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Cheshire East Council (Unitary)

Declarations & pledges

Climate emergency declaration

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

Council only pledge for 2025

“Commits to the target of Cheshire East Council being carbon neutral by 2025.”

Climate documents

Last update: March 16, 2022

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

Cheshire East Council (Unitary) was a top performer amongst single tier councils, in the Measuring and setting emissions targets section.

SectionCheshire East Council (Unitary)Average single tier council
Total score66%50%
Section 1 Governance, development and funding
16/21
10.3/21
Section 2 Mitigation and adaptation
12/18
9.0/18
Section 3 Commitment and integration
5/7
4.1/7
Section 4 Community, engagement and communications
8/9
5.1/9
Section 5 · Top performer Measuring and setting emissions targets
5/5
2.9/5
Section 6 Co-benefits
4/4
2.2/4
Section 7 Diversity and inclusion
0/5
0.9/5
Section 8 Education, skills and training
1/5
2.3/5
Section 9 Ecological emergency
3/4
2.1/4

Emissions data

1860.9 ktCO2

Total 2020 emissions

4.8 tCO2

per person

1.6 ktCO2

per km2

35%

Domestic

31%

Transport

18%

Industry

9%

Commercial

4%

Agriculture

3%

Public Sector

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 Cheshire East Council (Unitary) 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
Bromsgrove District Council84%YesNo targetJuly 24, 2019
Fylde Borough Council83%NoNo targetNo
Cheshire West and Chester Council82%Yes2030May 21, 2019
Stafford Borough Council82%No2040July 23, 2019
North East Derbyshire District Council82%Yes2030July 8, 2019
Staffordshire County Council81%Yes2050July 25, 2019
Cherwell District Council81%No2030July 22, 2019
Leicestershire County Council80%No2030May 15, 2019
Amber Valley Borough Council80%Yes2030July 24, 2019
Vale of Glamorgan Council80%Yes2030July 29, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Cheshire East Council (Unitary) 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
South Oxfordshire District Council88%Yes2025April 11, 2019
Tandridge District Council86%Yes2030Feb. 13, 2020
Surrey Heath Borough Council86%Yes2030Oct. 9, 2019
Fylde Borough Council85%NoNo targetNo
Mole Valley District Council84%No2030June 18, 2019
Durham County Council83%Yes2030Feb. 20, 2019
Elmbridge Borough Council82%No2030July 17, 2019
Waverley Borough Council82%Yes2030Sept. 18, 2019
Buckinghamshire Council81%No2050No
Stratford-on-Avon District Council81%Yes2030July 15, 2019
Council nameSimilarityHas planCarbon Neutral byDeclared emergency
Newcastle-Under-Lyme District Council96%No2030April 3, 2019
Stoke-on-Trent City Council95%NoNo targetJuly 4, 2019
Trafford Metropolitan Borough Council95%Yes2038Nov. 28, 2018
Manchester City Council94%Yes2038July 10, 2019
Warrington Borough Council94%Yes2030June 7, 2019
Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council94%No2030March 28, 2019
Salford City Council94%No2038July 17, 2019
Greater Manchester Combined Authority93%No2038July 26, 2019
Staffordshire Moorlands District Council93%Yes2030July 10, 2019
Cheshire West and Chester Council93%Yes2030May 21, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Cheshire East Council (Unitary) 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
Gloucestershire County Council97%Yes2030May 15, 2019
Cherwell District Council95%No2030July 22, 2019
East Riding of Yorkshire Council95%No2050Feb. 24, 2021
Vale of Glamorgan Council95%Yes2030July 29, 2019
Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council95%Yes2030July 9, 2019
Stafford Borough Council94%No2040July 23, 2019
Perth and Kinross Council94%No2045No
Hampshire County Council94%No2050June 17, 2019
North West Leicestershire District Council93%Yes2030June 25, 2019
South Kesteven District Council93%Yes2050Sept. 26, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Cheshire East Council (Unitary) 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
North East Derbyshire District Council97%Yes2030July 8, 2019
Bromsgrove District Council96%YesNo targetJuly 24, 2019
North Somerset Council95%Yes2030Feb. 19, 2019
Guildford Borough Council95%Yes2030July 23, 2019
Mid Sussex District Council94%YesNo targetNo
Vale of Glamorgan Council94%Yes2030July 29, 2019
Bath and North East Somerset Council94%Yes2030March 14, 2019
Fenland District Council94%NoNo targetNo
North Hertfordshire District Council94%Yes2030May 21, 2019
Midlothian Council93%No2030Dec. 17, 2019

Features

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

Powers & Responsibilities

Cheshire East Council (Unitary) is a Unitary Authority, 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.

    Passenger transport

    Climate actions might include:

    • encouraging bus and private hire operators to use low-emission vehicles, through licensing requirements or Clean Air Zones
    • incentivising bus use by improving routes, timetables, and ticket prices through ‘Enhanced Partnerships’ with operators
    • proposing to central government the development of light rail / tram networks that integrate, rather than compete, with other modes of transport in the area

    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.

    Schools and libraries

    Climate actions might include:

    • reducing the carbon footprint of civic buildings through better insulation and renewable energy use
    • incentivising ‘Active Travel’ or public transport use among employees
    • providing carbon literacy training for employees
    • encouraging eco-clubs at schools
    • using school land to plant trees and hedgerows, or to grow food

    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
    Transport planning

    Climate actions might include:

    • incentivising ‘Active Travel’ like walking and cycling by creating or widening footways and cycleways
    • incentivising Electric Vehicle use by assigning street space to EV charging
    • disincentivising the use of fossil fuel cars through congestion charging,low-traffic neighbourhoods, or the reduction of parking space

    See more in the Climate Emergency UK checklist.

    Waste collection and disposal

    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

    cheshireeast.gov.uk
    Cheshire East Council (Unitary)’s official homepage.
    Tyndall Centre Carbon Budget report
    Check Cheshire East Council (Unitary)’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 Cheshire East Council (Unitary)’s climate performance, and actions you can take.

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    Cite this page

    mySociety, Climate Emergency UK (2023). CAPE: Cheshire East Council (Unitary). Available at: http://cape.mysociety.org/councils/cheshire-east-council-unitary/ [Accessed 26 Mar 2023].

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