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Ashford Borough Council

Declarations & pledges

Climate emergency declaration

We don’t think this council has declared a climate emergency – let us know if it has!

Council only pledge for 2030

“Ashford Borough and Ashford Borough Council will aim to become carbon neutral by 2030, and 80% by 2025.”

Whole area pledge for 2030

“Ashford Borough and Ashford Borough Council will aim to become carbon neutral by 2030, and 80% by 2025.”

Climate documents

Last update: March 16, 2022
Ashford To Zero Plan: Consultation Draft 2021

Action Plan · PDF · Approved · Whole Area
Find Out How You Can Get Involved With The Public Consultation For The Council's Carbon Neutral Action Plan. | Ashford Borough Council

Summary Document · HTML

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Climate Plan Scorecard

This council’s climate plans as of 20th September 2021 were assessed and scored by trained Climate Emergency UK volunteers, as part of the Council Climate Plan Scorecards project.

Show the full Scorecard Read more about the scoring process

SectionAshford Borough CouncilAverage district council
Total score55%43%
Section 1 Governance, development and funding
9/21
9.4/21
Section 2 Mitigation and adaptation
11/18
8.1/18
Section 3 Commitment and integration
6/7
3.8/7
Section 4 Community, engagement and communications
7/9
4.7/9
Section 5 Measuring and setting emissions targets
1/5
2.6/5
Section 6 Co-benefits
4/4
1.9/4
Section 7 Diversity and inclusion
1/5
0.5/5
Section 8 Education, skills and training
1/5
1.5/5
Section 9 Ecological emergency
3/4
1.8/4

Emissions data

469.0 ktCO2

Total 2020 emissions

3.6 tCO2

per person

0.8 ktCO2

per km2

39%

Domestic

32%

Transport

13%

Industry

7%

Commercial

5%

Public Sector

3%

Agriculture

Data from the Department of Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy “subset dataset”, representing carbon dioxide emissions within the scope of influence of local authorities.

These councils are the most similar to Ashford Borough Council in terms of emissions profile, deprivation, rural/urban population density, and geographical nearness. Read more about how we calculate this.

Council nameSimilarityHas planCarbon Neutral byDeclared emergency
East Sussex County Council88%Yes2050Oct. 15, 2019
Kent County Council88%Yes2030May 23, 2019
Maidstone Borough Council87%Yes2030April 10, 2019
Folkestone and Hythe District Council85%Yes2030July 24, 2019
Bedford Borough Council84%Yes2030March 5, 2019
Essex County Council83%Yes2030No
Lewes District Council83%Yes2030July 15, 2019
East Suffolk Council83%No2030July 24, 2019
Colchester Borough Council82%Yes2030July 17, 2019
West Sussex County Council81%Yes2030April 5, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Ashford Borough Council in terms of their emissions profile, based on the latest data from the Department of Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy. Read more about how we calculate this.

Council nameSimilarityHas planCarbon Neutral byDeclared emergency
Kent County Council92%Yes2030May 23, 2019
Folkestone and Hythe District Council92%Yes2030July 24, 2019
Gloucestershire County Council92%Yes2030May 15, 2019
Chorley Council91%Yes2030Nov. 19, 2019
Maidstone Borough Council91%Yes2030April 10, 2019
Falkirk Council91%Yes2030Aug. 26, 2019
Worcestershire County Council91%Yes2030July 15, 2021
West Lothian Council91%NoNo targetSept. 24, 2019
North Lanarkshire Council90%Yes2030June 20, 2019
Hertfordshire County Council90%Yes2030July 16, 2019

Read more about how we calculate this.

Council nameSimilarityHas planCarbon Neutral byDeclared emergency
Folkestone and Hythe District Council98%Yes2030July 24, 2019
Swale Borough Council97%Yes2025June 26, 2019
Maidstone Borough Council97%Yes2030April 10, 2019
Rother District Council96%No2030Sept. 16, 2019
Canterbury City Council96%Yes2030July 18, 2019
Hastings Borough Council96%Yes2030Feb. 13, 2019
Tunbridge Wells Borough Council95%Yes2030July 17, 2019
Medway Council95%Yes2050April 25, 2019
Southend-on-Sea Borough Council95%No2030July 18, 2019
Rochford District Council94%Yes2030No

These councils are the most similar to Ashford Borough Council in terms of the proportion of their population living in high deprivation, medium deprivation, and low deprivation neighbourhoods. Read more about how we calculate this.

