Your Borough, Your Future - tackling climate change together

The Your Borough, Your Future survey launches today to coincide with national recycling week.

In 2020 the council declared a climate emergency and has pledged to achieve net zero carbon by 2050.

It is already taking steps towards reducing carbon emissions but is now seeking residents’ views on what they think the council should be doing and what they, as individuals, would consider doing to prepare for the challenges faced today and into the future.

It explores people’s views on their priorities and where they feel changes can be made to council services to reduce the carbon impact, such as improving recycling services in a cost-effective way, reducing the amount of waste that goes into the incinerator and exploring the use of alternative fuels for vehicles.

It also asks what changes to daily life residents are willing to make.

The survey launches today and runs until November 18. It can be completed online at www.dudley.gov.uk/council-community/get-involved.  It can also be completed on computers at borough libraries where library staff will be able to help, if needed.

Responses from the survey will provide valuable insight and help shape the council’s climate action plan.

Councillor Rob Clinton, cabinet member responsible for climate change, said:

We are committed to playing our part in reducing our carbon footprint and tackling climate change. The climate is changing and so must we.

But we know achieving net zero requires us all to work together and will involve changes to the way we live and how the council delivers services.

That’s why we want to understand what’s working for residents now and how we can make changes for the future.

I hope residents will get involved. This is a chance for people to say what kind of borough they would like to live in.

Their views are crucial in helping us to build on the steps we have already taken as we shape the best services possible for us all, for our environment and our future.

Parents and carers can help their local primary school win a hot composter by taking part in the survey.  When completing it, when asked, name the school and the primary school which completes the most surveys will win the hot composter. 

Alternative format copies and paper versions of the survey will be available from next week.

Complete the Your Borough, Your Future Survey

Notes to editors: 

Below are steps the council has taken to reducing our carbon emissions to date.

• Last year the council switched to 100 per cent green renewable electricity
• Improvements are being made to a number of council-owned buildings with £4.4million from the government’s public sector decarbonisation scheme. We are switching a number of sites, including Dudley Council House and Town Hall and Himley Hall and Ward House as well as a small number of schools, which are reliant on carbon-intensive forms of heating such as oil and gas, to electrical forms of heating. Air source heat pumps will be installed, along with photovoltaic (PV) and battery storage, where possible, and lighting will be upgraded to LED. We are also looking at identifying sites where future funding might be used.
• The council was also awarded £2.5m of European Regional Development Funding as part of the Low Carbon Place Strategy initiative, which, using match funding will see a range of similar carbon reduction measures in council housing and other council operational sites.
• At Crystal Leisure Centre, carbon-intensive gas heating has been replaced with a state-of-the-art heat pump system. 
• The council has also converted nearly 7,000 streetlights on main roads in the borough to energy efficient LED.
• Over the last 10 years or so we have invested in decarbonisation and energy related works to our own council housing stock with 74% having an energy rating of C and above. Almost 50,000 improvements have been made to homes in that period.
• Our secured decarbonisation grant in 2022 under LAD 2 is £1.4m for housing, match funded by a further £1m of council funding, with 298 homes benefitting from either external wall insulation, efficient electric heating or solar panels. This work completes in June 22.
• We have also secured £50,000 grant to undertake feasibility work to inform future decarbonisation works