Horsham District agrees major action on the environment

At a meeting of Full Council on 26 June, Horsham District councillors acknowledged in a notice of motion strong scientific evidence and growing public concern about a wide range of damaging  environmental matters,  including a climate emergency.

A list of some of the concerns was given and ranged from the use of single-use plastics to climate change and air pollution.

The motion was passed after a long debate on the matter. It mentions that the Council has a strong record when looking at environmental issues and confirms the importance of the Council continuing to take practical actions to tackle them.

It was agreed that the Council would develop a plan to reduce the carbon footprint of Horsham District, aiming towards net zero carbon emissions.

The Council acknowledged  that it will  need to continue with public engagement and involvement on this subject and that resources will be required to underpin and support new initiatives that it undertakes.

“The good news is that as a council we already have a long track record of dealing with environmental matters, particularly in the areas of biodiversity, and waste and recycling, where with a recycling rate of some 54%, we are the leading council for recycling in the whole of East and West Sussex.

This success was not achieved without strong public support for our actions and we shall need to maintain this involving both our residents and local business in our approach, as we introduce measures to tackle environmental issues.

We shall be working on an audit of our activities to assess current carbon emission levels in the District and we are committed to fully playing our role to meet the challenge to reduce them.

Cabinet Member for Environment, Recycling and Waste Cllr Philip Circus

The Council is now producing its updated Local Plan which will look at future housing throughout the District. In doing so we need to see what additional measures we can expect developers to undertake to help the environment and include in our new homes and see how we can increase biodiversity on new housing developments.”

Cabinet Member for Planning & Development, Cllr Claire Vickers