Banter 78: 16Jul25. Local Government and Climate Scorecards, with Isaac Beevor
Isaac explains the Climate Emergency UK Climate Scorecard system, defiines the changes between the 2023 edition, and the one for 2025, and explains how to get around their website
Video Timeline (min:sec):
00:00 - 02:00 General discussion about funding for Village Hall renewables
02:00 - 04:00 Banter
04:00 - 06:25 Introduction
06:25 - 21:00 Presentation: Climate Scorecards
21:00 - 27:00 Using the Climate Emergency UK website
27:00 - 32:30 15 way to improve Council climate action
32:30 - 34:00 Why we focus on Unitary, County and District councils
34:00 - 66:00 (end) Q & A session
Presentation:
Meeting Summary:
Jul 16, 2025 11:54 AM London ID: 834 5460 8536
Quick recap
The meeting focused on climate action initiatives and scorecards for local councils in the UK, with discussions on funding for renewable energy projects and the work of Climate Emergency UK in tracking and grading local authorities' climate action progress. Participants explored the methodology and impact of council climate scorecards, which aim to provide public accountability and comparison tools for councils' climate initiatives. The group also addressed recent developments in council climate commitments and the importance of involving residents in community climate action plans.
Next steps
Joolz to send Isaac information about community climate action plans and citizen science initiatives for potential collaboration.
Isaac to consider including emergency planning related to climate risks in future scorecard assessments.
Katie to follow up with Isaac via email to check who the Climate Emergency UK contact is for her council.
Amanda to explore options for analyzing combined district data for the Cotswolds National Landscape area using the Climate Emergency UK scorecard website or by purchasing the data in spreadsheet format.
Eluned to monitor West Northamptonshire Council's actions on climate initiatives following their vote to abandon net zero targets.
Isaac to track changes in council climate actions, particularly for councils rolling back commitments, for the next scorecard assessment in 2027.
Summary
Renewable Energy Funding Discussion
The meeting began with introductions from participants across various regions in England, including Shropshire, Suffolk, Oxfordshire, and Northampton. Joolz, standing in for the absent host Graham, provided an overview of the meeting's purpose and mentioned that it would be recorded and transcribed for the Great Collaboration Knowledge Base. Joolz also discussed a funding solution for renewable energy installations, specifically mentioning the Resilience Fund, which offers grants and loans for such projects. Stuart inquired about the fund, and Joolz offered to assist with the application process, while Stuart mentioned having a system specification and a structural survey in progress. The meeting was set to continue with further discussions on renewable energy initiatives.
Climate Emergency UK Council Assessment
The meeting discussed the work of Climate Emergency UK, focusing on their efforts to track and grade local authorities' climate action progress. Joolz explained that while most councils have declared climate emergencies, there is varying action and accountability, using Newcastle City Council as an example of lack of progress. Isaac presented Climate Emergency UK's theory of change, emphasizing the importance of data and public accountability in driving action. The organization has compiled climate emergency declarations, created a database of action plans, and developed scorecards to assess council performance, with 83% of councils having declared emergencies and 85% having up-to-date action plans.
Action Scorecards Project Overview
Isaac presented an overview of the action scorecards project, highlighting the release of the first iteration in October 2023 and the most recent update in June 2025. He explained the methodology changes between 2023 and 2025, emphasizing the importance of comparability. The project aims to support transparency between local government and residents, enable campaigners to hold councils accountable, provide a benchmark for climate action, and share best practices. Isaac detailed the three-stage marking process, involving citizen data collection, council feedback, and a scoring audit, and noted a high engagement rate from UK councils in the right of reply period.
UK Council Climate Scorecards Overview
Isaac presented an overview of the Council Climate Scorecards, highlighting that 66 UK councils scored 50% or higher, with 56 councils scoring over 80% in at least one section. He explained the methodology covers all council functions, not just high-emitting areas, and emphasized the scorecards as a whole-council response to the climate emergency. Isaac demonstrated the website, showing how to browse by nation, section, or council, and explained the scoring system, including how councils can improve their scores. He also shared a document with 15 ways to improve council climate action and mentioned upcoming events and further analysis. Isaac clarified that the scorecards focus on principal authorities due to the large number of parish councils, but parish councils can still benefit from the information provided.
Climate Scorecard Assessment Methodology
Isaac explained the methodology and timeline of the climate scorecards, noting that the next assessment will be in 2027, though the exact timing is uncertain due to devolution changes. He described the process of inviting councils to participate in the right of reply and emphasized that feedback is sought from both high and low-scoring councils. David inquired about how climate thinking is embedded in councils, and Isaac highlighted the increased accessibility of climate information on council websites as a positive impact of the scorecards. The discussion also touched on the use of climate impact assessment tools by councils, with Chesterfield being cited as an example of good practice.
National Landscape Data Analysis
Amanda discussed the possibility of analyzing data for national landscape areas, particularly the Cotswolds, which spans multiple counties and districts. Isaac explained that while they currently don't provide data for national landscape boundaries, they can filter by region and council type on their website. He also mentioned the option to purchase the data in spreadsheet format for easier analysis. Amanda inquired about combining district data to find averages or best/worst performances, which Isaac confirmed was possible through manual comparison on their website or by purchasing the data.
Climate Action Scorecards for Councils
The meeting focused on a discussion about climate action scorecards for local councils, with Isaac explaining that Climate UK developed the scorecards to provide public accountability and comparison tools for councils' climate initiatives, as councils have significant influence over local emissions. Garry raised questions about the initiative's origins and funding, to which Isaac clarified that the project is funded through donations, charitable grants, and data sales, and was decided upon by Climate UK to focus on councils rather than larger organizations already being assessed.
Climate Emergency Declaration Rollbacks
The group discussed recent developments where several councils, including Durham and West Northamptonshire, are considering or have rescinded their climate emergency declarations and net-zero targets, though they plan to continue sustainability projects. Isaac explained that while these headlines suggest rollback of climate commitments, the actual impact on actions remains unclear, and the changes will be tracked through scorecards in 2027. Joolz noted that while East Anglia hasn't seen many Reform councillors yet, there's growing support due to major national infrastructure projects, though local influence remains uncertain.
Community Climate Action Planning
Joolz discussed the importance of involving residents and stakeholders in community climate action plans, highlighting the need to assess the veracity of emergency plans in relation to climate risks. Isaac explained that while emergency planning is a statutory duty, they try not to assess questions where every council is legally required to have a certain thing, but they are open to suggestions for new questions if there are specific aspects that could be improved. The group discussed the potential inclusion of emergency planning in their scoring system, with Isaac noting that they are always open to reviewing and understanding whether changes should be made to their existing questions.
Chat:
00:11:39 Joolz | The Great Collaboration (Host): https://climateemergency.uk/
00:12:43 Joolz | The Great Collaboration (Host): [email protected]
00:14:54 Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: Is it just me that the sound is cutting out?
00:15:41 Joolz | The Great Collaboration (Host): Hi Gary - I think maybe just you (perhaps leave and re-join?).
00:15:50 Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: Reacted to "Hi Gary - I think ma..." with 👍
00:15:59 Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: It's ok it's not too bad.
00:16:13 Joolz | The Great Collaboration (Host): Reacted to "It's ok it's not too..." with 👍
00:22:56 Amanda Davis, Cotswolds: Is this just principal councils or at Parish and Town?
00:24:51 Joolz | The Great Collaboration (Host): Replying to "Is this just princip..."
I believe just principal Councils, though it would be interesting to map and collect data at Town or Parish level - a project waiting to happen! 🙂 🙏
00:25:32 Jacky Lawrence, Napton, Warwickshire: Replying to "Is this just princip..."
would need huge amount of resource (people volunteering to do that)
00:25:35 David newman (Blackbird Leys): What about Scotland?
00:25:50 Isaac Beevor: 2025 Climate Action Scorecards: https://councilclimatescorecards.uk/
00:26:51 Joolz | The Great Collaboration (Host): Replying to "Is this just princip..."...or clerks / Cllrs entering information (perhaps at the Great Collaboration). But yes - you're right, a lot of work, with 10,000 odd in England & Wales.
00:32:02 Isaac Beevor: 15 Ways to improve your council's Climate Action: https://docs.google.com/document/d/15nd_oqx2MlleI3K4lsxHz97mPdTF1Aa0FzYDYnA0fQ8/edit?usp=sharing
00:35:21 Isaac Beevor: Scorecards in Action: Planning and Land Use meeting, Tuesday 29Jul25: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/scorecards-in-action-planning-and-land-use-tickets-1388147298939
00:37:01 Isaac Beevor: Council Climate Action Scorecards: 3rd Edition: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/council-climate-action-scorecards-3rd-edition
00:49:34 Amanda Davis: Can you provide this analysis by National Landscape boundaries too? If authorities not coterminous perhaps the collection of each individual councils data that has a foot in that geography
00:52:00 Isaac Beevor: "Has the council adopted a new governance or decision making process to put tackling the climate emergency at the heart of every council decision made?": https://councilclimatescorecards.uk/2025/question/s4_g_f_q5/
00:52:59 David newman (Blackbird Leys): How can we help? E.g. reporting on backsliding.
00:56:23 eluned from Kingsthorpe PC: West Northants council, which went Reform in May, is voting tonight on whether to scrap net zero targets, Is any other area on this call facing this?
01:00:48 Jacky Lawrence, Napton, Warwickshire: Replying to "West Northants counc..."
yes - Warwickshire
01:00:57 Lynne Bowers: I've seen an article re Kent ( I think) stopping EVs and retrofit; they are 'reviewing' SEND transport
01:01:01 Isaac Beevor: Reform-run councils once known for green policies expected to scrap climate pledges. Former Durham county council climate lead calls motion to rescind climate emergency declaration ‘reprehensible’ https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/jul/15/reform-uk-councils-scrap-climate-pledges-durham-west-northamptonshire
01:01:45 Lynne Bowers: Don McGowan follows matters closely on twitter
01:04:42 David newman (Blackbird Leys): Got another Zoom session at 13:00. Bye.
01:05:48 Amanda Davis: Reacted to yes - Warwickshire with "😞"
01:06:59 Amanda Davis: Year of Green Unison 2026... we are the public sector union. Local govt. Holding feet to coals.
01:07:11 Lynne Bowers: Reacted to "Year of Green Unison..." with 👍
01:07:22 Lynne Bowers: maybe not coals ….
01:09:01 Amanda Davis: Hosepipe bans
01:09:31 Amanda Davis: Covid was classic example Joolz.
01:10:06 Katie- Forest of Dean District Council: I have got to go I am afriad but this has been so useful, many thanks!
