Case studies

Innovation in local government is about improving the lives of the people in our communities. Browse through our case studies to see the many innovative programmes councils are involved in.

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City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council: ‘Virtual Bradford’ – an open digital twin for the City of Bradford

Digital twins are an excellent tool that can be used to create what-if scenarios and enable data-driven decision making, which will be explored by the Council and others.

City of York Council: Towards long-term flood resilience

Storms Desmond and Eva in late December 2015 led to record river levels in many river catchments, 453 properties and 174 businesses flooded in York. The Environment Agency and City of York Council were successful in attracting funding to renew existing and provide new flood defences. The York Five Year Plan was developed and detailed business cases and designs for schemes in 19 flood cells across the city have been delivered. An adaptive approach to flood resilience has been developed, work programmes to develop increased flood storage and the incentivised delivery of natural flood risk management measures have commenced.

City of York Council: York Community Woodland

City of York Council is creating an extensive community woodland on 78 hectares of land to the West of York with the ambition to plant 50,000 trees by 2023 as a nature based solution to climate change mitigation.

City of York Council: York’s Clean Air Zone

City of York Council took action to improve air quality across the city through a Clean Air Zone, aiming to significantly reduce emissions from buses and ensure all those operating frequently in the city centre were low emission.

City of York Council: Zero Carbon Homes Programme

A new build housing programme with all homes built to Passivhaus certification, ensuring high thermal efficiency. In addition, all schemes are low parking developments with a focus on cycling and walking with car free streets.

Climate Action Teachers Champions (CATCh) programme

Schools in Luton have developed climate action plans for the first time, with support from a new scheme from Luton Council.

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Colchester Borough Council and the University of Essex: Go Green Schools project

The Go Green Schools project documented the extent to which primary schools in Colchester have embedded environmental education and action into their ethos, practices and operations.

Colchester Borough Council: eCargo bike library

Colchester eCargo bike library aims to break down barriers to the use of electric cargo (eCargo) bikes for deliveries instead of cars or vans. The Council got funding for 25 eCargo bikes and five electric trailers. 13 were given to 10 local organisations including Colchester Hospital and a new eCargo bike delivery service. Six are available for short term loans for local organisations, and the rest used by Council staff such as those in Neighbourhood services.

Colchester Borough Council: Retrofit of Council Headquarters

Rowan House, the Council’s office headquarters, is undergoing a holistic transformation to be more sustainable post COVID-19. Office space is being rationalised and rented to partners, the building is being retrofitted with low carbon heating and ventilation systems and the travel plan is being revised to promote sustainable travel to work and for meetings.

Community Building Energy Efficiency, Redditch Borough Council, Midlands Net Zero Hub

Climate emergency has been declared by councils in Worcestershire. This created an opportunity to bring together a unified set of targets that were shared across the districts of Worcestershire through the Local Enterprise Partnership’s Energy Strategy.