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Image credit: Lyme Regis © Max Redwood

Parish, town and community councils have a unique and invaluable role in inspiring climate action within their local communities. With such a high level of partnerships within local community life, as well as the potential to influence planning decisions, the opportunities for these vital organisations to lower emissions and adapt to climate change are clear.

Spotlight on Lyme Regis Town Council

In March 2024, Lyme Regis Town Council became the first town council to achieve Silver Carbon Literate Organisation status. Our Carbon Literate Organisation (CLO) scheme is an optional pathway that offers organisations a visible ‘badge’ to showcase their commitment to Carbon Literacy and a low carbon culture. We spoke to Matt Adamson-Drage, Operations Manager at the town council, about their Carbon Literacy journey.

After declaring a climate and environment emergency in 2019, Lyme Regis Town Council started Carbon Literacy training in 2021, led by Councillor Belinda Bawden, who was “instrumental in this getting off the ground”. The council started working towards Bronze and Silver CLO accreditation in 2023, completing their staff training and creating a case study. The accreditations were awarded in March 2024. More than 60% of councillors and a significant proportion of staff have completed training and submitted action pledges.

Actions pledged

“I plan to initiate a feasibility study for the use of harvested rainwater in the council’s gardens and seafront toilets. Currently clean water is used. According to WINT (a global water leak reduction company) every cubic meter of clean water generates over 10kg of carbon emissions.”

“I will encourage the use of Dorset Council’s ‘Climate and Ecological Decision Wheel’ to help Officers and fellow councillors evaluate initiatives to get the best decisions made.” – Phillip May, Councillor & former Deputy Mayor

“I will work with the Council and other agencies such as Dorset Council, Highways Agency and other partners on a plan to improve public transport in Lyme to more readily enable people to access shops in nearby towns (e.g. Bridport/Axminster), the railway station in Axminster, nearby health provision and entertainment clubs and societies. It would also enable visitors to more readily visit Lyme without a car. The hope would be to significantly reduce private car journeys by providing a much enhanced bus service.” – Caroline Aldridge, Town Councillor

“I will promote new working practices and projects. These will include powering our seafront toilets using PVs; switching to lower energy lighting in public places; install PVs on council buildings (harbour store and cemetery lodge) and moving to a more efficient office premises with a smaller carbon footprint.” – Mark Green, Deputy Town Clerk

Tangible progress

As a result of Carbon Literacy training, Lyme Regis Town Council has implemented several carbon reduction actions, including installing solar panels on office buildings and adding EV chargers into public car parks. 30% of the council’s vehicles have been changed to electric, with plans to extend this to the remainder of the fleet and gardening vehicles. Looking to the future, Lyme Regis Town Council plans to install further EV chargers, to research introducing solar panels and a solar farm on council-owned land and to continue to provide Carbon Literacy training for new staff and councillors.

Matt said: “We have trained councillors and staff in Carbon Literacy, report regularly on our environmental progress and have a strategic plan to reduce our carbon emissions by 2030. The council is pleased to be blazing a trail for the local government sector.”

“Local councils should be leading the community from the front by showing what can be done, while also investing in schemes that benefit the community.”

One councillor from Lyme Regis echoed this: “As councillors we are in enviable position and of course have a responsibility towards influencing decisions on climate action made both inside and outside the council and within our own communities.”

Lyme Regis Town Council have demonstrated their commitment to becoming culturally Carbon Literate, and the role that all local councils can play in community climate action. Congratulations to everyone at Lyme Regis Town Council!

Parish, Town and Community Councils Toolkit Course

The Carbon Literacy Project is proud to have developed the Parish, Town and Community Councils Toolkit Course. We would like to extend a thank you to Belinda Bawden (Dorset Council, Co-founder of Dorset Climate Action Network, and former Lyme Regis town councillor), Lorent Training, Save our Shropshire CIO and Speak Carbon Collective for their help in this process. We would also like to thank the National Association of Local Councils for kindly granting us permission to showcase climate action case studies.

The Toolkit course equips councillors and officers with the knowledge and skills to lead by example, covering tips for embedding best practice, inspiring residents and colleagues to make informed choices and advocating for their community’s best interests. The Toolkit Course is free to access for parish, town and community councils and includes slides, activity resources, and a ‘Getting Started’ pack, to deliver a day’s worth of action-based climate change education.

Just over a year on from the launch of the Toolkit Course, over 300 officers and councillors have become certified as Carbon Literate, from 160 parish, town and community councils across the UK.

Local authorities and county associations can also support parish, town and community councils in cascading Carbon Literacy training to their local councils. By working across a local area these organisations can encourage collaboration to tackle the climate emergency.

If you are a parish, town or community council, a county association or a local authority and are interested in accessing the Parish, Town and Community Council Toolkit, please get in touch with localauthorities@carbonliteracy.com.