01:10:47 Lynne Bowers: I'm sure everyone will have seen the excellent report by Prof Tim Land re food sustainability and ref to food civil reliance e
01:10:57 Lynne Bowers: Lang
01:11:12 Amanda Davis: Reacted to I'm sure everyone wi... with "👍"
Speech-to-text:
16 00:04:36.280 --> 00:04:42.859 Cllr Stuart Withington Great Dunmow TC, Essex: Oh, Jules, just before we start, what was the funding solution you recommended.
17 00:04:43.600 --> 00:04:46.960 Joolz | The Great Collaboration (Host): So it's an organization called the Resilience Fund.
18 00:04:46.960 --> 00:04:48.510 Cllr Stuart Withington Great Dunmow TC, Essex: Resilience, from.
19 00:04:48.510 --> 00:04:55.399 Joolz | The Great Collaboration (Host): Yep, I've already done an application, and in for our pub and for our Rugby Club.
20 00:04:57.060 --> 00:04:59.480 Joolz | The Great Collaboration (Host): so I'd be more than happy to help you complete.
21 00:05:00.001 --> 00:05:05.139 Joolz | The Great Collaboration (Host): An application. The 1st stage is 2.5,000 pound. Grant funded energy audit.
22 00:05:06.040 --> 00:05:10.830 Joolz | The Great Collaboration (Host): and you may have already had one done that might qualify, but they tend to like to do their own.
23 00:05:11.440 --> 00:05:20.329 Joolz | The Great Collaboration (Host): Well, I've I've just managed to get a deck certificate for the building. I haven't actually seen it yet. Would would that suffice?
24 00:05:20.710 --> 00:05:27.190 Joolz | The Great Collaboration (Host): I don't know without asking them, but I can. I can help with the process. And then beyond that.
25 00:05:27.300 --> 00:05:34.000 Joolz | The Great Collaboration (Host): there's 40% grant and 60% kind of friendly loan for
26 00:05:34.680 --> 00:05:47.809 Joolz | The Great Collaboration (Host): potentially up to 6 figures depending on the cost of a system for those that are just kind of hearing the conversation. We're talking about renewable energy installation for a town hall where Stuart's a councillor in Great Demo?
27 00:05:49.420 --> 00:05:50.920 Joolz | The Great Collaboration (Host): Right? So I think.
28 00:05:51.687 --> 00:05:58.789 Cllr Stuart Withington Great Dunmow TC, Essex: I I've got a system specification, as I told you. Just getting a structural survey done.
29 00:05:59.400 --> 00:06:02.671 Cllr Stuart Withington Great Dunmow TC, Essex: And hopefully, then we can go out and
30 00:06:05.020 --> 00:06:07.629 Cllr Stuart Withington Great Dunmow TC, Essex: Get a few tenders and
31 00:06:07.770 --> 00:06:13.030 Cllr Stuart Withington Great Dunmow TC, Essex: get somebody to fit it. I've got a meeting with Holden in a couple of hours.
32 00:06:13.030 --> 00:06:13.700 Joolz | The Great Collaboration (Host): Great.
33 00:06:14.150 --> 00:06:18.320 Cllr Stuart Withington Great Dunmow TC, Essex: But I I just want the name of the fund that you were thinking of.
34 00:06:18.320 --> 00:06:23.859 Joolz | The Great Collaboration (Host): Yeah, I'll ping I'll I'll ping you a link before you. before you know, before you meet.
35 00:06:24.472 --> 00:06:29.799 Cllr Stuart Withington Great Dunmow TC, Essex: So you can have a look, and I'd be really happy to help with the like. I say, help with the process.
36 00:06:30.130 --> 00:06:31.600 Cllr Stuart Withington Great Dunmow TC, Essex: Excellent! That'd be great.
37 00:06:32.810 --> 00:06:33.730 Cllr Stuart Withington Great Dunmow TC, Essex: Thank you.
38 00:06:36.290 --> 00:06:37.240 Joolz | The Great Collaboration (Host): Hi! There! Isaac!
39 00:06:37.240 --> 00:06:46.288 Isaac Beevor: Hi, so sorry about that. I was desperately searching for the link because it came through the zoom email, and what I had done is managed to delete that email.
40 00:06:46.908 --> 00:06:52.329 Joolz | The Great Collaboration (Host): Sure! Well, not not a problem. We normally give it 5 min or so to wait for people to arrive. So
41 00:06:53.830 --> 00:07:08.110 Joolz | The Great Collaboration (Host): While we are waiting just for everyone's information. This meeting is being recorded. A transcription, I believe an AI transcription and a copy of the recording will be put on the great collaboration knowledge base
42 00:07:08.830 --> 00:07:15.280 Joolz | The Great Collaboration (Host): for those that haven't yet. Perhaps if you could maybe change your name, just let us know where you're from. That would be great.
43 00:07:15.948 --> 00:07:20.000 Joolz | The Great Collaboration (Host): And we'll give it. We'll give it a couple of minutes to see if anyone else arrives.
44 00:07:20.540 --> 00:07:24.150 Joolz | The Great Collaboration (Host): and I'm your replacement host for today.
45 00:07:24.400 --> 00:07:36.449 Joolz | The Great Collaboration (Host): Graham is uncontactable somewhere, I believe, in the outer Hebrides, on adventures, probably on a sailing boat, knowing Graham, so he'll have to make do with me for the time being.
46 00:07:37.190 --> 00:07:37.850 Allan Wilson Edgmond Shropshire: Okay.
47 00:07:44.380 --> 00:07:50.349 Joolz | The Great Collaboration (Host): But we've got a good spread around the country from Warwickshire, Shropshire. I'm in Suffolk, in East Anglia.
48 00:07:53.770 --> 00:08:00.599 Joolz | The Great Collaboration (Host): I'm not really sure where Blackbird Lee's is David, or indeed Kingsthorpe?
49 00:08:00.950 --> 00:08:04.069 Joolz | The Great Collaboration (Host): Eleanette might might just tell you.
50 00:08:04.070 --> 00:08:06.600 David newman (Blackbird Leys): It's inside Oxford.
51 00:08:06.950 --> 00:08:08.860 Joolz | The Great Collaboration (Host): Okay. Oxford, Oxfordshire, yeah. And.
52 00:08:08.860 --> 00:08:10.819 eluned from Kingsthorpe PC: Kingsops in Northampton.
53 00:08:10.990 --> 00:08:14.020 Joolz | The Great Collaboration (Host): Northampton. Great! We've we've definitely got a good spread. So.
54 00:08:15.170 --> 00:08:18.930 David newman (Blackbird Leys): Yes, it's actually inside the city of Oxford.
55 00:08:19.110 --> 00:08:20.209 Joolz | The Great Collaboration (Host): Okay. Sure.
56 00:08:20.210 --> 00:08:21.010 eluned from Kingsthorpe PC: Yeah.
57 00:08:22.180 --> 00:08:24.900 Joolz | The Great Collaboration (Host): Yeah, I hear that I hear you're doing great things down there
58 00:08:28.870 --> 00:08:36.420 Joolz | The Great Collaboration (Host): in Oxford so fabulous and so Isaac
59 00:08:36.915 --> 00:08:39.760 Joolz | The Great Collaboration (Host): is joining us today. Who's the partnership director
60 00:08:40.200 --> 00:08:47.899 Joolz | The Great Collaboration (Host): and for climate emergency. Uk. Who are very helpfully grading our respective local authorities in terms of their climate action.
61 00:08:49.000 --> 00:09:06.369 Joolz | The Great Collaboration (Host): and from probably around 2018, I think maybe was the 1st climate emergency declaration. And then from 2019 onwards, it became a more common thing, and I believe up to 80 90% of our local authorities have probably declared a climate emergency.
62 00:09:07.100 --> 00:09:12.300 Joolz | The Great Collaboration (Host): Our Parliament has declared a climate emergency, but that was via
63 00:09:12.500 --> 00:09:32.660 Joolz | The Great Collaboration (Host): Private Members Bill tabled by the opposition at the time in 2019. So while our Parliament was one of the 1st in the world, or probably the 1st in the world to declare a climate emergency. It's distinct and different from our government of the time. So it wasn't our executive. And it wasn't our government that declared a climate emergency
64 00:09:32.790 --> 00:09:45.079 Joolz | The Great Collaboration (Host): having declared climate emergencies throughout the country. There's varying degrees of action, and while we wait just another couple of minutes, see if anyone else turns up. I'll give you a good example of that
65 00:09:46.020 --> 00:09:53.169 Joolz | The Great Collaboration (Host): in, I think. In 2,010 Newcastle City Council wrote their climate emergency plan.
66 00:09:53.800 --> 00:10:07.250 Joolz | The Great Collaboration (Host): and then the build up to the mayoral election, where I was on the campaign team for Metro Mayor. I inquired with the city council what progress they might have made, and the election was in 2019. What progress they might have made on their climate plan.
67 00:10:07.440 --> 00:10:12.060 Joolz | The Great Collaboration (Host): and the responsible Cabinet member said, That's a good question. I'll go and find out.
68 00:10:12.310 --> 00:10:27.339 Joolz | The Great Collaboration (Host): and when they came back to me to say what progress they've made since 2010, the answer was, We've we've made the officer responsible redundant. We haven't got any visibility on any progress that has been made. So we can't actually ask your question.
69 00:10:27.850 --> 00:10:40.510 Joolz | The Great Collaboration (Host): Answer your question. And that was over a period of 9 years from having written a plan. So I'm very delighted with the work. See the excellent work that climate emergency Uk. Are doing, helping us
70 00:10:40.940 --> 00:10:44.970 Joolz | The Great Collaboration (Host): keep track of progress or otherwise with our local authorities.
71 00:10:45.110 --> 00:10:47.840 Joolz | The Great Collaboration (Host): and we've got a few other people just joined. So
72 00:10:48.230 --> 00:11:02.020 Joolz | The Great Collaboration (Host): for those that haven't yet perhaps just add the Parish Council or area that you might be representing, or the organisation. And then, without further ado, I'll hand over to Isaac to tell us more about the fabulous work at climate, emergency.
73 00:11:02.020 --> 00:11:25.369 Isaac Beevor: Yeah, and thank you so much for having us here, we really appreciate the opportunity to speak to everyone. And we're doing lots of different engagement events across the Uk and and going to different conferences and being asked to speak. But we really appreciate this opportunity. So thank you for having us and and for listening as well. So I'm gonna cover a little bit.
74 00:11:25.530 --> 00:11:49.500 Isaac Beevor: obviously about the scorecards. The results kind of the average scores and and kind of the trends that we've seen and then, and obviously a little bit of a background to the project and background to climate emergency. Uk as well as some of the things that you can do going forward in terms of supporting and and like further analysis that we're going to be doing as well. So I'm gonna share my
75 00:11:49.800 --> 00:11:51.390 Isaac Beevor: screen.
76 00:11:52.150 --> 00:11:55.640 Isaac Beevor: And hopefully, this all works. Okay.
