In May 2027 Mole Valley will merge with Elmbridge, Epsom & Ewell, Reigate & Banstead and Tandridge to form the Unitary Council of East Surrey.
Dorking Climate Emergency will investigate the climate records of each Council: this will take some time, so bear with us. In brief, between 2023 & 2025 (the two years investigated) MVDC improved by 6 points, Elmbridge improved by 3 points, Epsom & Ewell went down by 5 points, Reigate & Banstead improved by 9 points, and Tandridge improved by 10 points.
But where were they on the performance table? It’s all very well to improve if you were pretty bad to start with…
To put it into perspective, Lancaster City Council scored 69%.
Mole Valley 43%: Elmbridge 36%: Epsom & Ewell 28%: Reigate & Banstead 40%: Tandridge 30%
In our opinion, none of our local council results are good enough. Put them all together and the picture is depressing for Unitary climate action.
* * *
Climate Emergency UK sent these questions to Mole Valley District Council as part of their 2023 Scorecards investigation.
Responses from MVDC to Feb 2023 Freedom of Information (FoI) questions from Climate Emergency UK
Question 1 – Carbon literacy
- Have all senior management received carbon literacy training or
equivalent since 1st January 2019? Please state the type of training.
No –
Carbon literacy training for staff is on the Environment Business Plan for 2023/24. The Sustainability and Climate Change Officer has recently completed carbon literacy training and will be rolling out a training package in the next 18 months.
- Have all current councillors in the cabinet or committee chairs received carbon literacy training or equivalent since being elected? Please state the type of training. This training could be from the Carbon Literacy Organisation or another organisation, university or in-house. We want to know the number of people who have attended the training. We don’t need to know the number of staff that have received a certificate of completion or attendance.
No
Question 2: (a) How many staff does the Council directly employ (excluding contractors or subcontractors, and excluding teachers), that work directly for the
Council as opposed to a school, leisure centres or other venture?
283
- How many directly employed staff spend 3 or more days per week (0.6
Full Time Equivalent (FTE)) on implementing the Climate Action Plan or
other climate change projects? Please provide a list of all the roles.
Please exclude waste management staff unless they are specifically working
3 or more days per week on implementing the Climate Action Plan or other
climate change projects.
Two persons: Parks and Environment Manager & Climate Change and Sustainability Officer
Question 3: Does the council have one or more staff member who works on home energy efficiency retrofitting, such as retrofit officers or project managers
across the council area, for 3 or more days per week (0.6+ FTE)? This can
include both directly employed and contracted staff, provided they work 3
or more days per week (0.6 FTE). The work of this officer may include
working on any retrofit projects, including council buildings, council
homes or private rented or owned households.
No
Question 4: How many planning ecologists (ecologists within the planning
department) or equivalent working for 3 or more days per week (0.6+ FTE)
does the council employ to scrutinise planning reports for Biodiversity
Net Gain? This can include both directly employed and contracted staff,
provided they work 3 or more days per week (0.6 FTE).
None
Question 5: I would like information about your council’s lobbying work in relation to climate action for the Council Climate Action Scorecards.
In particular, please supply me with information relating to the following question:
Has the council written to or met with UK national or devolved governments to ask or lobby for climate action since 1st January 2019? Please provide some evidence of the most recent letter or meeting such as a copy of the letter or email sent, or the date, topic of meeting and position of the person that the meeting was held with.
This includes either asking for more powers and funding for local authorities to take climate action, or asking for the government to take further action themselves. This includes working with other local authorities to send joint letters or meetings to lobby UK or devolved governments, and includes both general climate action and calls for action on specific issues such as transport where climate change is mentioned as a motivating factor for taking action.
This includes if a cabinet member or other councillor has written to or met with the UK or devolved governments on behalf of the council.
Please be advised that no meetings have been held. Copies of letters
written are attached.
Question 6: I would like information about your council’s electricity sources in
relation to climate action for the Council Climate Action Scorecards. This
information may be held by an estates department or similar.
- Does the council have a 100% renewable green electricity tariff for all
of the electricity that the council is directly responsible for, and is
this tariff with Green Energy UK plc, Good Energy Limited or Ecotricity? This includes all electricity that the council is directly responsible for, in council offices and any other buildings leased and managed by the
council where the council pays the electricity tariff. This does not
include homes owned or managed by the council. If unsure, please state
your provider and tariff.
The council has a 100% renewable green electricity tariff for all the
sites listed within a tripartite agreement with LASER which is the vast
majority of properties owned by the council. The tariff is with Npower. - Does the council generate and use energy from waste? And if so, what
percentage of the council’s total electricity use is powered by these
energy from waste electricity sources?
No
- Does the council buy directly from a local renewable electricity source
or have its own renewable electricity sources? And if so, what percentage
of the council’s total electricity use is powered by this/these renewable
electricity sources? This includes council owned renewable electricity sources that are located outside of the council area, such as solar farms located further south to
maximise electricity generation.
We do not buy from local renewable electricity source. We do have our own renewable electricity source in PV panels on 3 of our buildings in the district. The percentage this represents of the total electricity use is data that we do not hold.
Question 7: I would like information about your council’s planning in relation to climate action for the Council Climate Action Scorecards. This information is most likely to be held by a planning officer or similar.
In particular, please supply me with information relating to the following questions:
- Has the Council approved any new*1 or expanded*2 roads or road junctions in its area from 1st January 2019 until 1st January 2023? Please list which ones were accepted.
The intention of this question is to understand overall increases in road capacity, rather than recent housing developments. Please exclude minor roads built exclusively to connect new housing to the pre-existing road network.
An expanded road or road junction is one that has increased capacity for motor vehicle traffic, not counting bus lanes, cycle infrastructure, or pedestrian infrastructure. Please include roads and junctions where new lanes have been added.
n/a
- Has the council approved any new or expanded airport runways, terminals, measures to increase passenger numbers or other planning proposals that expand airport capacity in its area since 1st January 2019 until 1st January 2023? Please list which ones were accepted.
Information not held.
Question 8: (a) What is the energy efficiency of the council’s homes (managed or owned by the council)? Please provide either a distribution table with the number of buildings for each EPC rating or the percentage of the council’s homes that have received an EPC rating of C or above.
(b) What is the number of investigations, enforcement notices and enforcement actions that the council did, related to MEES (Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards) in the 2021/22 financial year.
Where data is available separately for each statistic please provide separately. If only some information is available, please give me that information.
I would prefer to receive information in a machine readable format, such as CSV files for data, where possible.
Please be advised that Mole Valley District Council undertook a housing
stock transfer in 2007 and no longer has social rented accommodation.
If you wish to direct your enquiry to the housing association, their
contact details are: Clarion.