As the UK prepares to host the 26th UN Climate Change Conference, BCP Council reflects on 26 examples of positive steps it has made during 2021 to tackle climate change locally.
BCP Council declared a Climate and Ecological Emergency in July 2019, and continues to take steps towards meeting its pledge to be carbon neutral by 2030. Despite the challenges of the pandemic, the council strives to keep climate action at the top of its agenda so it can really make a difference for future generations.
Councillor Mike Greene, Portfolio Holder for Transport and Sustainability, said: “The council’s agreed Corporate Strategy clearly sets out sustainability as a key priority for the BCP area and ensures that all decisions and policies of the council underpins our climate action plans. This strategy can now be seen in action, with just a small sample below of the positive changes we have taken this year to support climate action locally. It is good to reflect on all the positives but we continue to look forward to ensure that momentum continues so we meet our targets.
“COP26 really puts the UK on the map as the host nation and I hope that collectively all our communities can play an active role in ensuring we take positive steps to tackle the real and growing threat that climate change poses.”
1: Additional Bikeability courses: Additional funding from the Bikeability Trust meant that our teams can provide over 2000 additional places for local children on our Bikeability courses.
2: Timber Groyne Renewals: Construction works commenced on our beaches from Middle Chine to West Cliff zig zag, as part of our £1.9M groyne replacement scheme.
3: Nature Park approved: Throop Nature Park will open up a substantial area of land to the public whilst encouraging biodiversity and protecting the natural environment.
4: Sustainable Fleet Strategy agreed: The £26.9M project will see a significant increase in the number of Ultra Low Emissions Vehicles used by the council
5: Transforming Travel: We have committed to investing over £102M in 78kms of cycling and walking infrastructure, plus additional bus service improvements. By creating this new network we are offering people a safe and green alternative to using their car.
6: Environmental Hub: Works to create the Durley Environmental Innovation Hub have begun, which will be a space dedicated to achieving a step-change in the reduction of waste and elimination of single use packaging across the BCP area.
7: Carbon-friendly waste solution- A new contract to process household, commercial and litter bin waste more sustainably was awarded to New Earth Solutions (Canford) based in Poole.
8: Leave only footprints- Our 11.2 million visitors to Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole were reminded about the importance of taking litter home with them during the summer season with our successful seafront campaign.
9: 23 Green Flag Awards: 23 of BCP Council’s outstanding parks and open spaces have been awarded a Green Flag Award, managed by environmental charity Keep Britain Tidy.
10: 10000 trees planted in 2021: A commitment was made to plant 10,000 new trees across the local area as part of our ongoing Cleaner, Greener, Safer campaign
11. Creation of a Centre for Excellence Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management (FCERM): The centre will provide an effective and coordinated approach to help prepare and protect residents and communities across the BCP area from the significant challenges created by the climate crisis.
12: Sustainable House Building: Four members of our construction works team qualified as PassivHaus (PH) Tradesperson Qualified by the PassivHaus Institutevia, which can help create buildings which use around 90% less energy than standard UK buildings.
13: Continued success of Beryl: In September 2021 alone, 240,667km was travelled on Beryl Bikes and e-Scooters across the conurbation, which equates to over 13,000 avoided car journeys.
14: Beach Park & Ride Schemes: Between late May & August, 6659 people used the newly created park & ride service in Kings Park, with a further 1694 using the Poole Civic Centre park and ride during the school holidays.
15: Green Recovery Challenge Funding: £224,000 was received from central government funding to help support the ecological potential of eight parks in the BCP area.
16: Flytipping Pilot- An external company (WISE) was appointed to help tackle flytipping across the area as part of a pilot scheme implemented to help reduce incidents of illegal dumping of waste
17: Blue Flag success- Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole beaches were awarded more blue flags in 2021 than any other UK authority by Keep Britain Tidy
18: Overnight litter picking along Wessex Way: Overnight closures were put in place this summer to tackle litter and clear gullies along our main access route into Bournemouth and Poole.
19: Scooters for school children: A competition to encourage more local children to walk, cycle or scoot to school gave away 30 brand new scooters to the winners
20: Increased funding for Cleaner, Greener, Safer: Campaign will now support conurbation-wide initiatives which will consider water quality engagement and strategic greenspace investment.
21: Beach renourishment– Seven depleted beach areas from Southbourne to Poole were renourished in a £7.5 million scheme which delivered 350,000m³ of sand and beach material to the coastline.
22: Ground-breaking litter campaign launched: The most scientifically robust litter survey took place using drone technology and AI, in partnership with McDonalds and Hubbub, on our beaches
23: Waste on our beaches: This summer, we collected 105 tonnes of irresponsibly disposed of litter from our coastline
24: Seafront catering improvements: All our beach kiosks have phased out single use plastic where possible, have introduced additional recycling and widely promote their drinking water refill stations
25: Wanda the Waste Warrior Fish: Wanda spent the summer in Bournemouth and Poole to help promote the message of Reuse, Refill and Reduce.. whilst also collecting recyclable waste from our beach visitors
26: Our Corporate Strategy: Leading our communities towards a cleaner, sustainable future that preserves our outstanding environment for generations to come.
If you like our content please keep us going for as little as £2 a month https://dorseteye.com/donate/