77 00:11:57.540 --> 00:12:25.910 Isaac Beevor: you can see my screen. Okay, and I'm not. Yeah, perfect. And I'm not showing you can just see the slides right? I'm not showing the present of you perfect. Thank you always good to get confirmation? If you you have my email address on the on the slides there. Obviously, I have them at the end as well. But, please make use if you ever want to reach out to us. On either to the generic climax, Uk declare, or my specific email address, just in terms of who we are.
78 00:12:26.200 --> 00:12:41.190 Isaac Beevor: And this is kind of our theory of change, or our most important kind of core values is that we believe it's data which we provide through things like the scorecards and compiling all the climate, emergency declarations
79 00:12:41.260 --> 00:12:58.199 Isaac Beevor: and public accountability, which is what's going to lead to more action. We don't just think that if we get some data published, and that's going to change anything and change hearts and minds, or get more action at council level. But we also think if you combine decent data, good data
80 00:12:58.550 --> 00:13:10.210 Isaac Beevor: alongside public accountability. So that's with local residents and parish councils like yourselves pushing councils to go further. Then that's what's going to lead to more action. So that's kind of where we're coming from.
81 00:13:11.400 --> 00:13:35.299 Isaac Beevor: who we are and what we've done, and it's already kind of been mentioned a little bit. But it's kind of this is like a short timeline or photos, or images of what we've done. We were set up, and to compile and encourage councils to declare climate, emergency declarations. That's the map on the left hand side here, and yes, it is about 83% of councils have declared a climate emergency.
82 00:13:35.300 --> 00:13:44.700 Isaac Beevor: a few, a bit of a higher percentage. I think it's 85% have a climate action plan that's in date and also set net 0 targets.
83 00:13:45.250 --> 00:13:54.860 Isaac Beevor: We then worked with my society to create the Climate Action Plan explorer, and that's the database of all Uk councils, climate action plans and the net 0 targets. And what's happening
84 00:13:55.520 --> 00:14:18.760 Isaac Beevor: like the initial burst. And and that led us to, you know that this is this, we're creating a data sets that people can hold their councils to account more because they can understand what their climate action plan and their net 0 targets are, and therefore move on. So that was our 1st like iterations of it. What we then did is, we went on to assess the Council climate plans which we released in January 2022,
85 00:14:19.110 --> 00:14:38.349 Isaac Beevor: and then we released the action scorecard. So the 1st iteration of the action scorecards were released in October 2023. The most recent action scorecards were released in just a few weeks ago, or basically one month ago, in the middle of June 2025. So 17th of June.
86 00:14:38.710 --> 00:14:48.759 Isaac Beevor: So all the data is really fresh and and really new. And I'll give a little website demonstration latest in terms of how you can use the website and and understand it.
87 00:14:48.780 --> 00:15:12.620 Isaac Beevor: It's important to know that the methodology has been tweaked between 2023 and 2025 scorecards. And that's mostly because obviously, we learned so much from going through the process the 1st time. But we made sure to limit the number of changes we made to the methodology because we wanted the results to be comparable. And that's really important, obviously, to be able to compare between years. So you can actually track council, climate action over time.
88 00:15:14.040 --> 00:15:38.630 Isaac Beevor: our objectives of the actual project we want to support greater transparency between local government and residents. We want to enable campaigners to hold their council to account. We want to provide a benchmark for council, climate, action, and help, with the sharing of best practice, and we want the scorecards kind of, we believe the scorecards provide the evidence for that. There should be a legal duty for local government to act on climate action and why that is needed.
89 00:15:38.630 --> 00:16:02.190 Isaac Beevor: And these objectives kind of tie in with who we think our audience is so obviously local residents and campaigners, but also councils, being a big part of our evidence, not evidence, our audience sorry and base, and using the scorecards. How they use the scorecards is almost like a best practice tool to find those that are scoring really well, and if they can then take some of those actions and learn from those councils that score. Well.
90 00:16:03.990 --> 00:16:05.740 Isaac Beevor: I'm just gonna
91 00:16:06.250 --> 00:16:15.329 Isaac Beevor: okay. So everyone else's sound is okay. Okay, cool. Just checking the chat. And this is a little bit about our timeline.
92 00:16:15.780 --> 00:16:41.350 Isaac Beevor: and how the scorecards project actually works. And I will go into a bit more detail on this. So we reviewed the methodology in the start of 2024, and I will talk a little bit about how we reviewed that methodology. So we have an advisory group that oversees the creation of the scorecards and the advisory group represents the council climate sector.
93 00:16:41.400 --> 00:16:50.190 Isaac Beevor: so that includes counselors, includes officers and campaigners and residents and also sector experts.
94 00:16:50.650 --> 00:17:09.369 Isaac Beevor: So people from other sector organizations that understand and work on local climate policy. So they oversee every new question and all the changes that were made. We also held round tables, over the course of 2024.
95 00:17:09.710 --> 00:17:33.910 Isaac Beevor: So the round tables where we've again we invite officers, counselors, and former volunteers, local campaigners to discuss each individual section and what we were going to do in terms of what we were going to do in terms of any changes we were going to make or clarifications we can make to make the scoring clearer. So that's what we did in the early part of 2024 was review and then publish the updated metrics
96 00:17:34.120 --> 00:17:46.869 Isaac Beevor: we then have. And this is like something that's special of the scorecards, and is the same for every single scorecards. We have a 3 stage marking process. We have a 1st mark. We have a right of reply, and then we have an audit.
97 00:17:47.290 --> 00:18:00.840 Isaac Beevor: The 1st mark. And this is something that's really special about scorecards is that the scorecards are a citizen data project. And that's where most people get involved in the 1st mark. So
98 00:18:01.420 --> 00:18:04.053 Isaac Beevor: over 200 people.
99 00:18:05.480 --> 00:18:27.290 Isaac Beevor: volunteered with us to basically crowdsource all the data and information on council climate action. So we train those volunteers. We work with those volunteers in terms of guides and and online to answer any questions they may have. And they go out and basically use. They go out and basically crowdsource all the data and information for roughly, 2 thirds of the questions
100 00:18:27.540 --> 00:18:41.630 Isaac Beevor: we had about another 40 volunteers who helped us process all of the freedom information requests that we send out to councils. So that's another way we get data is through fee information requests and obviously sending about
101 00:18:42.020 --> 00:18:54.029 Isaac Beevor: sending about 10 questions to councils via foi means we get quite a lot of responses, and therefore we use volunteers to process all that information that we got from feeder information requests.
102 00:18:54.570 --> 00:19:00.730 Isaac Beevor: So that's the 1st mark. And that's you can basically think of that as the big crowdsource of all the information and data
103 00:19:01.160 --> 00:19:09.483 Isaac Beevor: we then have a right of reply period, and that's where we actually engage with councils. So we send councils.
104 00:19:10.470 --> 00:19:37.380 Isaac Beevor: every. We send councils the 1st mark information, and it to the Council climate officers, and they're able to log in to the platform and able to challenge and provide any feedback or information that we may have missed. So they're able to go. Yeah. As I said, they're able to go in and provide any data that we may have missed. You know, if there's reports we may have missed because they were hidden away in meeting minutes, or if the information is really new because they've only just released it, and we weren't able to find the web page.
105 00:19:37.640 --> 00:20:03.559 Isaac Beevor: and they're able to provide that information and provide any challenge and feedback and extra information in the right of reply we had, we have a really big engagement rate which we're really grateful for from councils. So 76% of all Uk councils actually responded in the right of reply. So to have just over 3 quarters of Uk councils actually respond is really amazing to get that kind of engagement. So that's that's really.
106 00:20:03.700 --> 00:20:08.160 Isaac Beevor: we think, yeah, we're really pleased with with that and that level of engagement.
107 00:20:08.490 --> 00:20:16.950 Isaac Beevor: The 3rd stage is the scoring audit, and the scoring audit is where we have paid staff, and
108 00:20:17.290 --> 00:20:19.970 Isaac Beevor: a few trained volunteers come back
109 00:20:20.080 --> 00:20:39.520 Isaac Beevor: and actually award the final marks. And what the scoring audit does is, it takes into account everything. From the 1st mark. It takes into account all the information provided by the counsel in the right of reply, and then we award the final marks in the scoring audit. So and the audit is there to basically
110 00:20:40.660 --> 00:20:51.659 Isaac Beevor: increase the accuracy and consistency of the marking, because we know that with that large amount of people in the 1st mark. There's going to be like errors and inconsistencies and inaccuracies in the marking
111 00:20:51.700 --> 00:21:17.019 Isaac Beevor: with the extra information provided by the council. The scoring auditors are there to to that already experienced, we train them again. We work with them much closer, because it's a much smaller team, and, as I mentioned, we have a paid auditors for the 1st time as well, and that makes sure that we're as consistent and accurate as possible in the data. And then we go into the launch periods where? We basically work on the media angles and some final data checks. And yeah, launch the scorecards.
112 00:21:18.430 --> 00:21:21.820 Isaac Beevor: The oh managed to click on something else on my laptop.
113 00:21:21.850 --> 00:21:44.360 Isaac Beevor: And the thing that we're really also, I think, is special about the scorecards is our methodology. We don't just cover the high emitting areas like transport and buildings. We also cover, or we try to cover every single function of the local authority. And that's something that's really important is that the scorecards are a response, the whole council response
114 00:21:44.360 --> 00:21:52.589 Isaac Beevor: to the climate emergency. So it's not just looking at. You know what the Council is doing, transport, or what they're doing in buildings, but it's looking at
115 00:21:52.590 --> 00:22:09.570 Isaac Beevor: what the Council or how the Council is embedding climate in their governance structures, you know whether they're taking climate into account or their decision making what they're doing in their planning policies, what they're doing around nature and biodiversity, and how they're collaborating with different
116 00:22:10.551 --> 00:22:15.170 Isaac Beevor: like schools or businesses or and
117 00:22:16.000 --> 00:22:32.079 Isaac Beevor: health institutions or cultural institutions to like, promote. And and, you know, push forward local climate action. So that's another thing that we think the scorecards really do. Well, as we try and capture. It's a whole council response rather than just an individual team or offices, like a response to the
118 00:22:32.810 --> 00:22:36.250 Isaac Beevor: climate emergency cool.
119 00:22:36.460 --> 00:22:37.350 Isaac Beevor: I
120 00:22:38.230 --> 00:22:56.780 Isaac Beevor: going to talk a little bit now about the results and kind of give an overview of what the results are. So the results from 2025 are. There's 66 Uk councils that score 50% or higher in the scorecards, and there's some councils, say 56 councils are able to score over 80% in at least one section.
121 00:22:57.500 --> 00:22:58.220 Isaac Beevor: And
122 00:22:58.700 --> 00:23:03.990 Isaac Beevor: yes, I will explain that, Amanda. It's a good question. I will. I will come back to that before I give the demo.
