Date published: 2025-03-12 | Category: Climate Emergency, Delivering for local residents, Ecological Emergency Action Plan, energy efficiency, Focusing on prevention, Tackling the climate and ecological emergency
Bath & North East Somerset Council is continuing its investment in tackling the climate and nature emergency, including decarbonising the council fleet and making council-owned buildings more energy efficient.
A report agreed by Full Council in February as part of the council’s budget saw £5.435m of investment approved over the next five years in capital schemes under the Climate Emergency and Sustainable Transport portfolio.
It will support renewable energy schemes, active travel, and nature recovery projects, including Chew Valley Nature Trail, Bath River Line, Waterspace Connected, Bathscape and Somer Valley Rediscovered, that will improve access to local nature for residents - in line with the council’s Ecological Emergency Action Plan.
In addition, a further £39.316m of schemes are in the pipeline, including further renewable energy projects, more woodland cover and tree planting and the Entry Hill ecology centre.
Capital schemes across the council that will help to tackle the climate and ecological emergency include the Bath City Centre Sustainable Transport Corridor, Bath Sustainable Walking & Cycling Links and Somer Valley Links, which will improve strategic walking, wheeling and cycling connections across region.
The council has allocated £4m for a programme to decarbonise its corporate estate, which will act as match funding for further grants and investment to remove gas as a heating fuel. The council has just been awarded grant funding to install air source heat pumps at Keynsham Civic Centre and Carrswood Day Centre. Another successful grant enabled installation of solar panels on Bath Sports and Leisure Centre. Future projects include the installation of heat pumps and solar panels at Carrswood Day Centre, and solar at Odd Down Sports Ground extension, Keynsham Children’s Centre, and on the Pump Room and Guildhall, subject to listed building consent. This will help to meet the council’s Net Zero goal by 2030 and achieve its target of 12MW installed renewable capacity on the corporate estate.
The council’s Net Zero Policy will also be supported by the decarbonisation of the fleet. The vehicles currently in use account for almost half of the council’s carbon footprint, with Heavy Good Vehicles (HGVs) accounting for 70% of emissions, despite only making up 28% of the fleet. Capital provision to replace 12 refuse collection vehicles and 30 recycling trucks with electric vehicles over the next two years will go some way to reducing this and will also bring savings on maintenance, fuel and vehicle tax. Some of the time, the vehicles will be charged using power generated by the solar PV array on top of the buildings at the Keynsham Recycling Centre.
Sarah Warren, Cabinet member for Climate and Sustainable Travel, said: “We continue to invest in our key priority of tackling the climate and ecological emergency, despite the many challenges facing the council’s budget. We have worked hard to secure investment from external sources to help decarbonise our council buildings and generate renewable energy for example completing the installation of solar panels on the roof of the Bath Sports & Leisure Centre which was funded by the government’s Swimming Pool Support Fund. We are also continuing to improve the energy efficiency of homes across B&NES. Our programme of community-led action which is funded by £1.5m from the National Lottery Climate Action Fund will support the creation of community Energy Champions who can provide residents with advice to reduce their energy bills and make their homes warmer.”
More information on how the council is tackling the climate emergency and what residents can do to contribute can be found here.
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