NCALC Climate Conference Helen Ball, Shrewsbury Town Council

The final guest speaker at the Northants CALC Climate Change Conference 2022 was Helen Ball, Clerk to Shrewsbury Town Council (STC), which is recognised nationally as a beacon council on climate change and sustainability. STC passed a Climate Emergency resolution in 2019 and has been working very hard to reduce the climate impact of its own operations and those of its residents. Helen explained that the council’s carbon footprint was equivalent to approximately 40 households, whereas there are over 35,000 households in the town, so the focus had been on influencing residents and spending resources on that, and the council had increased its precept by 20% to provide a rolling £250,000 per annum to spend on climate and sustainability initiatives. Helen described it as their “spend to save – the planet” approach.

You can download Helen's presentation below.