should not be promoted as one of 24 services the Council provides. Surely it is the most important issue the world faces today.