← council-level findings on this theme
15 Jul 2025Rather than rolling back active-travel schemes, North Northamptonshire's Executive agreed on 15 July 2025 to spend Active Travel Fund grants on priority schemes, and on 9 September 2025 a report sought approval to expand its School Streets scheme beyond the existing pilot to reduce congestion, pollution and improve pedestrian safety. [1][2]
12 Aug 2025North Northamptonshire's Executive received a Q1 2025/26 performance update (12 August 2025) reporting that public EV charge points had been installed in 10 of the area's 12 towns since the EV Strategy was adopted in July 2024, with further installations in Oundle and Irthlingborough due to proceed under the Local Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (LEVI) programme later in the year -- i.e. the LEVI-funded rollout was continuing/expanding, not paused, cancelled or declined. [3]
2 Sep 2025The decision moved the Council's net zero target from 2030 to 2050, adopting officers' Option 2 to remove the current 2030 target and align with the UK's statutory 2050 net zero date, after the Place and Environment Scrutiny Committee had voted for the change. [4][5]
9 Sep 2025On 9 September 2025 North Northamptonshire Council's Executive took a KEY DECISION (Item 7, Carbon Management Plan Review) to reset the Council's existing 2030 carbon neutral target and realign its carbon neutral ambitions to the UK net zero target of 2050, stated to be in line with the policy position of the new (Reform) administration. [6][7]
9 Sep 2025The recommendation to delay the target was supported only by Reform councillors on the scrutiny committee, with other parties opposing it on grounds of a lack of data and transparency; speakers and the minority urged the Executive to maintain the 2030 target. [8]
29 Sep 2025An Internal Audit Progress Report to the Audit and Governance Committee (29 Sep 2025) on Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme funding found the Council was on track, with confidence that funding requirements were being met, though it flagged risks around ongoing delivery costs and project timeliness; this is evidence of active delivery, not a decline, handback or underspend of the grant. [9]
20 Jan 2026North Northamptonshire's Executive approved an updated Tree Management Policy on 20 January 2026 that sits alongside, rather than replaces, the Council's existing Tree Planting Strategy; during the debate the Chair confirmed the Council remained on track to meet its existing tree-planting commitment, and that schools across the area had been offered trees to plant as part of the 'Big 50 Vision'. No reduction, deferral or abandonment of a tree-planting or canopy target was found in the corpus. [10]
20 Jan 2026The same Executive meeting reported that, as part of the 'Big 50 Vision', all schools in North Northamptonshire had been offered the opportunity to plant and nurture a tree — an expansion, not a reduction, of tree-planting activity. [11]
3 Mar 2026North Northamptonshire's Executive approved a Speed Management Policy on 14 April 2026 that formalises existing practice rather than changing it: it sets an evidence-led framework for 20mph limits and zones prioritising schemes near schools and vulnerable users, and the report recorded that there were no alternative options as the policy simply lays out current practice in a transparent document. This is a maintenance/formalisation of speed management, not a reversal, removal, pause or hostile review of 20mph limits. [12][13]
9 Jun 2026The council continued to actively discharge its biodiversity/habitats duty: on 9 June 2026 the Executive adopted a new Upper Nene Valley Gravel Pits Special Protection Area Guidance and Mitigation Strategy (revoking the superseded 2015/2016 SPDs), and the report expressly warned against delay, stating that 'A delay in adoption to wait for the preparation of the local plan would represent a similar risk' to its duties under the Habitats Regulations — a continuation/strengthening of statutory nature duties, not a rollback. [14][15]
9 Jun 2026On 9 June 2026 the Executive replaced its previously agreed Zero-emission Bus Scheme grant for the Kettering – Rothwell – Desborough – Corby/Market Harborough corridor (8 electric buses, up to £1.8m, agreed 9 September 2025 from BSIP capital funding) after bus operator Stagecoach said it could not commit match funding for that corridor until 2029/30; the Executive (RESOLVED, no recorded division) instead approved up to £1.2m towards 10 electric buses on a different corridor (Northampton – Earls Barton – Wellingborough – Rushden – Higham Ferrers – Raunds), deferring the Kettering zero-emission bus commitment to 2029/30. Independent councillor Steve Geary told the Executive the scheme was welcome but that "Kettering had become a bit lost in it." [16][17][18]
16 Jun 2026The Council's Carbon Management Plan and its annual reporting cadence continued after the September 2025 target reset: a Carbon Management Plan Task & Finish Group was set up, and the Scrutiny Management Board's June 2026 work programme referenced a further Carbon Management Plan update report due in September 2026. [19]
North Northamptonshire Council's Planning Committee (South) received an information-only update on 16 April 2025 on Island Green Power's large ground-mounted solar farm with battery storage on land west and south of Wellingborough; the chair confirmed the decision rests with the Secretary of State (the scheme being a nationally significant infrastructure project) and the committee simply noted the report, resolving no objection or restriction. [20][21][22]
On 25 June 2025 North Northamptonshire's Planning Committee resolved to GRANT planning permission for a battery energy storage system (BESS) at Grendon Lakes, Main Road, Grendon (application NW/23/00360/FUL by Statera); the recommendation to grant, delegated to the Executive Director of Place and Economy, was carried by six votes to five — an approval, not a refusal or restriction. [23][24]
North Northamptonshire delivered its statutory Local Nature Recovery Strategy early rather than delaying it: designated a Responsible Authority by Defra in June 2023, it worked with Natural England over 18 months and, as the Executive Member for Climate & Green Environment Cllr Helen Harrison told the Place & Environment Scrutiny Committee (25 Feb 2025), was 'only the second responsible authority in England to produce a LNRS'; the committee noted the draft had already received Natural England's approval to progress to publication. This is on-time/leading delivery, not delay or deprioritisation. [25][26][27]
On 9 September 2025 North Northamptonshire's Executive (following Place & Environment Scrutiny Committee feedback) resolved to reset the council's 2030 carbon-neutral target to align with the UK's 2050 net-zero target, citing cost and feasibility concerns under 'the policy position of the new administration' -- but it explicitly continued the Carbon Management Plan (CMP) and approved publication of the 2024/25 CMP Annual Report, so the voluntary annual carbon reporting and the carbon reduction plan itself were not dropped, only the underlying target date. [28][29]
No evidence found of North Northamptonshire dropping or weakening net-zero/energy-efficiency housing standards in its Local Plan. On the contrary, a Full Council motion on 6 March 2025 resolved to investigate embedding a policy in the emerging Local Plan requiring developers to incorporate photovoltaic roof-mounted solar panels and battery storage in new large-scale commercial and residential developments; the substantive motion carried 54-1-0. Separately, the Executive's 20 January 2026 decision to pivot the Local Plan timetable (Option B, revised NPPF) was a procedural/timing choice, not a reduction of energy standards; officers noted the revised national framework places greater emphasis on energy and carbon-reduction schemes. This council does not count toward the rollback figure for this question. [30][31]