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West Lancashire Borough Council

Declarations & pledges

Climate emergency declaration

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

Council only pledge for 2030

“In support of this, the Council declared a Climate Emergency in July 2019. The declaration included an aspiration to be a carbon neutral Council by 2030 and to take action across the borough of West Lancashire.”

Climate documents

Last update: Jan. 10, 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

West Lancashire Borough Council was a top performer amongst district councils, in the Measuring and setting emissions targets section.

SectionWest Lancashire Borough CouncilAverage district council
Total score54%43%
Section 1 Governance, development and funding
13/21
9.4/21
Section 2 Mitigation and adaptation
9/18
8.1/18
Section 3 Commitment and integration
6/7
3.8/7
Section 4 Community, engagement and communications
5/9
4.7/9
Section 5 · Top performer Measuring and setting emissions targets
5/5
2.6/5
Section 6 Co-benefits
2/4
1.9/4
Section 7 Diversity and inclusion
0/5
0.5/5
Section 8 Education, skills and training
1/5
1.5/5
Section 9 Ecological emergency
1/4
1.8/4

Emissions data

522.9 ktCO2

Total 2020 emissions

4.6 tCO2

per person

1.4 ktCO2

per km2

33%

Domestic

27%

Transport

22%

Industry

9%

Agriculture

5%

Commercial

5%

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 West Lancashire 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
Lancaster City Council80%Yes2030Jan. 30, 2019
Chorley Council79%Yes2030Nov. 19, 2019
Stafford Borough Council79%No2040July 23, 2019
South Staffordshire Council79%YesNo targetSept. 10, 2019
Cheshire West and Chester Council79%Yes2030May 21, 2019
Derbyshire County Council78%Yes2032No
East Riding of Yorkshire Council77%No2050Feb. 24, 2021
Northumberland Council77%Yes2030June 11, 2019
Staffordshire County Council76%Yes2050July 25, 2019
Denbighshire County Council76%No2030July 2, 2019

These councils are the most similar to West Lancashire 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
Inverclyde Council87%NoNo targetNo
East Ayrshire Council82%No2030No
Gwynedd County Council80%No2030March 7, 2019
Denbighshire County Council80%No2030July 2, 2019
Stroud District Council78%No2030Dec. 13, 2018
Vale of Glamorgan Council78%Yes2030July 29, 2019
Shropshire Council - Unitary76%No2030May 16, 2019
Angus Council76%YesNo targetSept. 5, 2019
South Staffordshire Council75%YesNo targetSept. 10, 2019
Lancaster City Council75%Yes2030Jan. 30, 2019
Council nameSimilarityHas planCarbon Neutral byDeclared emergency
Sefton Metropolitan Borough Council97%Yes2030July 18, 2019
Fylde Borough Council96%NoNo targetNo
Liverpool City Region Combined Authority96%Yes2040April 28, 2019
Knowsley Metropolitan Borough Council96%Yes2040Jan. 29, 2020
South Ribble Borough Council96%Yes2030July 24, 2019
St Helens Metropolitan Borough Council95%Yes2040June 10, 2019
Liverpool City Council95%Yes2030July 17, 2019
Chorley Council95%Yes2030Nov. 19, 2019
Blackpool Borough Council95%Yes2030June 26, 2019
Preston City Council94%No2030April 18, 2019

These councils are the most similar to West Lancashire 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
Cheshire West and Chester Council96%Yes2030May 21, 2019
West Northamptonshire Council96%NoNo targetNo
Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority95%Yes2050No
Wyre Council95%Yes2030July 11, 2019
Chorley Council94%Yes2030Nov. 19, 2019
Canterbury City Council93%Yes2030July 18, 2019
Milton Keynes93%Yes2030Jan. 23, 2019
Fife Council93%Yes2045Sept. 26, 2019
West of England Combined Authority93%Yes2030July 1, 2019
Worcestershire County Council92%Yes2030July 15, 2021

These councils are the most similar to West Lancashire 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
Ards and North Down Borough Council99%NoNo targetFeb. 27, 2019
Braintree District Council97%Yes2030July 22, 2019
Tunbridge Wells Borough Council96%Yes2030July 17, 2019
West Suffolk Council96%No2030Sept. 19, 2019
Sevenoaks District Council96%Yes2030No
Folkestone and Hythe District Council94%Yes2030July 24, 2019
East Hampshire District Council94%No2050July 18, 2019
East Riding of Yorkshire Council94%No2050Feb. 24, 2021
Hart District Council92%Yes2040Sept. 1, 2019
Warwickshire County Council92%Yes2030July 25, 2019

Features

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

Powers & Responsibilities

West Lancashire 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

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

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    Cite this page

    mySociety, Climate Emergency UK (2023). CAPE: West Lancashire Borough Council. Available at: http://cape.mysociety.org/councils/west-lancashire-borough-council/ [Accessed 22 Mar 2023].

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