Reigate & Banstead Borough Council has signed up to the national ‘10:10‘ campaign, making a public commitment to try to reduce its carbon emissions by 10 per cent during 2010. The move forms part of the Council’s ambitious longer-term plans to achieve a much larger reduction of 30 per cent across its activities by March 2014.
The Council is now calling on residents and local businesses to join in and sign up to 10:10 themselves, to try to achieve meaningful cuts in energy usage across the borough as a whole.
Redhill’s councillors jointly said:
“By signing up to the 10:10 campaign we are taking a small but meaningful step on the way to meeting our long term, more ambitious plans to reduce our energy usage, carbon footprint and costs.
“Our plans are based around sensible ‘invest to save’ energy efficiency projects which will not only cut the Council’s carbon emissions, but will also make concrete financial savings, helping to keep Council Tax down in future.
“Committing to saving energy and money in this way is something that everyone do and it is achievable - sign up to the 10:10 campaign, at www.1010uk.org to make a difference to our environment.”
Reigate & Banstead Borough Council has already invested in a number of projects to help lower its carbon emissions and energy costs including: fitting energy efficient lighting in Reigate’s Bancroft Road multi-storey car park; installing a ground source heat pump in the new Priory Park pavilion (picture above) to provide the heating/cooling system; improving insulation; implementing a travel plan and setting up ‘green teams’ amongst staff.
The Council also has plans to use a wood fuelled biomass boiler, together with a range of other energy saving measures, in the proposed new Horley Leisure Centre, to make the new centre’s carbon footprint some 30 per cent lower per square metre than those of the existing Horley Anderson Centre.
The Council is currently developing a Carbon Management Plan in partnership with the Carbon Trust which sets out the steps the Council plans to take to reduce its energy bills and carbon emissions to achieve a 30 per cent reduction in CO2 by 2014. The Plan is to be considered by the Executive at their meeting in March
The Council has already adopted a Sustainable Energy Strategy (in July 2009) which contains ambitious energy efficiency targets for itself as an organisation and for the Borough as a whole.
Background notes:
- The Executive agreed a recommendation to sign up to 10:10 at their meeting on 28 January 2010, which was ratified by Full Council on Thursday, 11 February 2010.
- 10:10 is an ambitious project to unite every sector of British society behind one simple idea: that by working together we can achieve a 10 per cent cut in the UK’s carbon emissions in 2010. http://www.1010uk.org
- A Council working group last year gave consideration to the idea of joining the 10:10 campaign but deferred the decision to enable the Council’s Carbon Management Plan to progress analysis of potential projects, investment and resourcing to ensure that the Council would be in a position to deliver against its promises.
- Now that the Carbon Management Plan has been developed in more detail, the Council felt it was able to sign up to the 10:10 target without jeopardising the more significant, longer term energy efficiency projects it is already pursuing.
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