123 00:23:04.470 --> 00:23:24.119 Isaac Beevor: So yeah, 66 councils that score 50 or higher. There's 56 councils that are able to score over 80% in some section, and we split out councils. And yes, this is principal councils by the different Council types, so single tier, which includes unitaries, London boroughs, metropolitan districts, and Scottish and Welsh authorities.
124 00:23:24.120 --> 00:23:39.389 Isaac Beevor: And you can see the average score there, and the range of scores. So there are some councils that score quite low, just over 10%. And there's some councils that score quite high, just over 70%. And then you've got district councils, counties, Northern Ireland, because Northern Ireland districts are quite unique
125 00:23:39.650 --> 00:24:08.820 Isaac Beevor: in their powers. In terms they have less and less funding. And then we have the Mayor authorities as well, and you should think about the Mayor authorities as a bit more distinct in the scorecards, because they do have quite a separate methodology, due to the very, very different powers and due to them being very new as well. And so, yeah, the average scores are there, and, as you can see it said, some score low and some score high, but the average scores are around 35 to 40% for most authorities
126 00:24:10.700 --> 00:24:35.889 Isaac Beevor: what has changed since 2023. So this is really important on average, scores have increased by 6%. So the average score in the scorecards this year was 38%, whereas in 2023, it was 32, and there are 25 more Uk councils scoring 50% or higher. So that shows that there's more councils scoring highly in the scorecards, obviously. And that equates to about 8% of councils. 25.
127 00:24:36.240 --> 00:25:02.809 Isaac Beevor: And there's 20 more councils scoring over 80% or higher in at least one section. So again, it shows that there are more councils that are taking more best practice, climate action. And importantly, there's 33 fewer councils scoring 20% or less. But to add this on all the councils that score 20% or less are councils in England or Northern Ireland.
128 00:25:02.850 --> 00:25:25.269 Isaac Beevor: areas where Northerners just got a statutory duty on climate that came in through the Environment Act. But England has no legal duty to act on climate change or reduce emissions. And you can see the average scores between the different council types here, with the average increase being around 6% with most different council types roughly, being around a 6% increase.
129 00:25:26.950 --> 00:25:43.230 Isaac Beevor: And I am going to do a website Demo now. And I will answer your question. Yes, it is just focused on the principal authorities and the main authorities. And yeah, we include Scottish authorities within the single tier council. So
130 00:25:43.490 --> 00:25:49.280 Isaac Beevor: when you come onto the website. Councilclimate scorecards.uk, I'll just put that in the chat. Here
131 00:25:49.790 --> 00:26:07.630 Isaac Beevor: you are greeted by this nation here, and you can browse by nation. So nation, specific information is found on these pages, and you can see all the Scottish councils together, and we're going to do further analysis coming soon, so you can just see all the Scottish councils listed.
132 00:26:08.861 --> 00:26:30.839 Isaac Beevor: We then have our section pages. So if you want to look at a particular section, you can just click on here and you can go through and be like, I'm really interested in planning. And you can understand what the average score is, what the how many councils got a mark on that particular question, what the questions are, and then you can actually visit that question as well to understand like.
133 00:26:30.950 --> 00:26:58.829 Isaac Beevor: what? What councils scored well in each of these questions. So how many councils do now have net 0 as a strategic objective of their local plans? That's increased by 24 councils. So they scored higher, and you can see which councils scored higher. And then you can see which there's also council scored lower as well, and you can show those councils that scored higher compared to last time, and which Council scored lower compared to last time as well.
134 00:26:58.940 --> 00:27:01.690 Isaac Beevor: And so
135 00:27:01.960 --> 00:27:10.460 Isaac Beevor: I know I'm going through this a bit quickly. Sorry. But you can obviously just play around on the website and find this out yourself and go through it. And so back to the home page.
136 00:27:10.920 --> 00:27:28.390 Isaac Beevor: Something that's really important as well as the browsing by nation or going to a particular section. If you're interested, you can obviously find your council. So my Hometown Council, where I was born was Luton. So if you search Luton in this council thing here, it will bring it down to Luton Borough Council.
137 00:27:28.450 --> 00:27:43.669 Isaac Beevor: and really, importantly, is, you can browse the scores here in terms of all the different scores within all of the different sections, so you can see where they've improved or where they've decreased their score, and then you can. Oh, excuse me, I've actually gone backwards.
138 00:27:44.940 --> 00:27:50.925 Isaac Beevor: and then you can. You can also click through to the council as well. So
139 00:27:52.590 --> 00:27:59.740 Isaac Beevor: The Blue Peter demonstration is not going as smooth as I'd like. But here you go. You can also click through to the council as well. And so when you click through
140 00:28:00.880 --> 00:28:17.289 Isaac Beevor: and it's just loading, you can understand a bit more about that council themselves. Obviously, what nation they're in, how deprived the community is the index of multiple deprivation, their net 0 target date for the area, their total population, the political control, and the urban ruralness of that council.
141 00:28:17.410 --> 00:28:28.840 Isaac Beevor: And then you can go down and understand, click by click, whether they where they've scored, well, where they haven't, and why? So you know.
142 00:28:29.492 --> 00:28:38.250 Isaac Beevor: What? And then, yeah, where they've scored, well, where they haven't and what that what they've where they've improved as well. So you can go through about all the different information.
143 00:28:39.626 --> 00:28:41.569 Isaac Beevor: And I will explain
144 00:28:41.930 --> 00:28:56.399 Isaac Beevor: a little bit here. The other thing I just wanted to show you is that when you go through and click through to a council, you can also compare by different types of councils, so that you see this list of similar councils here, which is a list of similar councils brought by my society.
145 00:28:56.400 --> 00:29:13.569 Isaac Beevor: and you can click here and like. Add a council to list to see like where this Council. So Enfield has done better or worse than Luton, so obviously they're doing better in transport and planning, but they're not doing as well in buildings and heatings. And again, when you click through, you can then see how the scores line up side by side
146 00:29:13.570 --> 00:29:16.079 Isaac Beevor: and understand that.
147 00:29:16.180 --> 00:29:19.139 Isaac Beevor: And then you can add a few more councils as well.
148 00:29:20.466 --> 00:29:24.749 Isaac Beevor: And then, yeah, you can also filter by different types of questions.
149 00:29:24.770 --> 00:29:46.810 Isaac Beevor: What I'm going to highlight to you here is, if you want to understand more about the questions, you can just click here. How is this marked? And you can see it's been marked by volunteer research. So that's 1 of our volunteer research questions. You can understand the weighting of that question. So how much effect it has on the overall scores, and then you can understand the evidence that we've got for that particular question.
150 00:29:46.810 --> 00:30:07.609 Isaac Beevor: and how we've been able to assess it, and what evidence has been provided. So that's why they would have got the mark. And you can see the evidence links for that particular question. If you want to know more about the criteria for that question, you just click, view criteria, and it comes up with what the criteria is for that question, and then you can also click through to see the full methodology on the methodology page as well.
151 00:30:08.590 --> 00:30:10.260 Isaac Beevor: And oh, click the wrong thing.
152 00:30:10.530 --> 00:30:18.907 Isaac Beevor: And then, just to show you. You know, if you see here the source of that information is foi. So then you know that the
153 00:30:19.710 --> 00:30:28.829 Isaac Beevor: we've asked this question via foi, and because they didn't meet the criteria, it says things like the evidence doesn't meet criteria for that particular question.
154 00:30:29.600 --> 00:30:30.350 Isaac Beevor: and
155 00:30:30.510 --> 00:30:57.519 Isaac Beevor: and where they do meet the criteria. You'll see the link to the foi that we were able to send out, which you should click on, and it should work. And it does work good demonstration here, and then you can scroll through and see the information that Luton sent us in terms of their Epc. Ratings of councils. So you can see here the energy efficiency rating of the council homes was 70% were Epcc or above so 5,000 out of 7,000 properties.
156 00:30:57.830 --> 00:31:05.130 Isaac Beevor: And how many, and whether they were also conducting investigations for minimum energy efficiency standards as well.
157 00:31:05.350 --> 00:31:22.090 Isaac Beevor: So hopefully, it's all like really transparent for you to go through and understand why Council did score didn't score, and met our criteria or not. And I said, You can compare councils to similar councils, or you can just add in someone else as well. That's like, completely random, because you're interested.
158 00:31:22.260 --> 00:31:23.590 Isaac Beevor: And
159 00:31:24.960 --> 00:31:41.200 Isaac Beevor: yeah, that's a very brief demonstration of the website. And and I want to get through some questions. So yeah, just gonna we'll open up to questions in a second. I'm just gonna go back. So I've got a few more slides. I want to cover very briefly, which is.
160 00:31:41.680 --> 00:32:09.870 Isaac Beevor: we do have this document on 15 ways to improve. And again, this is more based on, if you're a principal council, but I have looked at some, and some of these things are relevant to parish councils as well, because I was doing some research on, and the kind of statutory powers or different things, that as parish councils, you might have powers on so just sharing in there the 15 ways to improve your council climate action. And that's our document that you can find online as well.
161 00:32:10.030 --> 00:32:38.619 Isaac Beevor: So obviously, some of these things are relevant to parish councils. Making sure information on climate action is publicly accessible, having a climate action plan with smart targets, making sure your residents and stakeholders are involved making sure any buildings that you take care of it, using renewable energy, but also, obviously, maybe installing renewable energy on those buildings, making sure climate impacts are taken and the impact of climate is taken into account in for all decision making.
162 00:32:38.870 --> 00:32:49.119 Isaac Beevor: if you can, having some kind of training for staff and counselors like carbon literacy, but they, we know. Councils also do in-house schemes. They could actually be a really nice
163 00:32:49.450 --> 00:33:09.080 Isaac Beevor: pair up between parish and their principal parish councils and their principal authorities in the fact that councils often have their own climate awareness training that they do in house. And maybe that's something that actually parish councils could work with those unitary or district or council county authorities to actually
164 00:33:09.080 --> 00:33:14.790 Isaac Beevor: and take that climate awareness training as well, because that's something that could be expanded across those areas which should be good.
165 00:33:14.990 --> 00:33:26.359 Isaac Beevor: and, you know, supporting community energy or helping residents procure community energy and making sure that any vehicle fleets are electric and setting up car sharing schemes that are ideally electric as well.
166 00:33:26.950 --> 00:33:27.745 Isaac Beevor: and
167 00:33:28.770 --> 00:33:55.829 Isaac Beevor: dimming, lighting. I know that dimming, lighting, and mowing less and more things that Parish councils can actively do because of your thing. If you're running like things like churchyards, or if there's certain areas, village greens or parks that you're looking after, especially with the way devolution is going. Those community and parish councils may become have actually have more powers to look after local parks. And so yeah, things like mowing, less stopping the use of pesticides
168 00:33:55.830 --> 00:34:01.309 Isaac Beevor: and dimming lighting in those areas can really help nature improve, and obviously.
