Dorset Council are looking for members of the public and business community to submit ideas on how the Council might be able to help tackle climate and ecology concerns.
Since declaring a Climate and Ecological Emergency, Councillors and officers have been working hard behind the scenes to develop ideas for a climate change strategy and action plan.
They are now calling on all Dorset residents and businesses to submit their ideas for how they think Dorset Council can reduce carbon emissions and protect the county’s plants and wildlife.
This Call for Ideas is open to everybody, and each submission will be reviewed by the Council’s Task and Finish groups.
The areas that are being looked at are split into five themes: –
- Buildings
- Natural Environment
- Waste and Energy
- Transport
- Leadership and Influence
Dorset residents are being asked to submit their ideas under one or more of these categories via an online form. There are also questions around barriers to action, benefits, priorities and funding that participants are being asked to answer.
Some people will be invited to present their ideas to the Climate Change and Ecological Emergency Executive Advisory Panel in the new year as part of the Council’s forthcoming Climate and Ecological Inquiry Day, which will take place in February and be open to the public.
Every proposed policy and practical action submitted will be passed to the appropriate Task and Finish Group for investigation, each of which is made up of Dorset Council members and officers.
Cllr Peter Wharf, Deputy Leader and portfolio holder for Corporate Development and Change at Dorset Council, said:
“Climate Change is something that affects us all, so we wanted to tap into the wealth of knowledge and ideas that Dorset residents may have in how we could tackle this emergency.
We know that local businesses and local people of all ages have the creativity and ambition to come up with some brilliant solutions for addressing climate change and we want to hear them.
The online form is easy to complete, and people can submit as many ideas as they like. I’m excited to see what suggestions are out there and look forward to seeing some of the more developed ones presented to the panel early next year.”
The Call for Ideas is now open until 28 February 2020, but if participants wish to have their submission considered for presentation to the panel, they should submit their idea before 16 January 2020. The results from the process will be published alongside Dorset Council’s draft climate change strategy and action plan in Spring 2020, that will be open to public consultation.
The Call for Ideas form is available online.
