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Colchester Borough Council

Declarations & pledges

Climate emergency declaration

This council declared a climate emergency on July 17, 2019.

Council only pledge for 2030

“Reduce carbon emissions from our buildings and fleet to help achieve a net zero carbon footprint for Council services by 2030.”

Climate documents

Last update: March 16, 2022
Sustainability And Climate Action | Colchester Borough Council

Summary Document · HTML
Climate Emergency Action Plan 2021–2023

Action Plan · PDF · Whole Area
Climate Challenge And Sustainability Strategy Themes

Climate Strategy · PDF

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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

SectionColchester Borough CouncilAverage district council
Total score52%43%
Section 1 Governance, development and funding
10/21
9.4/21
Section 2 Mitigation and adaptation
5/18
8.1/18
Section 3 Commitment and integration
6/7
3.8/7
Section 4 Community, engagement and communications
6/9
4.7/9
Section 5 Measuring and setting emissions targets
3/5
2.6/5
Section 6 Co-benefits
4/4
1.9/4
Section 7 Diversity and inclusion
0/5
0.5/5
Section 8 Education, skills and training
2/5
1.5/5
Section 9 Ecological emergency
2/4
1.8/4

Emissions data

670.9 ktCO2

Total 2020 emissions

3.4 tCO2

per person

1.9 ktCO2

per km2

42%

Transport

37%

Domestic

9%

Industry

6%

Commercial

6%

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 Colchester 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
Essex County Council89%Yes2030No
Maidstone Borough Council88%Yes2030April 10, 2019
Kent County Council87%Yes2030May 23, 2019
Bedford Borough Council86%Yes2030March 5, 2019
West Sussex County Council85%Yes2030April 5, 2019
Lewes District Council84%Yes2030July 15, 2019
East Sussex County Council83%Yes2050Oct. 15, 2019
Ashford Borough Council83%Yes2030No
Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council82%Yes2030July 9, 2019
Braintree District Council82%Yes2030July 22, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Colchester 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
Milton Keynes91%Yes2030Jan. 23, 2019
Cardiff Council90%Yes2030March 28, 2019
Bedford Borough Council88%Yes2030March 5, 2019
Leeds City Council87%No2030March 27, 2019
City of York Council87%Yes2030March 11, 2019
Hampshire County Council87%No2050June 17, 2019
Swindon Borough Council87%Yes2030No
Gloucestershire County Council87%Yes2030May 15, 2019
Worcestershire County Council87%Yes2030July 15, 2021
Derby City Council86%Yes2050May 23, 2019

Read more about how we calculate this.

Council nameSimilarityHas planCarbon Neutral byDeclared emergency
Maldon District Council98%No2030Feb. 4, 2021
Babergh District Council98%Yes2030July 23, 2019
Tendring District Council97%Yes2030Aug. 6, 2019
Braintree District Council96%Yes2030July 22, 2019
Rochford District Council96%Yes2030No
Ipswich Borough Council96%Yes2030July 9, 2019
Southend-on-Sea Borough Council95%No2030July 18, 2019
Chelmsford City Council95%Yes2030July 16, 2019
Castle Point Borough Council95%NoNo targetNo
Mid Suffolk District Council94%Yes2030July 25, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Colchester 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
Maidstone Borough Council98%Yes2030April 10, 2019
Essex County Council97%Yes2030No
Amber Valley Borough Council96%Yes2030July 24, 2019
Wychavon District Council95%Yes2050No
Angus Council95%YesNo targetSept. 5, 2019
North East Derbyshire District Council95%Yes2030July 8, 2019
West Lothian Council94%NoNo targetSept. 24, 2019
Malvern Hills District Council94%Yes2030July 23, 2019
Staffordshire County Council94%Yes2050July 25, 2019
Derbyshire County Council94%Yes2032No

These councils are the most similar to Colchester 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
Nottinghamshire County Council98%No2030May 27, 2021
Brentwood Borough Council97%No2040No
Isle of Wight Council96%No2030July 24, 2019
Wrexham County Borough Council96%No2030Sept. 25, 2019
North Ayrshire Council95%No2030June 25, 2019
North Northamptonshire Council95%Yes2030July 28, 2021
Wyre Council95%Yes2030July 11, 2019
Lichfield District Council95%NoNo targetDec. 10, 2019
Chorley Council94%Yes2030Nov. 19, 2019
Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council94%No2030July 16, 2019

Features

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

Integrated with Local Plan Strong on public health

Powers & Responsibilities

Colchester 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

    colchester.gov.uk
    Colchester Borough Council’s official homepage.
    Tyndall Centre Carbon Budget report
    Check Colchester 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 Colchester Borough Council’s climate performance, and actions you can take.

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    Cite this page

    mySociety, Climate Emergency UK (2023). CAPE: Colchester Borough Council. Available at: http://cape.mysociety.org/councils/colchester-borough-council/ [Accessed 24 Mar 2023].

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