Back to all councils

Cherwell District Council

Declarations & pledges

Climate emergency declaration

This council declared a climate emergency on July 22, 2019.

Council only pledge for 2030

“As your council we are leading the way and are committed to be net carbon neutral from our operations and activities by 2030.”

Whole area pledge for 2030

“We will do our part to achieve a zero carbon district by 2030 and lead through example. ”

Climate documents

Last update: March 16, 2022
Transforming Cherwell: 2020 Climate Action Framework

Climate Strategy · PDF

Are these plans out of date?

Fill in this form to let us know where to find the latest plans from this council.

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

SectionCherwell District CouncilAverage district council
Total score45%43%
Section 1 Governance, development and funding
12/21
9.4/21
Section 2 Mitigation and adaptation
8/18
8.1/18
Section 3 Commitment and integration
5/7
3.8/7
Section 4 Community, engagement and communications
4/9
4.7/9
Section 5 Measuring and setting emissions targets
4/5
2.6/5
Section 6 Co-benefits
2/4
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
0/4
1.8/4

Emissions data

780.8 ktCO2

Total 2020 emissions

5.1 tCO2

per person

1.3 ktCO2

per km2

34%

Transport

28%

Domestic

25%

Industry

7%

Commercial

3%

Public Sector

2%

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 Cherwell District 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
Test Valley Borough Council88%Yes2050Sept. 4, 2019
South Kesteven District Council86%Yes2050Sept. 26, 2019
Gloucestershire County Council86%Yes2030May 15, 2019
Warwickshire County Council85%Yes2030July 25, 2019
Tewkesbury Borough Council84%Yes2030Oct. 1, 2019
Stafford Borough Council84%No2040July 23, 2019
Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council84%Yes2025July 18, 2019
Oxfordshire County Council83%No2030April 2, 2019
West Northamptonshire Council83%NoNo targetNo
Leicestershire County Council83%No2030May 15, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Cherwell District 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
Gateshead Metropolitan Borough Council89%Yes2030May 23, 2019
Warwickshire County Council86%Yes2030July 25, 2019
Wychavon District Council86%Yes2050No
East Lothian Council85%No2045Aug. 27, 2019
South Staffordshire Council85%YesNo targetSept. 10, 2019
Stirling Council84%YesNo targetOct. 3, 2019
Leicestershire County Council84%No2030May 15, 2019
Derbyshire County Council84%Yes2032No
Mid Suffolk District Council82%Yes2030July 25, 2019
Stratford-on-Avon District Council82%Yes2030July 15, 2019

Read more about how we calculate this.

Council nameSimilarityHas planCarbon Neutral byDeclared emergency
Oxfordshire County Council99%No2030April 2, 2019
Oxford City Council96%Yes2030Jan. 28, 2019
West Oxfordshire District Council96%Yes2030June 26, 2019
West Northamptonshire Council94%NoNo targetNo
Vale of White Horse District Council94%Yes2045Feb. 13, 2019
South Oxfordshire District Council93%Yes2025April 11, 2019
Warwickshire County Council93%Yes2030July 25, 2019
Stratford-on-Avon District Council93%Yes2030July 15, 2019
Rugby Borough Council93%Yes2030July 18, 2019
Warwick District Council92%No2030June 26, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Cherwell District 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
Hampshire County Council98%No2050June 17, 2019
Perth and Kinross Council98%No2045No
Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council97%Yes2030July 9, 2019
Sevenoaks District Council97%Yes2030No
Stafford Borough Council96%No2040July 23, 2019
Bath and North East Somerset Council96%Yes2030March 14, 2019
South Kesteven District Council96%Yes2050Sept. 26, 2019
Wealden District Council96%Yes2050July 24, 2019
Cheshire East Council (Unitary)96%Yes2025May 22, 2019
North West Leicestershire District Council96%Yes2030June 25, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Cherwell District 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
Derry City and Strabane District Council99%Yes2045June 27, 2019
Staffordshire Moorlands District Council98%Yes2030July 10, 2019
Test Valley Borough Council98%Yes2050Sept. 4, 2019
South Ayrshire Council95%No2045No
Stroud District Council95%No2030Dec. 13, 2018
Somerset West and Taunton Council94%Yes2030Feb. 21, 2019
Carlisle City Council93%No2030March 5, 2019
Harrogate Borough Council92%No2038April 10, 2019
Boston Borough Council91%NoNo targetJan. 20, 2020
East Hertfordshire District Council91%Yes2030No

Features

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

Integrated with Local Plan

Powers & Responsibilities

Cherwell District 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

    cherwell-dc.gov.uk
    Cherwell District Council’s official homepage.
    Tyndall Centre Carbon Budget report
    Check Cherwell District 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 Cherwell District Council’s climate performance, and actions you can take.

    What do you want from Climate Action Plans?

    Help us improve this page by answering our short survey about who uses this service, and what makes action plans useful to you.

    Open survey

    Don’t have time right now? Let us know your email address, and we’ll send you a link to the survey in a few days.

    Cite this page

    mySociety, Climate Emergency UK (2023). CAPE: Cherwell District Council. Available at: http://cape.mysociety.org/councils/cherwell-district-council/ [Accessed 22 Mar 2023].

    Alpha

    This is a new service – your feedback will help us improve it.