The Central Lincolnshire Joint Strategic Planning Committee has appointed Bioregional to help develop its response to the climate emergency. We will be providing the region’s local authorities with an evidence base for creating a net zero carbon Local Plan.
Working with sustainability engineers Etude and asset management consultancy Currie & Brown, we will support Central Lincolnshire (City of Lincoln, North Kesteven and West Lindsey) – an area totalling 2116km2 with a population of 290,500 – to adapt its Local Plan to achieve its Net Zero Carbon 2050 goal.
This will be achieved by preparing an evidence base to determine how the target should be defined and accounted for, what measures will be necessary in key sectors, including costings and feasibility, and the potential role of offsetting.
Philip Hylton, Team Leader at the Central Lincolnshire Local Plan Team, says: “The Central Lincolnshire Joint Strategic Planning Committee recognises the importance of climate change and of the responsibility for us all to do what we can to address it. Through this piece of work we hope to understand what we can do through the Local Plan with an ambition of delivering a carbon neutral plan.
“By appointing Bioregional and its consortium, we have obtained the expert input needed to fully understand the challenge and investigate the means at our disposal. This work will inform the decisions we make in the plan to ensure that impacts are reduced wherever possible.”
Ronan Leyden, Head of Sustainable Places at Bioregional, says: “In keeping with some 70% of local authority areas, the City of Lincoln and North Kesteven have both declared a climate emergency.
“With time quickly running out to address the issue, we will be setting out a robust evidence base for a net zero-carbon Local Plan for the combined authority. We are excited to be working with Central Lincolnshire and to be helping to turn the Climate Emergency declarations into tangible carbon-reduction actions.”
The package of works will also include an assessment of the potential for decentralised energy networks in relation to the region’s rural context, as well as a peat soil mapping survey to understand the full scope of these huge stores of carbon within Central Lincolnshire.
Local authorities can play a key role in driving climate action
Ronan Leyden, Bioregional
In addition, Bioregional will review Central Lincolnshire’s current planning policies in connection with embodied carbon and consider how the region can improve the environmental performance and climate adaptation of new buildings.
Leyden continues: “Placemaking is an essential ingredient in creating better, more sustainable communities in which to live, work and do business. We recognise that each place has its own unique context and opportunities and will therefore ensure our recommendations are appropriate for the future needs of the region.
“It is an important piece of work that will involve close collaboration with the local authorities and a number of different organisations to explore how Central Lincolnshire can grow and develop while keeping carbon emissions to an absolute minimum, and finding ways to remove as much carbon dioxide as possible from the atmosphere.”
Central Lincolnshire is one of a number of major local authorities with whom Bioregional is working on climate and ecological emergency responses, including most recently Greater Cambridge and Cherwell District Council.
“Local authorities can play a key role in driving climate action – they’re able to influence infrastructure like transport, planning and food systems and have unique insight into the needs and lives of their residents,” says Leyden.
“Bioregional has been working with local authorities for decades to develop replicable and scale-able solutions for sustainable change and our aim is to provide local authorities with the tools and knowledge to address the climate emergency, achieve net zero carbon, restore biodiversity, and create the communities, jobs and economies for a sustainable future.”
Are you a local authority that's declared a climate and ecological emergency and is wondering "what next?" We've got 6 inspiring stories of sustainable change from around the world to help inspire you
Bioregional has been appointed by Greater Cambridge to help it develop its response to the climate emergency and provide the region’s local authorities with a route map towards net zero carbon
As we turn attention to recovering from the pandemic, we need leaders to show us real-life scalable solutions for healthier, more resilient, sustainable cities, says Patrick Clift. The City of Fremantle is one of these