Case studies

As one of the largest development sites in the City, the decision to release the land from the Green Belt for approximately 6,000 homes was driven by the council’s desire to create new communities with all supporting infrastructure.   

The site is now a strategic allocation made in the adopted South Cambridge local plan in September 2018 (Policy SS/6) for Waterbeach New Town, for approximately 8,000 to 9,000 new homes.

The current East Devon Local Plan (adopted January 2016) defined the current extent and subsequent guidance for the new community and its expansion is set out in the Cranbrook DPD, the subject of an ongoing examination.   

In recognition of the climate emergency, West Sussex County Council launched its Climate Change Strategy during 2020. This underpins their corporate plan, making climate change a fundamental consideration of all actions going forward and elevating progress on a wide variety of supporting projects.

Solihull Council has embarked on a scheme to deliver an alternative source of affordable low carbon energy to the town centre. The network will distribute low carbon heat and power from a single energy centre directly into town centre buildings. The energy centre at the heart of this network will provide a range of renewable and low carbon energy solutions including air source heat pumps and gas combined heat and power.

There had been intermittent problems with the audio system in the council chamber for some years before the pandemic lockdown which had caused difficulties in public meetings and generated complaints from members of the public. This feedback was taken extremely seriously and resulted in a commitment from councillors and officers to review the current provision because it was no longer deemed fit for purpose.

In 2019, Nottingham set an ambitious target to become the first carbon neutral city in the UK by 2028. In keeping with Nottingham’s proud tradition of climate leadership, their Carbon Neutral Charter set out a vision for sustainable carbon neutrality on behalf of the council and the city’s Green Partnership.

This research was used to develop communications to re-frame sheltered housing and to promote residents to ‘downsize’ into smaller properties. These were to be sent to council residents and evaluated using a Randomised Controlled Trial.

The co-location of health and leisure services in Carlisle and roll out of an integrated service across the county.

The Integrated Community Response (ICR) service is one such example, where Salford Council is working closely with 42nd Street, CAMHS and Salford Mind.