169 00:34:01.430 --> 00:34:04.440 Isaac Beevor: in some regards as well help draw down emissions.
170 00:34:04.700 --> 00:34:34.200 Isaac Beevor: The other thing. I know you don't have any power over net 0 homes policy, but parish councils are one of the people who are consulted on new developments. And so you know, making sure that new developments that come forward are being built to a high standards and they are being built net 0 and electric 1st and the points of using heat pumps or solar panels on. I mean, we know that solar panels are going to come forward on all new developments because of the Government national, but making sure that actually happens in practice
171 00:34:34.330 --> 00:34:45.679 Isaac Beevor: and making sure that you know it's heat pump. 1st for new homes in in your area when you get consulted on these new developments. I think that's something that parish councils can really actively hold
172 00:34:46.020 --> 00:35:06.980 Isaac Beevor: their principal authorities and planning authorities to account on this, because you do are consulted on new developments, and that should be something that you are raising and saying, actually, this is important. Is the development going to be net 0. Is it going to be, you know, just powered by electric? Or are we going to be using fossil fuels like gas which will lock in emissions. And you know, expensive retrofits.
173 00:35:08.322 --> 00:35:15.397 Isaac Beevor: We also gonna do further analysis. So we have. If you're interested, obviously. And again, all of our
174 00:35:16.130 --> 00:35:29.390 Isaac Beevor: all of our sessions are, and related to principal authorities in the in the in the main. And I will explain, just very brief at the end. Why, we focus on on you know,
175 00:35:29.920 --> 00:35:52.320 Isaac Beevor: district or councils or unitaries more. But if you're interested in particularly in planning best practice. We have our 1st scorecards and action session, so we'll have presentations from Wiltshire and Lancaster City Council on their planning policies that are being brought forward. And it's a free event to attend. It's basically a best practice event going forward. So if you're interested, I've just put the link in the chat
176 00:35:52.800 --> 00:36:13.279 Isaac Beevor: we will also provide in the near future more analysis on the scorecards. So you saw that little tag there saying, infographics coming soon, we produced infographics which were like top line data on how councils across the Uk are performing in governance or planning, and we released that information over the course.
177 00:36:13.610 --> 00:36:24.669 Isaac Beevor: We will release that information for the 2025 scorecards in September, October time, October time, so do keep a lookout, so there will be further analysis that will be provided.
178 00:36:24.980 --> 00:36:48.970 Isaac Beevor: And one way you can support climax. Uk, you can obviously buy the data. All the data is there online, publicly available. But if you're interested. You can purchase the data for individual councils or for all Uk councils in a spreadsheet format. It's just the information that is on the website. But it's in a downloadable format if you want to go through it and tie it together with any other data sets. That's the only thing that we charge for.
179 00:36:48.970 --> 00:37:00.550 Isaac Beevor: And if you like our work, we currently have a crowdfunder open at the moment it's match funded. So all donations are doubled. And so I will just put a link in the chat. So if you're interested, you can donate.
180 00:37:01.060 --> 00:37:19.849 Isaac Beevor: and that's the end of my presentation, and I will very briefly, and I should have done this at the start, because that's what I meant to do and touch on. We do only assess and compile information on principal authorities, and that is because there are thousands of parish councils, and we already
181 00:37:20.150 --> 00:37:33.040 Isaac Beevor: do lots of work on. And it's already a big job for us to cover the roughly, 400 authorities there are in England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland. And so.
182 00:37:33.040 --> 00:37:51.339 Isaac Beevor: you know, we do understand that parish councils also play a role and can be really significant, especially with devolution pushing things up to bigger unitary authorities. That Parish Councils and Neighbourhood Councils, as they've been named, the Devolution Bill may become more significant in terms of their local action.
183 00:37:51.340 --> 00:38:02.379 Isaac Beevor: But we're not able to properly assess them, because of how many there are and how different they are, and how they vary. So we will stay focused on
184 00:38:02.710 --> 00:38:10.329 Isaac Beevor: principal authorities for the time going forward. But obviously there are things that can be taken from the action that
185 00:38:10.500 --> 00:38:14.649 Isaac Beevor: principal authorities are taken and and distilled down to parish level as well.
186 00:38:15.000 --> 00:38:24.780 Isaac Beevor: and we do know of really good examples of parish councils that are taking action like from town council, which has kind of been a leader in this space. And yeah.
187 00:38:25.620 --> 00:38:34.520 Isaac Beevor: that's a bit of a whistle stop tour. But I wanted to give enough time for that to be questions so happy to stay here and answer any questions. On.
188 00:38:37.380 --> 00:38:42.060 Joolz | The Great Collaboration (Host): Wow! Thanks so much, Isaac. That's really fascinating. And I mean, I've been following the journey of
189 00:38:42.618 --> 00:39:03.270 Joolz | The Great Collaboration (Host): climate emergency. Uk, I think Kevin freer, was instrumental in setting up, and Kevin and our old colleagues so really interesting to see the progress being made and and where you're at now, that's absolutely fascinating, and ideas and inspiration, and how we can hold our principal authority to account, and maybe lobby for change.
190 00:39:04.790 --> 00:39:05.429 Katie- Forest of Dean District Council: Has the best.
191 00:39:05.640 --> 00:39:12.680 Joolz | The Great Collaboration (Host): Collaboration. We've got capabilities to allow to allow community groups and parish councils to sort of
192 00:39:12.680 --> 00:39:13.310 Joolz | The Great Collaboration (Host): to a page.
193 00:39:13.310 --> 00:39:14.230 Katie- Forest of Dean District Council: And show you.
194 00:39:14.850 --> 00:39:22.840 Joolz | The Great Collaboration (Host): And moving forward. I appreciate it's a lot of work that those 10,000 town and parish councils around the Uk might be able to monitor our respects.
195 00:39:24.850 --> 00:39:26.170 Joolz | The Great Collaboration (Host): I'm I'm sticking.
196 00:39:26.170 --> 00:39:26.950 Katie- Forest of Dean District Council: Fascinated.
197 00:39:26.950 --> 00:39:27.676 Joolz | The Great Collaboration (Host): By the
198 00:39:29.890 --> 00:39:35.789 Joolz | The Great Collaboration (Host): We're getting getting a bit of noise through somewhere. I'm wondering if somebody might mute. I'm not quite sure where it's coming from.
199 00:39:35.790 --> 00:39:36.650 Isaac Beevor: Yeah, that's okay.
200 00:39:36.650 --> 00:39:47.889 Joolz | The Great Collaboration (Host): And I'm particularly interested in. I also run an organization called community climate Action, so that, you know, they getting, you know, getting residents involved a bit. But before I
201 00:39:48.000 --> 00:39:54.030 Joolz | The Great Collaboration (Host): before we perhaps discuss that, let's let's open the floor to some questions. I think, Katie, you were first.st
202 00:39:54.470 --> 00:39:57.100 Katie- Forest of Dean District Council: Thank you. So
203 00:39:57.230 --> 00:40:10.260 Katie- Forest of Dean District Council: is it right that this is the second time? This has been done, and is it a 2 year process, I think, said, it's 2023. So I'm just wondering. This just come out in 17th of June, and then
204 00:40:10.400 --> 00:40:17.829 Katie- Forest of Dean District Council: is, when will the next one? Yeah, be done. I'm kind of interested in that. Yeah. The timelines that you work towards.
205 00:40:17.830 --> 00:40:29.622 Isaac Beevor: Yes, it is. So yeah, it's been roughly we launched in October 2023, and we launched the this second iteration in June 2025. So yes, it is a
206 00:40:30.160 --> 00:40:33.069 Isaac Beevor: Almost 2 year process that we've been doing.
207 00:40:33.260 --> 00:40:59.079 Isaac Beevor: and the next scorecards will come out in 2027. We're unsure when we would do them in 2027, because devolution throws quite a big spanner in the works, with lots of authorities being created or disappearing. So we're going to get some feedback from different people across the sector to understand whether we should do it earlier in 2027, so we can capture the authorities before they
208 00:40:59.170 --> 00:41:12.099 Isaac Beevor: disappear, or we should do it later in 2027, and and just not include the new authorities that have been created. Basically, we're not able to include the new authorities just because the information is not publicly accessible
209 00:41:12.120 --> 00:41:35.930 Isaac Beevor: and any new authorities are created in the round of the scorecards. So in 2023, that was like Somerset, we we weren't able to include, just because they've just literally got created in May, I know from constituent councils, but their websites and stuff just aren't set up, and we're not able to assess them properly. So they are assessed in the next round of scorecards. But yeah, it'll be in 2027, but unsure when in 2027 given.
210 00:41:36.080 --> 00:41:55.539 Isaac Beevor: and when we should do it around the devolution timetables, which, knowing how things like that big policies like that work in government, will likely be thrown off kilter and get delayed anyway. So maybe it's fine, and we'll be able to just do it in middle of 2027, which will work.
211 00:41:55.540 --> 00:41:58.851 Katie- Forest of Dean District Council: That's great. Thank you. And do you always
212 00:41:59.840 --> 00:42:14.172 Katie- Forest of Dean District Council: kind of consult with the Council? I have to check with my colleagues, but I haven't been made aware of consultation taking place with, like my kind of climate colleagues. So and I I know that one of the
213 00:42:15.180 --> 00:42:18.749 Katie- Forest of Dean District Council: the only criticism I've heard of, like the climate scorecards approach
214 00:42:18.850 --> 00:42:47.300 Katie- Forest of Dean District Council: like from chatting to different people is that sometimes people I've heard them say, Oh, it doesn't feel very fair, because it's just like information gleaned from the website. And the website isn't always the most accurate source of information. And so it was really nice to hear you talk about those 3 stage approaches and that chance to kind of feedback and challenge. So I didn't realize that happened at all. But yeah, just wondering is that
215 00:42:47.730 --> 00:42:51.610 Katie- Forest of Dean District Council: that definitely happens for every council, or is that yeah.
216 00:42:51.610 --> 00:43:14.949 Isaac Beevor: Yeah. So we we we yes, we invite all councils. And we make sure to email the council officer contact that we have, which, unfortunately, is not always the most up to date contact, because staff leave. And there's turnover. But we we always email the council officer. And then we also always email the like climate lead that's been designated so like the political lead.
217 00:43:14.950 --> 00:43:15.860 Isaac Beevor: And
218 00:43:15.860 --> 00:43:43.879 Isaac Beevor: just in case that we've not got the right officer contact, and we asked people to forward it on. So yes, that every council is invited to take part in the right of reply, and then we hold briefings and and various. So we held a prelaunch briefing to let councils know what the average scores were, and and kind of how people are generally gone across the Uk. And we had, like 280 people sign up for that, with 180 people attending. And that's that was just councils. So it's roughly
219 00:43:43.880 --> 00:44:06.839 Isaac Beevor: just over. A 3rd of Uk councils came to our pre-launch, briefing with with more watching the recording. So we do have really really good engagement with councils, and they're able to get involved in that right of reply. And then what we tend to do in terms of the consultation around the methodology is, we have councils represented on our advisory group, so that oversees kind of the scorecards governance. So they oversee the questions, but also things like.
