The Environment Strategy
The council has committed itself to a range of objectives to help improve the environment and the quality of life of residents.
The council has adopted an Environment Strategy which sets targets for improvements by 2011. The strategy supports people – both members of the public, council staff and partner organizations, to make better choices to help protect our local environment and achieve a sustainable future for today’s generations and generations to come.
The objectives and targets set out in the Environment Strategy are Bolton Council’s reaction to global issues like climate change and local changes such as household recycling. Bolton Council is rated as a four-star council by the audit commission and as such is committed to transforming its environmental performance.
The strategy will ensure that environmental considerations fully integrate with all council policies and plans including: The Bolton Plan and Bolton Vision – Bolton’s Sustainable Community Strategy – as well as other priorities such as Neighbourhood Renewal which are at the heart of council strategic decision making. The council will set a new level of environmental performance, hoping to influence by example the behaviour of individuals and partners alike. The Environment Strategy also articulates the council’s response to the environmental elements of the UK’s Sustainable Development Strategy, Securing the Future.
It is for this reason that the strategy is purposely broadly scoped, embracing a selection of environmental issues set in the context of environmental sustainability which the council is committed to achieving. The strategy recognises that the collective environmental impact of the council’s activities extends far beyond Bolton, contributing in part to most global environmental issues such as resource use or climate change, and the effects of much of this activity are regrettably long lasting and could affect the quality of life of future generations of Bolton residents. The Environment Strategy is set out in four shared priorities for action, taking its reference from chapters in Securing the Future:
- Sustainable consumption and production
- Climate change and energy
- Natural resource protection and environmental enhancement
- Sustainable communities
For an electronic copy of the Environment Strategy, please see the document available to download from this webpage.