Weather disruption
Winter weather is causing disruption to services in some parts of the county. Find out what services may be affected in your area.
View/download this page as a PDF version
This strategy is a start at setting out the general direction of travel that is required within the County. It explains some of the key challenges that we all face in achieving a carbon-neutral Dorset and identifies some of the areas where Dorset Council will endeavour to take action. Achieving our goal will require a shared understanding of the issues and action, by not only the Council, but organisations and individuals across Dorset.
Action has already started in several areas highlighted within this strategy and many initiatives are already in place to mitigate climate change, improve and protect ecology and make Dorset more resilient to climate change. It is clear however, that we need a massive step up in our actions.
Consult with the public and wider stakeholders
Our next key step in finalising this strategy is to consult the public and key stakeholders in order to gather your views on the approach set out in this document. This will largely take the form of a detailed questionnaire to find out if you think we have this strategy right, have identified the correct areas for action, or whether any points are missing or need further consideration. We intend to do this over the autumn to ensure your views are reflected in the final strategy and help inform our action plans.
Detailed action planning
We have taken a project management approach to the delivery of our Climate and Ecological Emergency response. The areas for action within this strategy have been developed into detailed plans setting out clear actions to be undertaken by Dorset Council.
We have used the ‘Areas for action’ as a basis for these plans but have also drawn upon the actions raised through our ‘Call for ideas’ and public consultation. The issues and themes raised have, and will continue to, shape and strengthen plans moving forward.
Our Action Plans set out our objectives, specific detailed actions, timescales and performance measures. We have also included details of other key partners required to help deliver these actions, the scale of potential carbon savings, expected costs and the associated co-benefits (health, economy, ecology and resilience).
Ensuring we stay on track
As noted in ‘Making it Happen’ we will finalise our baseline and monitor and report progress biannually against our carbon budgets and ecological indicators. These will be our headline indicators.
We will also monitor and track progress against individual actions within our plans and report progress regularly to Dorset Council’s Cabinet and senior management. Twice a year we will review and update our action plans and provide a biannual report of progress. We will make sure this is widely promoted to residents and organisations in Dorset.
Things will change. We will be heavily reliant on policy and financial support from the government as well as further technological advancements particularly in the field of hydrogen, battery storage and smart technologies. We will keep track of these rapidly changing developments and adjust our strategy and action plans accordingly.
We will regularly review our overall strategy and approach to ensure it is still relevant and up to date. At a minimum we will update our strategy and refocus as required every 5 years.