Council nameSimilarityHas planCarbon Neutral byDeclared emergency
South Ayrshire Council98%No2045No
Wrexham County Borough Council98%No2030Sept. 25, 2019
Carlisle City Council96%No2030March 5, 2019
Cumbria County Council96%Yes2050No
East Suffolk Council95%No2030July 24, 2019
Newark and Sherwood District Council95%Yes2035July 16, 2019
Lincolnshire County Council95%Yes2050No
Falkirk Council94%Yes2030Aug. 26, 2019
Suffolk County Council94%Yes2030March 21, 2019
Conwy County Borough Council94%No2030May 9, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Ashford Borough Council in terms of the proportion of their population living in urban, rural, and highly rural neighbourhoods. Read more about how we calculate this.

Council nameSimilarityHas planCarbon Neutral byDeclared emergency
Somerset West and Taunton Council96%Yes2030Feb. 21, 2019
Lisburn and Castlereagh City Council95%NoNo targetNo
East Suffolk Council94%No2030July 24, 2019
Angus Council94%YesNo targetSept. 5, 2019
Boston Borough Council94%NoNo targetJan. 20, 2020
Stafford Borough Council93%No2040July 23, 2019
Suffolk County Council93%Yes2030March 21, 2019
South Ayrshire Council92%No2045No
East Hertfordshire District Council92%Yes2030No
West Berkshire Council92%No2030July 2, 2019

Features

This council’s climate plan has been tagged with the following features:

Integrated with Local Plan Clear communication Strong on public health

Powers & Responsibilities

Ashford Borough Council is a Non-Metropolitan District, with powers over:

Council buildings and staff

Climate actions might include:

  • making council offices more energy efficient
  • incentivising ‘Active Travel’ or public transport use among employees
  • providing carbon literacy training for employees
    Environmental health

    Climate actions might include:

    • reducing industrial emissions through air quality enforcement
    • bringing up insulation and energy efficiency standards through enforcement of the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) and Decent Homes Standard 2000, for cold and damp conditions in private rental and social housing

    See more in the Climate Emergency UK checklist.

    Planning and building control

    Climate actions might include:

    • imposing reasonable requirements that new developments comply with energy efficiency standards and get a proportion of their energy from local, renewable sources (Planning and Energy Act, 2008)
    • incorporating additional energy performance standards into their Local Plan, for new works that require planning permission
    • using Area Action Plans to guide development proposals towards lower carbon emissions or more cycling and walking routes, for example
    • enforcing legislation that requires private rental properties to be of Energy Efficiency Rating E or above (Energy Efficiency Regulations, 2015)
    • funding energy efficiency improvements on existing homes, through initiatives such as Green Homes Grants

    See more in the Climate Emergency UK checklist.

    Housing

    Climate actions might include:

    • setting energy standards above building regulations (Planning and Energy Act, 2008)
    • enabling housing associations to improve the energy efficiency of their housing stock through loans
    • where councils operate their own social housing, prioritising energy efficiency – for example, by requiring Passivhaus standard for newly built schemes

    See more in the Climate Emergency UK checklist.

    Spending, procuring, and investing

    Climate actions might include:

    • embedding carbon impact assessment as part of the council’s budgeting and financial accountability process
    • utilising Public Works Loan Board loans or the Business Rates Retention Scheme to invest in emissions-reducing capital projects that otherwise wouldn’t get funded
    • specifying low carbon equipment and practices when procuring for relevant services from suppliers
    • prioritising positive environmental impacts during procurement, through the Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012
    Waste collection

    Climate actions might include:

    • establishing ‘Joint Waste Solutions’ with neighbouring councils, to get more value out of waste, recycling, and street cleaning contracts
    • running marketing campaigns to encourage residential recycling, reuse, and waste minimisation

    See more in the Climate Emergency UK checklist.

    Read more about English local authority powers in the UK100 Power Shift report.

    More about this council

    ashford.gov.uk
    Ashford Borough Council’s official homepage.
    Tyndall Centre Carbon Budget report
    Check Ashford Borough Council’s ‘carbon budget’ – their share towards meeting the UK’s Paris agreement targets.
    Friends of the Earth ‘Near You’ tool
    Discover climate groups in this area, data about Ashford Borough Council’s climate performance, and actions you can take.

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    Cite this page

    mySociety, Climate Emergency UK (2023). CAPE: Ashford Borough Council. Available at: http://cape.mysociety.org/councils/ashford-borough-council/ [Accessed 22 Mar 2023].

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