220 00:44:06.860 --> 00:44:32.699 Isaac Beevor: when should we run the right of reply? Is it going to be difficult for you if we do it in November? Because I don't know. Lots of councils do. X in November, or and what we found was, it just varies per council, but we also then invite. We invited both high scoring and low scoring councils to give feedback on the methodology for each section in 20. For when we were doing the Methodology review, and they
221 00:44:33.210 --> 00:44:43.039 Isaac Beevor: yes, we? Yeah. As I said, we invite both high scoring and low scoring councils to give feedback to us. So yeah, we're always trying to get feedback from councils on the on the scorecard methodology and the process.
222 00:44:43.040 --> 00:44:50.929 Katie- Forest of Dean District Council: That's great. Is it? I might email you separately and just check who your contact is because I'd be yeah interested to know and just be able to follow.
223 00:44:51.420 --> 00:45:00.049 Katie- Forest of Dean District Council: And yeah, just in case it did get lost. But no, it it sounds great. Yeah, really, really happy to hear thank you so much.
224 00:45:00.050 --> 00:45:00.620 Isaac Beevor: Okay.
225 00:45:01.850 --> 00:45:07.999 Joolz | The Great Collaboration (Host): Thanks very much, Casey, and I'm not quite sure which order. But let's go, David, and then Gary. So David.
226 00:45:09.615 --> 00:45:10.120 David newman (Blackbird Leys): Right.
227 00:45:11.337 --> 00:45:35.682 David newman (Blackbird Leys): Obviously, the thing I 1st did was look up my area. Blackbird Lee's Parish Council is an officially deprived area inside the city of Oxford, inside Oxfordshire. So I looked up County Councillor, and right at the top is Oxfordshire County Council, but Oxford is only 3rd in the list. And
228 00:45:36.930 --> 00:46:02.260 David newman (Blackbird Leys): I happen to know a bit about how Oxfordshire got there, because for the last 4 years the Cabinet Member for climate change was a Green Party representative, and he was saying right now, when he was leaving officers in completely unrelated departments would start their analysis with donut economics.
229 00:46:02.520 --> 00:46:13.420 David newman (Blackbird Leys): So it had penetrated so much, and I was wondering how you tried to find out the that, how
230 00:46:15.570 --> 00:46:22.129 David newman (Blackbird Leys): thinking and working on climate change got actually embedded, and then councils. You were studying.
231 00:46:22.130 --> 00:46:43.939 Isaac Beevor: Yeah, yeah, that's a really good question. Thanks, David. Yes, so I will. I've got Oxford's scorecard thing up. So just to help you go through and just to help me go through some of the questions. Sorry, not not you. And so in our governance section, that is kind of what we're assessing in terms of how embedded it is across all of the
232 00:46:43.940 --> 00:47:03.979 Isaac Beevor: Council as itself. So, and to answer Kate's question absolutely like, we understand that like, there's sometimes projects going on in the background. But we do for the volunteer research questions only assess publicly accessible information. And that's because, like, if if it's not public, accessible. How are residents going to know about it? And one of the kind of
233 00:47:04.090 --> 00:47:05.120 Isaac Beevor: and
234 00:47:06.420 --> 00:47:35.339 Isaac Beevor: One of the kind of impacts of the scorecards has been, we hope, and we hope we know this from individual stories of councils, but it'd be interesting to do analysis across all of them, but making climate more prevalent on the website. Partly councils do that because they know they're going to be assessed by us. And so therefore we can find it. But it also means that if we can find it easily, then residents can as well. So we think that's like a real benefit, because then residents can be like, what is my council doing? Oh, like, you know. And it's not just
235 00:47:35.340 --> 00:47:55.089 Isaac Beevor: climate campaign. Is that viewing their council website, it's also people that aren't like campaigning directly at the local level and having something prominent there. And what your Council is doing on climate action just reminds those people. Actually, you know, local government is taking action and doing stuff. So that's something that we think is kind of like a byproduct. I guess of the scorecards happening is that information
236 00:47:55.100 --> 00:48:21.929 Isaac Beevor: that we've seen is generally become more accessible. So that's good. But in terms of the governance section. So we look at things like, if the Council's corporate plan includes their area wide net 0 target and makes it one of the main priorities. That's like, is it a corporate priority is the net 0 target included. We look at things like, does the medium term financial plan, which is kind of their like forecast budget on how they're going to spend include the net 0 target and make climate one of its main priorities.
237 00:48:22.320 --> 00:48:47.720 Isaac Beevor: And then things like that in the governance section. So the other way is we look at the corporate risk register. And this isn't on whether they're reducing emissions, but is sometimes included. But does the Council's corporate risk register identify the impacts of climate change to the local area. And then, obviously, what action is going to be taken. And I think that's 1 of the good identifiers of the Council is embedding it across their whole area is because
238 00:48:48.270 --> 00:48:49.025 Isaac Beevor: the
239 00:48:49.840 --> 00:49:07.559 Isaac Beevor: the corporate risk register is taken up by the audit committee, and there's a very, very different set of councillors than if, like, there's a climate committee or climate lead. But the Audit committee is a very different kind of committee, and if there's climate impacts and action being discussed there. I think that's something that's really important.
240 00:49:07.560 --> 00:49:19.670 Isaac Beevor: And then, yes, we have this question on. Has the Council adopted any governance or decision making process to put climate at the heart of that every council made, and we have this as a 2 tier criteria. The 1st tier criteria is quite simple
241 00:49:19.670 --> 00:49:40.639 Isaac Beevor: councils, you know, just putting the climate implications and listed on Council decisions during those meetings that council meetings. But we know that that can be a bit of a tick box exercise. And so we have this kind of second tier criteria that if they're using like a detailed impact assessment tool, something like donor economics, or or their own kind of example of
242 00:49:41.450 --> 00:49:55.600 Isaac Beevor: their own kind of decision, making wheels, or whatever kind of language they use to basically use that one of the best councils, or one of the 1st councils to do this. Was Chesterfield, and get a live demonstration?
243 00:49:56.157 --> 00:50:01.240 Isaac Beevor: This might not work because, it might not come up to the right page.
244 00:50:01.925 --> 00:50:12.159 Isaac Beevor: Yeah. So I'm actually gonna use cat and not found. Okay, that's it's don't do live demonstrations during presentations. But if you go on our scorecards website, even
245 00:50:12.690 --> 00:50:23.280 Isaac Beevor: Chesterfield have a climate decision making tool. And if you find them, you can hopefully link okay to the website if I go down to them here.
246 00:50:24.720 --> 00:50:27.010 Isaac Beevor: And if I go to their governance section
247 00:50:27.420 --> 00:50:29.329 Isaac Beevor: and I'm hoping the link works.
248 00:50:30.310 --> 00:50:32.079 Isaac Beevor: So how is this marked.
249 00:50:32.610 --> 00:50:56.470 Isaac Beevor: yeah, climate, perfect climate change. No. 404. There we go. Okay, we did find evidence of them using the climate change impact assessment tool. It will be somewhere on the website. But we've just got the wrong. We've just. It might have been moved. But yes, the way they use it in their public reports is through listing, the climate impacts and implications. So if I hopefully search here.
250 00:50:56.660 --> 00:50:57.530 Isaac Beevor: yeah.
251 00:50:58.320 --> 00:51:17.420 Isaac Beevor: you can kind of see here it is. Here it is the climate change impact assessment. So we have got an appropriate link is listed for this particular decision. And they've done basically like similar donor economic kind of model, but for every decision, whether it affects like transport, emissions, goods, and services, whether it creates more waste.
252 00:51:17.420 --> 00:51:34.170 Isaac Beevor: And you can see here that overall. It's kind of had. It's kind of helped reduce emissions in goods and services, but created more waste, and therefore emissions have kind of stayed neutral. But obviously they would be looking to try and reduce waste. And so they do that for every single one of their decisions
253 00:51:34.650 --> 00:51:35.870 Isaac Beevor: that was like the demonstration.
254 00:51:35.870 --> 00:51:38.209 Katie- Forest of Dean District Council: Get that link in the chat. Please.
255 00:51:38.210 --> 00:51:43.819 Isaac Beevor: Yeah, well, the, you can just look online. If you go visit this question, I'll do this.
256 00:51:44.920 --> 00:52:00.820 Isaac Beevor: You can. You can just find it all in this particular question, which Council scored the highest marks. And then you can just see the different decision making wheels or whatever they're doing. So yeah, you can just view it all on that question here.
257 00:52:01.140 --> 00:52:02.170 Katie- Forest of Dean District Council: Thank you.
258 00:52:02.780 --> 00:52:03.750 Isaac Beevor: No worries.
259 00:52:04.761 --> 00:52:10.230 Isaac Beevor: Amanda. Your question just answer. That is national landscape boundaries. Do you mean, like the like
260 00:52:10.440 --> 00:52:15.419 Isaac Beevor: Peak district authority, and people like that is that who you mean by national landscape?
261 00:52:22.950 --> 00:52:26.170 Isaac Beevor: If you're able to unmute yourself, that'd be great. But but if not.
262 00:52:29.170 --> 00:52:34.995 Amanda Davis: Okay. Finally, some people would be pleased to hear that I couldn't unmute myself before. But
263 00:52:35.540 --> 00:52:57.150 Amanda Davis: national landscapes, as in what used to be called areas areas of outstanding natural beauty. Here in the Cotswolds we've got cotsword, national landscape that involves 6 counties and huge number of districts. And we're doing a lot of work to sort of scorecard and and a variety of other ways that we've analyzed down, that we're working towards delivery.
264 00:52:57.150 --> 00:53:10.830 Amanda Davis: But it's all through through our partner councils. Obviously. So I just wondered whether it was possible to do the data collection and the analysis for the the National Landscape Geography as a, as a total.
265 00:53:11.120 --> 00:53:13.122 Isaac Beevor: Oh, I see
266 00:53:13.790 --> 00:53:29.329 Amanda Davis: It's like a higher level rather than when you zoom in. So you'd have a county school, I presume, and then you zoom in down to the district one. I'm wondering whether you zoom up to be sort of super super, whatever the word is, combining 6
267 00:53:29.500 --> 00:53:30.670 Amanda Davis: counties.
268 00:53:30.670 --> 00:53:41.290 Isaac Beevor: Yeah, so what you can do. We don't have it for national landscape, but you can filter by region. So that might like Cotswolds is that southwest or southeast?
