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Maidstone Borough Council

Declarations & pledges

Climate emergency declaration

This council declared a climate emergency on April 10, 2019.

Whole area pledge for 2030

“This was followed with the cross-party declaration of a Biodiversity and Climate Emergency in April 2019 and an aim of making the Borough carbon neutral by 2030.”

Climate documents

Last update: Jan. 16, 2023
Biodiversity And Climate Change Action Plan | Maidstone Borough Council

Action Plan · HTML · Whole Area
Climate Change And Biodiversity Strategy

Climate Strategy · 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

Maidstone Borough Council was a top performer amongst district councils, in the Commitment and integration section.

SectionMaidstone Borough CouncilAverage district council
Total score72%43%
Section 1 Governance, development and funding
20/21
9.4/21
Section 2 Mitigation and adaptation
15/18
8.1/18
Section 3 · Top performer Commitment and integration
7/7
3.8/7
Section 4 Community, engagement and communications
8/9
4.7/9
Section 5 Measuring and setting emissions targets
2/5
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

564.8 ktCO2

Total 2020 emissions

3.3 tCO2

per person

1.4 ktCO2

per km2

41%

Domestic

32%

Transport

13%

Industry

8%

Commercial

4%

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 Maidstone 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
Kent County Council92%Yes2030May 23, 2019
Essex County Council89%Yes2030No
East Sussex County Council88%Yes2050Oct. 15, 2019
West Sussex County Council88%Yes2030April 5, 2019
Lewes District Council88%Yes2030July 15, 2019
Colchester Borough Council88%Yes2030July 17, 2019
Ashford Borough Council88%Yes2030No
Arun District Council86%No2030Jan. 15, 2020
Bedford Borough Council85%Yes2030March 5, 2019
Hertsmere Borough Council84%Yes2050Sept. 18, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Maidstone 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
Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council92%No2030Dec. 4, 2019
Kent County Council92%Yes2030May 23, 2019
Ashford Borough Council92%Yes2030No
City of York Council91%Yes2030March 11, 2019
Fareham Borough Council91%Yes2030Oct. 24, 2019
Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council91%Yes2030July 9, 2019
South Tyneside Council90%No2030July 18, 2019
Spelthorne Borough Council90%No2050Oct. 14, 2020
Great Yarmouth Borough Council90%NoNo targetNo
Bolton Metropolitan Borough Council90%Yes2030Aug. 29, 2019

Read more about how we calculate this.

Council nameSimilarityHas planCarbon Neutral byDeclared emergency
Tunbridge Wells Borough Council98%Yes2030July 17, 2019
Medway Council98%Yes2050April 25, 2019
Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council97%Yes2030July 9, 2019
Swale Borough Council97%Yes2025June 26, 2019
Gravesham Borough Council97%No2030June 26, 2019
Ashford Borough Council97%Yes2030No
Rother District Council96%No2030Sept. 16, 2019
Castle Point Borough Council96%NoNo targetNo
Southend-on-Sea Borough Council96%No2030July 18, 2019
Thurrock Council96%No2022Oct. 23, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Maidstone 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
Colchester Borough Council98%Yes2030July 17, 2019
Wychavon District Council96%Yes2050No
Malvern Hills District Council96%Yes2030July 23, 2019
Essex County Council96%Yes2030No
Dorset Council96%No2040May 16, 2019
Angus Council95%YesNo targetSept. 5, 2019
Lewes District Council95%Yes2030July 15, 2019
The Highland Council95%No2025May 9, 2019
Amber Valley Borough Council95%Yes2030July 24, 2019
Newcastle-Under-Lyme District Council94%No2030April 3, 2019

These councils are the most similar to Maidstone 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
Epping Forest District Council99%Yes2030Sept. 19, 2019
Derbyshire County Council98%Yes2032No
New Forest District Council98%NoNo targetNov. 6, 2021
Kent County Council98%Yes2030May 23, 2019
Essex County Council98%Yes2030No
Chorley Council98%Yes2030Nov. 19, 2019
Cheshire West and Chester Council97%Yes2030May 21, 2019
Lancaster City Council97%Yes2030Jan. 30, 2019
Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council96%Yes2025July 18, 2019
Wyre Council96%Yes2030July 11, 2019

Features

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

Comprehensive plan for mitigation Integrated with Local Plan Clear communication Strong on public health

Powers & Responsibilities

Maidstone 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

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

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    Cite this page

    mySociety, Climate Emergency UK (2023). CAPE: Maidstone Borough Council. Available at: http://cape.mysociety.org/councils/maidstone-borough-council/ [Accessed 26 Mar 2023].

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