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Wealden District Council

Declarations & pledges

Climate emergency declaration

This council declared a climate emergency on July 24, 2019.

Whole area pledge for 2050

“Under the Climate Emergency Declaration, the Council committed to work towards achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 for both the Council’s own operations and the wider Wealden area, and to pursue efforts to bring this date forward if possible.”

Climate documents

Last update: June 21, 2022
Wealden District Council Progress Report

PDF
Wealden District Council Action Plan

PDF · Draft · Whole Area
Wealden District Council 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

SectionWealden District CouncilAverage district council
Total score30%43%
Section 1 Governance, development and funding
8/21
9.4/21
Section 2 Mitigation and adaptation
2/18
8.1/18
Section 3 Commitment and integration
3/7
3.8/7
Section 4 Community, engagement and communications
5/9
4.7/9
Section 5 Measuring and setting emissions targets
4/5
2.6/5
Section 6 Co-benefits
0/4
1.9/4
Section 7 Diversity and inclusion
0/5
0.5/5
Section 8 Education, skills and training
0/5
1.5/5
Section 9 Ecological emergency
0/4
1.8/4

Emissions data

646.4 ktCO2

Total 2020 emissions

4.0 tCO2

per person

0.8 ktCO2

per km2

44%

Transport

39%

Domestic

6%

Industry

4%

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 Wealden 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
East Hampshire District Council87%No2050July 18, 2019
Sevenoaks District Council83%Yes2030No
Tunbridge Wells Borough Council83%Yes2030July 17, 2019
South Oxfordshire District Council82%Yes2025April 11, 2019
Tandridge District Council82%Yes2030Feb. 13, 2020
Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council81%Yes2025July 18, 2019
Warwickshire County Council81%Yes2030July 25, 2019
Buckinghamshire Council80%No2050No
Broadland District Council80%No2050No
Brentwood Borough Council80%No2040No

These councils are the most similar to Wealden 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
Malvern Hills District Council91%Yes2030July 23, 2019
Horsham District Council89%Yes2050June 26, 2019
Harborough District Council87%No2030June 24, 2019
East Hampshire District Council87%No2050July 18, 2019
Conwy County Borough Council86%No2030May 9, 2019
Bromsgrove District Council83%YesNo targetJuly 24, 2019
Mid Sussex District Council83%YesNo targetNo
Dorset Council83%No2040May 16, 2019
South Oxfordshire District Council82%Yes2025April 11, 2019
West Lindsey District Council82%Yes2050No

Read more about how we calculate this.

Council nameSimilarityHas planCarbon Neutral byDeclared emergency
East Sussex County Council98%Yes2050Oct. 15, 2019
Eastbourne Borough Council97%Yes2030July 10, 2019
Lewes District Council97%Yes2030July 15, 2019
Tunbridge Wells Borough Council96%Yes2030July 17, 2019
Sevenoaks District Council96%Yes2030No
Mid Sussex District Council96%YesNo targetNo
Rother District Council96%No2030Sept. 16, 2019
Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council96%Yes2030July 9, 2019
Brighton and Hove City Council95%Yes2030Dec. 13, 2018
Tandridge District Council95%Yes2030Feb. 13, 2020

These councils are the most similar to Wealden 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
Craven District Council99%No2030Aug. 6, 2019
Sevenoaks District Council98%Yes2030No
Central Bedfordshire Council98%No2030July 19, 2019
North Hertfordshire District Council98%Yes2030May 21, 2019
Leicestershire County Council98%No2030May 15, 2019
Bath and North East Somerset Council97%Yes2030March 14, 2019
Hampshire County Council97%No2050June 17, 2019
Test Valley Borough Council97%Yes2050Sept. 4, 2019
Chelmsford City Council97%Yes2030July 16, 2019
Hambleton District Council97%No2034Dec. 14, 2021

These councils are the most similar to Wealden 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
Sedgemoor District Council99%Yes2030March 20, 2019
Dorset Council97%No2040May 16, 2019
Mid and East Antrim Borough Council97%NoNo targetSept. 9, 2019
Monmouthshire County Council97%Yes2030May 16, 2019
Bassetlaw District Council97%NoNo targetNo
Somerset County Council96%No2030Feb. 20, 2019
Wiltshire Council96%No2030Feb. 26, 2019
Lisburn and Castlereagh City Council95%NoNo targetNo
Suffolk County Council95%Yes2030March 21, 2019
Lincolnshire County Council94%Yes2050No

Powers & Responsibilities

Wealden 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

    wealden.gov.uk
    Wealden District Council’s official homepage.
    Tyndall Centre Carbon Budget report
    Check Wealden 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 Wealden District Council’s climate performance, and actions you can take.

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    Cite this page

    mySociety, Climate Emergency UK (2023). CAPE: Wealden District Council. Available at: http://cape.mysociety.org/councils/wealden-district-council/ [Accessed 1 Apr 2023].

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