Climate Change and Air Quality Progress Report 2023 to 2024

Buckinghamshire Council secured £264,729 funding from the 2023/24 Local Authority Treescapes Fund (LATF) Round 3. The bid this year included partners from across Buckinghamshire including:

• Earthwatch LLP
• Gerrards Cross Town Council
• Releaf Marlow
• Earthwatch LLP & Hamilton Academy
• Buckingham Town Council
• Stoke Hammond Parish Council

These organisations planted over 3,000 trees across the County, including additional four more “Tiny Forests” established in line with the “Miyawaki” Method - packing 600 trees into an area no bigger than a tennis court. The dense planting helps accelerate tree growth (and therefore achieves greater biodiversity and carbon sequestration rate improvements sooner), while their small size allows for these forests to be planted in urban areas – allowing for much needed exposure to nature in our towns and cities. A further Tiny Forest will be planted in Wycombe this Autumn – delayed from this season’s planting due to poor weather and flooding.

We partnered for the third year running with Releaf Marlow, who planted 166 trees across a range of sites although the majority were at Harleyford Golf Club. Stoke Hammond Parish Council planted 200 trees on public land around the Newton Leys estate. Gerrards Cross Town Council planted 40 trees at West Common, adjacent to Oxford Road; and Buckingham Town Council planted 229 trees at Bourton Park, Chandos Park and Lace Hill Sports & Community Centre.

We have been working with Buckinghamshire Community Energy (BCE) who are developing a project in to decarbonise the Wharf Road Campus in Wendover, which includes seven buildings: John Colet School, John Hampden School, Wendover Junior School, Wendover Swimming Pool, Wendover Youth Centre, Wendover Memorial Hall and Little Acorns Kindergarten. The first stage of the project involved a feasibility study in 2021 which identified opportunities for substantial savings in energy and hot water consumption which could be realised through energy efficiency and renewable energy measures.

Over the last 12 months, the Council have worked with BCE to produce a set of template documents which could be used to allow the project to progress. These include template lease documents, guidance on how to conduct a site survey and on submission of a grid connection application. In time, the objective is to make these templates available to other community energy groups for use on their projects.

BCE funded a study by Renew EV who conducted the analysis necessary for sizing the measures proposed for the campus and calculated the financial aspects necessary for an initial community share offering, should the project progress further.

School Travel Plan Success (re Action 28)

The Council’s Travel to School team provides advice to schools on travelling sustainably. While their primary focus is to encourage active travel and reduce the number of car journeys to school altogether, they also provide information on anti-idling. Information is provided in newsletters and to schools in the course of working with them on their school travel plans.

The team also deliver initiatives such as the Footsteps training scheme, bikeability and balanceability training, and Walk Once a Week (WOW) incentive scheme. In June 2024, Buckinghamshire Council came 2nd in the Modeshift STARS (Sustainable Travel Accreditation and Recognition for Schools) scheme league table for large local authorities (with 100 schools or more) following the most recent round of applications in Autumn/Winter 2023/24.

There are now a total of 72 accredited school travel plans across the County.

In December 2023, the Council awarded a contract for leisure centre management at the following sites:

• Aqua Vale Swimming and Fitness Centre (Aylesbury)
• Swan Pool and Leisure Centre (Buckingham)
• Little Marlow Athletics Track
• Evreham Sports Centre (Iver)
• The Beacon Centre (Beaconsfield)

The procurement included securing commitments for the following under our Corporate Priority “Improving the Environment”:

• centre-specific environmental plans
• energy champions
• supporting cycle to work schemes for staff
• reducing single use plastics
• supporting the council with any Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme (PSDS) / Salix funded proposals and implementation

By procuring 100% renewable “REGO backed” electricity for the reporting period, carbon savings of 3,489 tCO2e have been achieved. The Council have also decided to procure electricity with a minimum 25% renewable energy content when we enter into a new contract for three years from October 2024.