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South Ayrshire Council

Declarations & pledges

Climate emergency declaration

We don’t think this council has declared a climate emergency – let us know if it has!

Council only pledge for 2045

“The Council have recently agreed to align with these national targets of a 75% reduction in emissions by 2030 and net zero emissions by 2045.”

Climate documents

Last update: June 21, 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

SectionSouth Ayrshire CouncilAverage single tier council
Total score42%50%
Section 1 Governance, development and funding
10/21
10.3/21
Section 2 Mitigation and adaptation
8/18
9.0/18
Section 3 Commitment and integration
6/7
4.1/7
Section 4 Community, engagement and communications
2/9
5.1/9
Section 5 Measuring and setting emissions targets
1/5
2.9/5
Section 6 Co-benefits
3/4
2.2/4
Section 7 Diversity and inclusion
0/5
0.9/5
Section 8 Education, skills and training
3/5
2.3/5
Section 9 Ecological emergency
0/4
2.1/4

Emissions reduction projects

Local authorities in Scotland are required to publish yearly data on their compliance with their climate change duties – including the emissions reduction projects they are undertaking.

See all of South Ayrshire Council’s projects

55

Projects

3.8 ktCO2 per year

Total annual emissions savings

£15,419,602.5

Total capital cost

Emissions data

552.4 ktCO2

Total 2020 emissions

4.9 tCO2

per person

0.4 ktCO2

per km2

33%

Domestic

31%

Transport

20%

Industry

7%

Commercial

6%

Agriculture

2%

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 South Ayrshire 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
Angus Council83%YesNo targetSept. 5, 2019
Carlisle City Council82%No2030March 5, 2019
Midlothian Council79%No2030Dec. 17, 2019
Fife Council79%Yes2045Sept. 26, 2019
Conwy County Borough Council79%No2030May 9, 2019
Cumbria County Council78%Yes2050No
South Lanarkshire Council77%NoNo targetSept. 25, 2019
Wyre Council77%Yes2030July 11, 2019
Flintshire County Council76%YesNo targetNo
Northumberland Council76%Yes2030June 11, 2019

These councils are the most similar to South Ayrshire 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
East Riding of Yorkshire Council91%No2050Feb. 24, 2021
Angus Council90%YesNo targetSept. 5, 2019
North Norfolk District Council89%Yes2030April 24, 2019
East Lindsey District Council85%Yes2040No
Cumbria County Council82%Yes2050No
North Yorkshire County Council80%Yes2030No
Melton Borough Council79%No2030July 17, 2019
Derbyshire County Council79%Yes2032No
South Holland District Council79%NoNo targetNo
Stirling Council78%YesNo targetOct. 3, 2019
Council nameSimilarityHas planCarbon Neutral byDeclared emergency
East Ayrshire Council94%No2030No
North Ayrshire Council93%No2030June 25, 2019
East Renfrewshire Council91%No2040Aug. 13, 2020
Renfrewshire Council91%No2030June 27, 2019
Inverclyde Council90%NoNo targetNo
Dumfries and Galloway Council90%Yes2025June 27, 2019
Glasgow City Council89%Yes2030May 16, 2019
West Dunbartonshire Council89%Yes2045May 29, 2019
East Dunbartonshire Council88%Yes2045No
South Lanarkshire Council87%NoNo targetSept. 25, 2019

These councils are the most similar to South Ayrshire 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
Ashford Borough Council98%Yes2030No
Carlisle City Council98%No2030March 5, 2019
Cumbria County Council97%Yes2050No
Newark and Sherwood District Council96%Yes2035July 16, 2019
Wrexham County Borough Council96%No2030Sept. 25, 2019
East Suffolk Council96%No2030July 24, 2019
Lincolnshire County Council96%Yes2050No
Falkirk Council94%Yes2030Aug. 26, 2019
Sedgemoor District Council94%Yes2030March 20, 2019
Suffolk County Council94%Yes2030March 21, 2019

These councils are the most similar to South Ayrshire 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
Boston Borough Council96%NoNo targetJan. 20, 2020
Somerset West and Taunton Council96%Yes2030Feb. 21, 2019
Carlisle City Council95%No2030March 5, 2019
Stroud District Council95%No2030Dec. 13, 2018
Cherwell District Council95%No2030July 22, 2019
East Hertfordshire District Council95%Yes2030No
Derry City and Strabane District Council95%Yes2045June 27, 2019
Staffordshire Moorlands District Council94%Yes2030July 10, 2019
South Kesteven District Council94%Yes2050Sept. 26, 2019
Test Valley Borough Council93%Yes2050Sept. 4, 2019

Features

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

Powers & Responsibilities

South Ayrshire Council 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 local authority powers across the UK, at The Institute for Government.

    More about this council

    south-ayrshire.gov.uk
    South Ayrshire Council’s official homepage.
    @SouthAyrshire
    South Ayrshire Council’s Twitter account.
    Tyndall Centre Carbon Budget report
    Check South Ayrshire Council’s ‘carbon budget’ – their share towards meeting the UK’s Paris agreement targets.

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    Cite this page

    mySociety, Climate Emergency UK (2023). CAPE: South Ayrshire Council. Available at: http://cape.mysociety.org/councils/south-ayrshire-council/ [Accessed 22 Mar 2023].

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