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Chelmsford City Council

Declarations & pledges

Climate emergency declaration

This council declared a climate emergency on July 16, 2019.

Council only pledge for 2030

“Council therefore resolves to: Declare a ‘Climate and Ecological Emergency’ that requires urgent action to make the Council’s activities net-zero carbon by 2030.”

Climate documents

Last update: June 21, 2022
Report: Climate And Ecological Emergency Action Plan (1 February 2021)

Progress Report · PDF · Approved
Cabinet Report: Climate And Ecological Emergency Action Plan (28 January 2020)

Action Plan · PDF · Approved · Whole Area

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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

SectionChelmsford City CouncilAverage district council
Total score22%43%
Section 1 Governance, development and funding
6/21
9.4/21
Section 2 Mitigation and adaptation
3/18
8.1/18
Section 3 Commitment and integration
4/7
3.8/7
Section 4 Community, engagement and communications
1/9
4.7/9
Section 5 Measuring and setting emissions targets
1/5
2.6/5
Section 6 Co-benefits
0/4
1.9/4
Section 7 Diversity and inclusion
0/5
0.5/5
Section 8 Education, skills and training
1/5
1.5/5
Section 9 Ecological emergency
1/4
1.8/4

Emissions data

727.3 ktCO2

Total 2020 emissions

4.1 tCO2

per person

2.1 ktCO2

per km2

45%

Transport

34%

Domestic

9%

Industry

6%

Commercial

4%

Public Sector

1%

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 Chelmsford City 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
North Hertfordshire District Council87%Yes2030May 21, 2019
Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council86%Yes2025July 18, 2019
Hampshire County Council86%No2050June 17, 2019
Warwick District Council85%No2030June 26, 2019
Mid Sussex District Council85%YesNo targetNo
Guildford Borough Council84%Yes2030July 23, 2019
Essex County Council84%Yes2030No
Surrey County Council83%Yes2030July 9, 2019
Brentwood Borough Council83%No2040No
West Sussex County Council83%Yes2030April 5, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Chelmsford City 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
Warwick District Council95%No2030June 26, 2019
Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council90%Yes2025July 18, 2019
West Northamptonshire Council89%NoNo targetNo
Mid Sussex District Council88%YesNo targetNo
Warwickshire County Council88%Yes2030July 25, 2019
Essex County Council87%Yes2030No
Braintree District Council86%Yes2030July 22, 2019
Bromsgrove District Council86%YesNo targetJuly 24, 2019
Vale of White Horse District Council85%Yes2045Feb. 13, 2019
Lichfield District Council85%NoNo targetDec. 10, 2019

Read more about how we calculate this.

Council nameSimilarityHas planCarbon Neutral byDeclared emergency
Essex County Council99%Yes2030No
Basildon Borough Council98%Yes2030No
Brentwood Borough Council98%No2040No
Castle Point Borough Council97%NoNo targetNo
Braintree District Council97%Yes2030July 22, 2019
Thurrock Council97%No2022Oct. 23, 2019
Uttlesford District Council96%Yes2030July 30, 2019
Maldon District Council96%No2030Feb. 4, 2021
London Borough of Havering96%YesNo targetNo
Southend-on-Sea Borough Council96%No2030July 18, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Chelmsford City 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
Leicestershire County Council99%No2030May 15, 2019
North Hertfordshire District Council98%Yes2030May 21, 2019
South Gloucestershire Council98%Yes2030July 17, 2019
Central Bedfordshire Council97%No2030July 19, 2019
Sevenoaks District Council97%Yes2030No
Test Valley Borough Council97%Yes2050Sept. 4, 2019
Lichfield District Council97%NoNo targetDec. 10, 2019
Wealden District Council97%Yes2050July 24, 2019
Warwick District Council97%No2030June 26, 2019
Bath and North East Somerset Council96%Yes2030March 14, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Chelmsford City 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
Amber Valley Borough Council99%Yes2030July 24, 2019
West Lothian Council98%NoNo targetSept. 24, 2019
Lancashire County Council97%No2030Feb. 28, 2019
North Lanarkshire Council97%Yes2030June 20, 2019
Canterbury City Council96%Yes2030July 18, 2019
Calderdale Metropolitan Borough Council96%Yes2038Jan. 30, 2019
Newcastle-Under-Lyme District Council96%No2030April 3, 2019
South Lanarkshire Council96%NoNo targetSept. 25, 2019
Hampshire County Council96%No2050June 17, 2019
East Staffordshire Borough Council96%Yes2040Aug. 17, 2020

Features

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

Integrated with Local Plan

Powers & Responsibilities

Chelmsford City 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

    chelmsford.gov.uk
    Chelmsford City Council’s official homepage.
    Tyndall Centre Carbon Budget report
    Check Chelmsford City 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 Chelmsford City Council’s climate performance, and actions you can take.

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    Cite this page

    mySociety, Climate Emergency UK (2023). CAPE: Chelmsford City Council. Available at: http://cape.mysociety.org/councils/chelmsford-city-council/ [Accessed 22 Mar 2023].

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