Climate champions winner and overall winner

Nottingham city council: Nottingham – carbon neutral by 2028

When Nottingham city council announced in January that it intended to become the UK’s first carbon-neutral city by 2028, it was the latest step in years of ambitious, innovative and forward-thinking environmental policymaking that has already yielded breathtaking results.

It met its 2020 target to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 26% four years early; more than 40% of all journeys in Nottingham are made on public transport and solar panels have been installed on more than 4,000 council houses.

Energy consumption of council buildings has been cut by 39% and it is on track to generate 20% of its energy from low-carbon sources by next year.

And last year the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs concluded that the city’s air pollution had fallen so much that a Clean Air Zone was not needed.

The council’s vision and tenacity was recognised on Tuesday night when it was named the overall winner in the Guardian’s Public Service Awards.

“This has been the year when argument over the climate crisis finally ended and the imperative for radical action became widely understood,” says the Guardian’s public services editor, David Brindle.

The council is ‘sticking solar panels on anything that doesn’t move’. Photograph: Page One/Nottingham Council

“Many public services are still barely off the starting blocks in the race to tackle the emergency, but Nottingham has shown what can be done through inspired leadership and gritty determination,” he says, adding: “In scrutinising every aspect of its own practice, and taking bold steps to shape behaviour in the wider community, the city council has truly set the bar for excellence in how public agencies must respond to the threat to the planet.”

Making the carbon neutral commitment was only possible, says Sally Longford, the Labour council’s deputy leader and portfolio holder for energy and environment, because of the work that had gone before – especially the efforts of her predecessor in the environment role, councillor Alan Clark, who died in 2017. “He was determined to make progress and drove forward quite a lot of the early development,” says Longford. “We got a lot of stick over the years. People thought we were anti-car, because we introduced various schemes to try and reduce car usage and congestion.”

But it has paid off. “When I was talking to the officers about how far we could push this they were confident we could go further than other councils because of all the work we’d already done.”

One policy in particular, its workplace parking levy (WPL), was a “gamechanger” according to Longford.

Nottingham’s electric trams. Photograph: Tracey Whitefoot/Nottingham Council

Introduced in 2012, the WPL is aimed at employers providing 11 or more commuter parking spaces, with an annual rate of £415 per space. It is still the only such scheme in the UK and has not only tackled congestion and pollution but netted the council £61m for improving and “greening” public transport. That money has helped with the redevelopment of Nottingham station, an expansion of the tram network that runs on green electricity from the council’s own energy company, and the council’s fleet of 58 electric buses that has reduced carbon emissions by more than 1,050 tonnes.

“We have a positive attitude to these things because they pay for themselves,” says Longford. “We’re putting solar panels on anything that doesn’t move, really, because it saves us money in the long run and helps support other work we’re doing.”

The energy and transport teams have won funding from central government, Europe and other sources, and the savings the energy team generates means it actually makes a profit for the council that can be used to cross-subsidise crucial departments such as children’s services.

Next year the council will be going out across the city to talk about what it is doing. “We have a lot of people who live in quite deprived circumstances and it’s not their highest priority,” she says. “They’re struggling to pay their bills and feed their families, but they will also be the people who will be the least able to cope in warmer climates. We have a duty to help people in all parts of the city adapt and find ways to improve their lifestyle.”

Nottingham’s policies have not only benefited the environment but have also made a difference to people’s lives, says Longford. “A lot of quite hard decisions were made but people have been brave enough to give it a go. I’m very proud of what we’re doing.”

Climate champions runners-up

Mayfield and Easthouses Development Trust: River Esk cleanup project

Volunteer Joy Godfrey, highlighting pollution in the River Esk.

“What has wings and spends most of its lifetime in the River Esk?” volunteer Joy Godfrey asks in the first video she made with the Mayfield and Easthouses Development Trust to highlight sewage pollution near Dalkeith, Midlothian, caused in part by increased heavy rainfall.

“A sanitary towel,” she answers with a grimace, fishing one out of the water.

Within a week, the film, in which Godfrey also shows off slimy clumps of blackened wet wipes, tampons and a condom, had been viewed 2,000 times. A second film, in the Mary Burn tributary, quickly attracted the attention of the local member of the Scottish parliament. The campaign eventually led to a cleanup operation that saw Scottish Water remove more than 3,000 bin bags of sewage debris.

Godfrey and the trust have continued to monitor the waterways and press for further action, and are working to build public awareness of good flushing habits – part of the current problem is that the sewers were not designed for wrongly-flushed sanitary products. Meanwhile, the issue of sewage pollution has been raised in the Scottish and Westminster parliaments.

“In June 2018 just about every other rock was covered with a wet wipe,” Godfrey says of the part of the river near her house that inspired her action. “It really stank – it just smelled dirty and rotten.

“There’s something about being affected by a problem and speaking from there that gives you power. To go into the river, hold these things and say ‘this is disgusting’ is much more effective than standing on the bank.”

Norfolk county council: Norfolk assistance scheme

Norfolk county council’s Norfolk assistance scheme used to provide new white goods and vital household items such as beds and sofas to individuals and families in crisis. In 2017-18, the average cost was £755.

Under the scheme’s new reuse development project, applicants now get quality reused items from partners including charities the Benjamin Foundation and Emmaus Norfolk and Waveney instead. This more than halves the average award cost and means the scheme, which last year made 1,118 awards, can help more people while also supporting local charities and reducing the burden on landfill.

Some of the high quality furniture available through the Norfolk assistance scheme.

The scheme went live in July, after pilots that ran from December 2018 showed the new average award was just £308.

Another benefit is that people are now getting higher quality furniture, explains one of the scheme’s officers, Christina Campbell. “[Before] we had to go to the low end of the market, and a lot of those items didn’t have a long shelf life, so they would end up in landfill,” she says. “Now we supply better quality items they’ve got a lot more life in them.”

The new system also empowers applicants by allowing them to decide how to spend their award. At Emmaus there’s a dedicated team for the system, which gives roles to formerly homeless volunteers who have been supported by the charity.

“Now applicants are entitled to go and choose the items, they can have their own tastes,” Campbell says. “I’m very proud of it.”