269 00:53:41.290 --> 00:53:49.560 Isaac Beevor: Well, that's the problem, is it? Spans Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire, Warwickshire, Worcestershire, Somerset Dorset We've got in all sorts.
270 00:53:49.560 --> 00:53:50.000 Isaac Beevor: So when.
271 00:53:50.000 --> 00:53:51.930 Amanda Davis: And with southwest southeast.
272 00:53:51.930 --> 00:53:52.540 Isaac Beevor: Out of it.
273 00:53:52.540 --> 00:53:54.240 Amanda Davis: Midlands, I would say.
274 00:53:54.240 --> 00:54:18.110 Isaac Beevor: Yeah, yeah. So we're not. We're not. We don't provide that currently at the moment. But it's yeah. I forgot to include this. We can filter by different types of councils here. We haven't got national landscape boundaries, but obviously, if you know the authorities that are there, you can do it. But filter by that. But yeah, if you do want to filter by region, we've got that available as well as population. The index of multiple deprivation, political control as of June.
275 00:54:18.453 --> 00:54:24.976 Isaac Beevor: And how urban rural they are. But yeah, we don't do something for the kind of national landscapes.
276 00:54:25.410 --> 00:54:27.200 Isaac Beevor: yeah, we just do it by region.
277 00:54:28.198 --> 00:54:31.870 Amanda Davis: Are we able to combine districts?
278 00:54:32.120 --> 00:54:39.149 Amanda Davis: So if we selected 6 or 8 of them, or 20 of them, could could we then look at what the combined
279 00:54:39.960 --> 00:54:42.680 Amanda Davis: best and worst was, or like the average score.
280 00:54:43.200 --> 00:54:44.240 Amanda Davis: Yeah.
281 00:54:44.524 --> 00:54:44.809 Isaac Beevor: About.
282 00:54:44.810 --> 00:54:47.290 Amanda Davis: This type of average it would be, but yeah.
283 00:54:48.284 --> 00:54:57.359 Isaac Beevor: So yeah, you're able to like all of the information is publicly available. So if you wanted to like, search for each District council like Cotswold.
284 00:54:58.090 --> 00:55:07.289 Isaac Beevor: you could just click on it and find the average the score. And then, as I said, if you click through to the council. You can then compare with different councils, so you could add in
285 00:55:07.580 --> 00:55:12.159 Isaac Beevor: can't think of the neighbour of Cotswold at the moment, but you could add in someone like Oxford.
286 00:55:12.160 --> 00:55:13.260 Amanda Davis: Stop, picture.
287 00:55:13.260 --> 00:55:21.150 Isaac Beevor: Yeah, West Oxfordshire. There you go. You could add in West Oxfordshire, and then you could add it and compare and get their total scores like this.
288 00:55:21.410 --> 00:55:29.149 Isaac Beevor: but it'd be a bit of a manual exercise if you want to do it across all of the councils that you that are in that national landscape boundary
289 00:55:29.150 --> 00:55:53.700 Isaac Beevor: and the other way. Obviously, as I mentioned, you can purchase the data if you wanted to have it in a spreadsheet format which I mentioned. So that's the only thing we charge for, and then you'd be able to obviously have in a spreadsheet you'd be able to filter by all the council names in those areas, and and just have it all as one, so that might make it easier. But that's that's 1 thing we charge for. But if you wanted to manual, you just do it via the website like this, if that makes sense.
290 00:55:54.290 --> 00:55:55.569 Isaac Beevor: that's great. Thank you very much.
291 00:55:55.570 --> 00:55:57.147 Isaac Beevor: No worries. Thanks for your question.
292 00:55:57.410 --> 00:56:12.890 Joolz | The Great Collaboration (Host): Great thanks, Amanda. I think. Well, I put my hand up to into the queue. I think it was Gary and then me, and then Elon Ed. But we've got 10 min left, so I think we're going to be. Try and be succinct with our questions. So we'll go, Gary, and then eleaned, and then and then perhaps me after.
293 00:56:13.800 --> 00:56:26.489 Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: Yeah, thanks, Jules, yeah, thanks, Isaac, for the presentation. So the question I have, when I look at all of this is, where's this actually coming from? Why are you actually doing this? Why are you
294 00:56:27.100 --> 00:56:29.450 Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: evaluating councils?
295 00:56:29.820 --> 00:56:32.319 Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: Where did this requirement come from?
296 00:56:33.220 --> 00:56:58.899 Isaac Beevor: Yeah, so we are doing this because kind of as mentioned at the start, we believe that like, well, we believe that councils have a big impact on emissions. So the Climate Change Committee says that councils have kind of power or influence over a 3rd of emissions in their area. With some people actually putting that far higher. So number one, we believe councils are important to meet our next area targets.
297 00:56:58.930 --> 00:57:28.800 Isaac Beevor: We believe that data like good solid data and public accountability is what's going to drive forward local climate action. We know that there was, you know, a lot of kind of public accountability and campaigns at the local level. We know there's lots of campaigners and residents involved in pushing their council to go further. But one of the most important things when you're a campaigner and I have done campaigning. Some campaigning myself at local level is, if you're able to provide a comparison to your Council to say.
298 00:57:28.870 --> 00:57:47.299 Isaac Beevor: yeah, understand that. You know, we haven't done this currently. But this council over here has done it, and they're just like you. So why can't we do it. It's 1 of the most effective campaigning tools. And so the scorecards are there to provide that kind of comparison. And and just to give the final thing is, there are loads of
299 00:57:47.300 --> 00:58:13.000 Isaac Beevor: organizations that already assess and analyse the national government. There is. There was no current comparison about councils, and so, while there are lots of, and we do campaign on further support for local Climate Action Council, climate action. And we do understand that national government holds the most levers and powers. There are already dozens of organizations that assess them, like Greenpeace, friends of the earth.
300 00:58:13.030 --> 00:58:20.649 Isaac Beevor: and and sue them quite regularly on their legal duties, and what they should be doing better. And so we thought we'd step in to assess counsels.
301 00:58:21.250 --> 00:58:22.389 Isaac Beevor: Okay? So.
302 00:58:22.614 --> 00:58:24.860 Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: The question was like, you know. But where did the
303 00:58:25.100 --> 00:58:33.799 Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: where did the idea come from? I mean, not like, what was the reason for doing it. It's like, why has your organization decided to do it?
304 00:58:33.800 --> 00:58:34.680 Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: Because
305 00:58:34.680 --> 00:58:41.239 Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: who's decided that that's what your organization is going to do and who's going to pay? Who's paying you to.
306 00:58:41.240 --> 00:58:41.560 Isaac Beevor: Okay.
307 00:58:41.560 --> 00:58:42.000 Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: It.
308 00:58:42.000 --> 00:59:01.380 Isaac Beevor: So. Yeah, so I I guess the the reason for why doing it is kind of why we decided and why we thought it was important is why, why we then doing it? We are funded through donations. partly we are funded through charitable grants. We're small nonprofit and we
309 00:59:01.490 --> 00:59:21.649 Isaac Beevor: and we funded through some sales we make but by by doing data collection or or people buying the data in spreadsheet format. So that's on our 3 main funding sources, and the decision was made by us by climate. Uk. We thought it was important to provide that comparison between councils, because, as I, because of the reasons I just explained, and and so we made that decision to do it.
310 00:59:22.010 --> 00:59:28.199 Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: So why don't you do? Scorecards for the organizations are actually responsible for climate change.
311 00:59:29.382 --> 00:59:42.999 Isaac Beevor: Because we believe councils do have. As I said, they do have a big impact on the emissions in their area. So they they have power and influence over a 3rd of emissions in their area. When you mean the organizations responsible, you mean, like the people like the fossil fuel companies and banks.
312 00:59:43.300 --> 00:59:44.590 Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: Yeah, the big organization.
313 00:59:44.590 --> 01:00:07.719 Isaac Beevor: Yeah, yeah. Well, there's already people that do that. And we don't want to replicate analysis. So you know, there's people that score banks on their climate action. There's people that write and assess the big companies. There's people obviously are doing loads of campaigning around the fossil fuel companies and what they're doing or not doing in the transition. So you know, it's important not to replicate work. So we've decided to focus on councils.
314 01:00:12.530 --> 01:00:36.479 Joolz | The Great Collaboration (Host): Thanks for your questions, Gary, really, really interesting. I mentioned Kevin, who kind of founded climate emergency? Uk. And I think it was. I think it was mostly volunteer, driven at the start with that with no funding. It was kind of, you know. It's kind of a volunteer effort in terms of. Well, our respective representatives have declared an emergency. Let's let's track how they're doing.
315 01:00:36.850 --> 01:00:45.270 Joolz | The Great Collaboration (Host): I think there's the general general premise so really fascinating. There, Eleanor, do you put a question in the chat, and I was wondering if you wanted to ask that yourself.
316 01:00:46.850 --> 01:00:48.710 Joolz | The Great Collaboration (Host): Oh, you're just on mute at the moment.
317 01:00:50.120 --> 01:01:00.149 eluned from Kingsthorpe PC: Yes, as we were running short of time, I put it in the chat. Yes, I just wondered if any other area on this call is facing what West North Lance Council
318 01:01:00.410 --> 01:01:09.939 eluned from Kingsthorpe PC: are a similar situation. As we're facing in Western North Ants, where the council which went reform in May is is voting tonight to abandon the net 0.
319 01:01:09.940 --> 01:01:16.462 Isaac Beevor: Yeah, yes, I've just linked to guardian article, and which we worked over the weekend to
320 01:01:18.813 --> 01:01:28.529 Isaac Beevor: to kind of cover this story. So Durham is voting right now to rescind their climate emergency declaration, which is obviously a shame. And
321 01:01:28.990 --> 01:01:38.030 Isaac Beevor: and then we and yes, and West Northampton, she and I yeah, I believe Kent has mentioned about
322 01:01:38.110 --> 01:02:00.960 Isaac Beevor: cutting some of the action that they're taking. The the thing is with these headlines and just talk a little bit about it. That Council is doing. It's really interesting West Northamptonshire in particular, in their report, where they say, you know, we're going to get rid of these net 0 targets. They actually say we're going to kind of continue with the sustainability project because it's been shown to have real benefits for residents and businesses.
323 01:02:01.921 --> 01:02:08.069 Isaac Beevor: And so one of the things we really wanted to highlight yeah, is that they? You know it.
324 01:02:09.030 --> 01:02:36.949 Isaac Beevor: The headline of scrapping the targets is what's going to be like. Oh, we've scrapped our targets like, look how we've like gone anti net 0, but will be really interesting for local campaigns, and people like yourself and in the people in the area is to understand whether that leads to a change in action. And obviously the scorecards will try to track that in 2027 as well. Because what I don't understand is that West North Hampshire said, Yeah, we're going to scrap the targets. But we're going to keep doing the action because it's shown to a benefit. And it's like, well, actually.
