Wokingham’s climate emergency action plan judged by national body

WORK put into the climate emergency action plan has been noticed on a national level.

Climate Emergency UK has been benchmarking councils’ work on tackling the climate emergency, carrying out assessments on their plans, leading to a scorecard.

The group had 120 experts pour over the plans, answering 28 questions, including costings, goals, and engagement with residents.

The results were announced on Thursday, January 27, and Wokingham Borough has come out eighth out of 183 single-tier authorities across the UK.

The organisation said that 84 of the UK’s 409 councils had no written action plan.

Wokingham Borough scored

79% overall, with maximum marks for governance, development and funding; eight out of nine for community engagement and communications; and 10 out of 18 for mitigation and adaptation.

Neighbouring Reading scored74%, with 14 out of 17 for governance, development and funding; seven out of nine for community engagement and communications; and 16 out of 18 for mitigation and adaptation.

Annie Pickering, campaigns and policy officer at Climate Emergency UK, said: “A good Action Plan has the basics covered. This means that the actions are specific and measurable and assigned to teams or departments. It should also be clear how the plan will be monitored as it is implemented.”

Next year, the group intends to chart delivery on the plans.

Miss Pickering added: “This year’s Scorecards are just the start of the process. It has been an important exercise to understand what makes a good council Climate Action Plan and we hope that it will help councils learn from each other and up their game.

“A good plan will help a local authority deliver effective actions, while having it easily available on the council website will enable local residents to know what their council has committed to and so hold the council to account.

At a meeting of Wokingham Borough Council’s ruling executive held that evening, council leader John Halsall said he was very pleased with the results.

“My congratulations to Cllr Gregory Murray, the executive member who has pushed this forward,” he added.

■ The scorecards can be seen at councilclimatescorecards.uk