Chesterfield Borough Council launched a new Climate Change Forum in 2023, inviting community representatives to share their thoughts on issues affecting the town and what the council can do to make a difference.

The forum has already met twice with 15 members attending to act as a sounding board, commenting on current projects, suggesting new ideas and helping us to raise awareness about climate projects happening either through the council or locally.

Community representatives in attendance bring a range of knowledge and expertise with them from the business and education sectors, climate groups and other community organisations.

Kathy Farr, who represents Transition Chesterfield at the forum but also volunteers with lots of other local environmental groups, said: “I want to be part of Chesterfield becoming a greener, cleaner, and more sustainable place to live for the benefit of us all and especially for future generations. By all working together in the Forum, we can help to grow a thriving community with more energy efficient homes, cleaner air and less traffic congestion, cleaner rivers, better quality food that is grown locally, less waste and support for our local wildlife, trees and green spaces."

Tony Ford, who recently joined the Forum to represent Cycle Chesterfield, said: “My concerns for the future of our planet, society and my children led me to reassess my activities and the impact that I and others have on our environment. On the journey to learn the consequences of our current actions I have become disheartened with the lack of effort toward significant change by our local and world governments and for that reason I wish to be part of a process to rectify this”

Councillor Martin Stone, cabinet member for climate change, planning and environment, said: “Climate change is a huge issue, and the forum will play an important role in helping us to shape our future plans for how new climate focused initiatives could work in practice.

“By working together, we can all make a difference. The forum is designed to be a collaborative place where we can all learn from each other and help develop plans to put ideas in to practice in Chesterfield to help us to meet our targets of becoming a carbon neutral organisation by 2030, and a carbon neutral borough by 2050.”

This is our formal commitment to putting climate change at the centre of everything we do as a council, ensuring this is always considered as part of our service output and decision-making processes.

The creation of the climate forum will help us to build and shape our future plans and will allow us to get an insight into how community groups or organisations could play a part in the communication of messaging and get involved in climate projects.