325 01:02:36.950 --> 01:02:44.009 Isaac Beevor: what what does it mean? And you know, the Durham one is like, we will send the Climecy declaration, which you know is like
326 01:02:44.140 --> 01:02:47.560 Isaac Beevor: kind of unbelievable, because obviously it is an emergency. But
327 01:02:48.550 --> 01:03:03.650 Isaac Beevor: what does it mean like if you just scrap the declaration? Sure. But does that mean you're going to take less action? That would be kind of what you presume, but it might be because in the debate I was trying to cover some of the debate, because there's a local journalist who's live tweeting it.
328 01:03:03.670 --> 01:03:24.830 Isaac Beevor: and one of them said, We're anti net 0. But we're not anti clean energy. And I was like, Well, that's great. If you're going to like help, support plan applications for renewable energy in in County Durham and and help residents get like solar panels on that retrofit solar panels onto their homes or all this stuff or get clean energy across the area like. So I don't understand if they're
329 01:03:26.010 --> 01:03:33.180 Isaac Beevor: the headlines are distinct a little bit from what people are actually doing. So, it's going to be like.
330 01:03:33.440 --> 01:03:34.250 Isaac Beevor: it's
331 01:03:34.390 --> 01:03:47.949 Isaac Beevor: it's going to be difficult but hopefully worthwhile to kind of actually track. What action does change for those particular areas which are looking to roll back some of their big headline commitments. But but I don't know what they're actually going to be doing on action. So
332 01:03:48.090 --> 01:03:51.080 Isaac Beevor: yeah, it's gonna be really interesting to track some of that and go.
333 01:03:51.080 --> 01:03:55.589 eluned from Kingsthorpe PC: Yeah. So so you'll you'll be tracking now for the next year, is it? When we do.
334 01:03:55.590 --> 01:04:20.530 Isaac Beevor: The next scorecards. In 2027 we'll be scoring, going through the marking process in sometime, depending around late 2026 to early 2027. So some of those changes may have come through already, or some of them may not. It's just really difficult to know, because at the moment. It seems like some of those politicians are seeking headlines rather than actually doing.
335 01:04:20.790 --> 01:04:22.600 eluned from Kingsthorpe PC: Yeah, nothing. Substantial.
336 01:04:22.970 --> 01:04:24.780 Isaac Beevor: Yeah, it's good. It's good.
337 01:04:24.780 --> 01:04:33.649 Joolz | The Great Collaboration (Host): That's going to be. It's going to be really interesting to see them updated in 2027, perhaps when some of reforms, actual actions and policies have taken effect, and.
338 01:04:33.650 --> 01:04:34.800 Isaac Beevor: Yeah. Subsidy.
339 01:04:34.800 --> 01:04:55.520 Joolz | The Great Collaboration (Host): You know, we can see whether those respective councils are indeed moving up and down, as many of us know. It's much harder to be in power than outside of power, asking questions really, really interesting to see, while we don't have that many reform councillors in East Anglia. Yet
340 01:04:55.710 --> 01:05:05.870 Joolz | The Great Collaboration (Host): there is an upswell in support, not least because we're having massive, nationally significant infrastructure projects, battery, storage, solar farms, pylons, and
341 01:05:06.140 --> 01:05:19.080 Joolz | The Great Collaboration (Host): and connectivity from offshore wind coming through East Anglia which has provoked a lot of local objections one way or another, which people say they might hold their nose and vote reform.
342 01:05:19.320 --> 01:05:33.640 Joolz | The Great Collaboration (Host): Whether or not they can actually then influence that locally based on the fact that the decisions are often made nationally, and are nationally significant projects as yet to be seen, but certainly very valuable and interesting information, Isaac. Thank you very much.
343 01:05:33.640 --> 01:05:34.210 Isaac Beevor: No worries.
344 01:05:34.210 --> 01:05:39.749 Joolz | The Great Collaboration (Host): And being able to hold our councils to account effectively our representatives
345 01:05:39.890 --> 01:05:54.770 Joolz | The Great Collaboration (Host): and building on, you know I'm kind of keen to build on, you know Gary's questions and Katie's questions. I'm interested in the possibility for councils like Forest of Dean, where you might have a better connection now, self-reporting
346 01:05:56.580 --> 01:06:03.929 Joolz | The Great Collaboration (Host): I'm also into the 15 ways to improve your council. Document number 3. I'm particularly interested in further discussion about
347 01:06:04.050 --> 01:06:11.109 Joolz | The Great Collaboration (Host): how we involve residents and stakeholders, and that's particularly relevant to us as the great collaboration.
348 01:06:11.140 --> 01:06:39.469 Joolz | The Great Collaboration (Host): And myself, I run community climate action. So we we help communities write and then enact their community climate action plan. So. And I know other people on this call for Tristram from parish online, and others that were in discussion with, we're looking at lots of citizen science and self, reporting on targets in relation to things like housing, stock, energy, use, substation, capacity, all of that kind of thing. So it kind of dovetails with the work that you're doing.
349 01:06:39.560 --> 01:06:43.279 Joolz | The Great Collaboration (Host): Very interested in the decision-making tool used by chest field.
350 01:06:43.430 --> 01:07:02.319 Joolz | The Great Collaboration (Host): I'd love to find out more about that and look at the veracity and otherwise, because, you know, we really need to take climate into consideration when making our decisions. And as parish councils, we have a biodiversity duty that mandates a statutory duty that we take biodiversity into consideration when making our decisions.
351 01:07:02.899 --> 01:07:12.119 Joolz | The Great Collaboration (Host): And just to round off. One thing I'm curious about is emergency planning. I'm not sure that that's on the scoring.
352 01:07:12.400 --> 01:07:33.319 Joolz | The Great Collaboration (Host): but each council has a resilience forum and invariably emergency plan, and our emergency plans as town and parish councillors should dovetail with that overarching emergency plan and that community risk register. So I'm just going to end on the question. Would you might you consider, including emergency planning in your scoring.
353 01:07:33.490 --> 01:07:44.949 Isaac Beevor: Yeah, potentially, it would have to be. Yes, but we would have to find a way, because if what we try to do is not if every Council is meant to have an emergency plan.
354 01:07:45.110 --> 01:08:14.499 Isaac Beevor: we and it's like a legal duty to have it. We try not to assess the question where it's a specific, like legal duty to have a certain thing, because every Council just should have one anyway. But if there's particular aspects of emergency plans where they're like falling down like, say they, you know, they're mostly based. I imagine the Uk. Then we're going to be mostly based around flood risk. But if there's other things like, do they take into account? You know that things that could be could improve those emergency plans? That is something that we could potentially look at.
355 01:08:14.500 --> 01:08:15.000 Joolz | The Great Collaboration (Host): Kim.
356 01:08:15.000 --> 01:08:15.540 Isaac Beevor: Yeah.
357 01:08:15.810 --> 01:08:20.719 Joolz | The Great Collaboration (Host): Yeah, I think predominantly. My question is specifically around climate related.
358 01:08:20.720 --> 01:08:21.130 Isaac Beevor: 6.
359 01:08:21.720 --> 01:08:40.389 Joolz | The Great Collaboration (Host): And often emergency plans aren't updated frequently enough to keep change with the change in our extreme weather, so the likelihood of flooding is really important, but wrapped up within that. And I know this because we're doing some emergency planning work. We've done some with my council and
360 01:08:40.390 --> 01:09:00.789 Joolz | The Great Collaboration (Host): and others, but wrapped up within. That is the risk of wildfires, the prevalence of disease or heat impacts, cool spaces, the amount of excess deaths, and where our emergency services might be otherwise engaged rather than you know, they might be policing food, riots or water riots rather than policing burglaries and violent crime.
361 01:09:01.040 --> 01:09:14.310 Joolz | The Great Collaboration (Host): That kind of thing. So we've we, as community climate action. We recently received some funding from Sussex, resilience Forum to look at food, resilience, and that kind of thing so as well as flooding.
362 01:09:14.960 --> 01:09:40.950 Joolz | The Great Collaboration (Host): The impact of that is perhaps access to clean clean water and food based on the just in time supply system and often emergency plans don't take those climate risks into consideration, and are often not updated frequently enough, you know. So that's something we could perhaps have a conversation how to assess. Yes, it's a statutory duty, so everyone will have one. But the relevance
363 01:09:41.779 --> 01:09:47.069 Joolz | The Great Collaboration (Host): veracity of it in relation to climate risks would is something that could perhaps be perhaps be measured. Yeah.
364 01:09:47.069 --> 01:10:08.739 Isaac Beevor: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And we have that, we have that thing about the corporate risk register, whether it has like climate risks included in the corporate risk register. But yes, if there's if we yeah be open to, we always open suggestions for new questions. We just have to understand that. We try not to add many new questions, because we already covering about 90 in total. So
365 01:10:09.084 --> 01:10:23.079 Isaac Beevor: if we don't want to continue to expand it and make it more and more difficult for ourselves. But yeah, there's particular questions where we think there's been changes or things that we should look at. Then we we're interested in like reviewing it and understanding whether we should make that change
366 01:10:24.159 --> 01:10:24.689 Isaac Beevor: sure.
367 01:10:24.690 --> 01:10:34.900 Joolz | The Great Collaboration (Host): Wow! That's fantastic, thanks, Isaac, and I think it's a very important and valuable tool to monitor and assess how well our respective councils are doing where we might be able to apply pressure.
368 01:10:35.280 --> 01:10:35.870 Isaac Beevor: Yeah, absolutely.
369 01:10:35.870 --> 01:10:41.710 Isaac Beevor: Yeah. Thank you for having me. I really appreciate the opportunity. As I said, so, yeah, really grateful. So thank you.
370 01:10:42.120 --> 01:10:44.729 Joolz | The Great Collaboration (Host): You're welcome. You're welcome, and thank you very much for coming.
371 01:10:44.730 --> 01:10:45.630 tristram cary winchfield Hants: Thank you very much.
372 01:10:45.630 --> 01:10:50.729 Joolz | The Great Collaboration (Host): And thanks everyone for attending any, any final comments for everyone before we anyone before we sign off.
373 01:10:55.230 --> 01:11:07.190 Joolz | The Great Collaboration (Host): No, I think that might be it. So? Or, yeah. Great. Great. Yeah, very grateful, Isaac, and thanks very much, and fabulous to see the progress.
374 01:11:07.190 --> 01:11:07.670 Isaac Beevor: Everyone.
375 01:11:07.670 --> 01:11:09.870 Joolz | The Great Collaboration (Host): We look forward to collaboration and staying in touch.
376 01:11:09.870 --> 01:11:10.949 Isaac Beevor: Yeah. Cheers, thanks.
377 01:11:11.720 --> 01:11:12.440 eluned from Kingsthorpe PC: Bye.
378 01:11:12.440 --> 01:11:14.089 Joolz | The Great Collaboration (Host): Thanks very much. Bye, bye.
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