← council-level findings on this theme
16 Sep 2025Walsall's Economy and Environment Overview and Scrutiny Committee resolved on 24 July 2025 to include a 'Tree Planting Strategy including tree maintenance' in its 2025/26 work programme, alongside the Climate Change Action Plan and Net Zero 2041 Strategy -- evidence the tree-planting programme remains active and under continuing scrutiny, not abandoned, cut or reduced. No document in Walsall's corpus (128 documents, meetings to April 2026) records any cut, reduction, deferral or abandonment of a tree-planting or tree-canopy target or programme. [1][2]
24 Sep 2025On 24 September 2025 Walsall Cabinet, on a report introduced by Cllr Andrew (moved by Cllr Andrew, seconded by Cllr Hicken, resolved unanimously), approved advancing Option 4 under the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme and accepting West Midlands Combined Authority funding to deliver the Devolved Buildings Retrofit Pilot to improve energy efficiency and cut fuel costs in support of the Walsall 2041 Net Zero Strategy; this is the council actively pursuing/accepting retrofit grant funding, not declining or underspending it. [3][4][5]
15 Oct 2025On 15 October 2025 Walsall Cabinet unanimously approved (moved by Councillor Andrew, seconded by Councillor Bird) the Electric Vehicle Charge Point Infrastructure Programme, procuring a 15-year concession contract with a single supplier to install and manage EV charge-points in council car parks and on-highway locations, expressly to support the borough's transition to net-zero. This is an EXPANSION of public EV charging provision, not a pause, cancellation or decline of funding, so Walsall does NOT count toward the rollback figure; no evidence of any pause/cancellation/decline of LEVI, OZEV/ORCS or other EV-charging grant funding was found in the published minutes searched. [6][7][8]
20 Nov 2025At the 18 November 2025 Street Scene and Communities Overview and Scrutiny Committee a member had 'Active Travel Schemes' added to the committee's areas of focus, expressly because of disruption caused by the introduction of such schemes — a critical framing, but the committee only scheduled the topic for future scrutiny rather than pausing, reversing or ordering a hostile review of any scheme. [9][10]
19 Jan 2026Walsall's Street Scene and Communities Overview and Scrutiny Committee received and continued to scrutinise the Council's Climate Change Net Zero 2041 Strategy and Action Plan on 19 January 2026 (item 33), with the Climate Change Programme Manager reporting over £7.3m of external grants secured for Net Zero Projects in 2024/25 and no indication of the plan or its annual reporting being dropped, replaced, or downgraded; the meeting resolved only to circulate further information on the Warm Homes Grant and EV charging points in writing. [11][12][13]
3 Feb 2026A 3 February 2026 road markings, 20mph zones and general road safety report to scrutiny affirmed the Council's 20mph programme rather than rolling it back, noting the borough's 23 residential 20mph zones and the Council's commitment to use them effectively in residential areas. [14]
23 Feb 2026At the 23 February 2026 scrutiny committee the Willenhall Active Travel Schemes report was considered: officers acknowledged the cycle-lane scheme had experienced delays and were challenged over the removal of a bus layby, but the scheme continued to delivery (remaining works expected to conclude by the end of March 2026) and the committee resolved only to note the report and to consider scheme monitoring at a future meeting — no reversal, removal or pause. [15][16][17]