It feels like a long time since the lockdown started back in March and here we are, in September just a couple of weeks away from Autumn, a time of new beginnings for us all. Most of our school children are now back in their classrooms; some of us are also returning to our offices and work places, so perhaps it’s not surprising that our community is also looking very carefully around the covid-corner to the future.

Big changes often start with small steps, so it is wonderful to see the parents of Briars Hill, St Joseph’s and St Margaret’s Schools making a fresh start to the new term by organising a Bicycle Bus. This innovative scheme is all about safely getting children living in Heathcote and Warwick Gates to collectively cycle to school, rather than going by car. We all benefit from less traffic congestion, cleaner air and hopefully lots of smiles on the little faces having fun riding to their classrooms. More details are available at www.thebicyclebus.co.uk or by searching Facebook for the ‘bicycle bus’.

Heritage Open Days Festival gets underway next Friday 11 through to 20 September. Although smaller than usual, we’re pleased this year to still have a wide range of venues and events taking place. Highlights include a Great Fire of Warwick Walk, organised by a group of volunteers from the town’s heritage attractions. More information on Heritage Open Days.

Running alongside the Heritage Open Days Festival is the inspirational Paint the Yard street art festival, in and around Spencer Yard in Leamington’s Old Town. Creative Leamington is working with local artists this month to paint a number of beautiful and striking murals on the buildings.  Just completed is the 'Frontline Project' mural, created as a tribute to local key workers marking their selfless service during the pandemic. More information about Paint the Yard.

In other ways too, we’re finding it possible to restart and come together while staying safe.

Warwick Racecourse has been selected to run a national pilot to hold race meetings with the public being able to attend. Special safety measures will be trialled and hopefully a full programme will then be possible that enables this much-loved pastime to return.

Chiltern Railways is introducing a new timetable, adding more seats and services to support the journey back to work and school. Given press reports of Leamington Spa’s post-covid credentials as an attractive home town for London commuters, these changes to the Chiltern service may also help support our local housing market.

We’re also delighted not to be sending back to Whitehall any of the £1.5m in government funding provided for the Discretionary Business Grants scheme. Hundreds of local businesses have benefitted from this funding, with good news for those which have received the lowest grant level of £3,000, now due an additional £1,000 to be paid in the coming week. 

Progress has also been made with our Climate Emergency Action Plan, which was adopted in February. Our challenging aim is for your Council to become a zero-carbon organisation by 2025 and, with others, the District to become zero carbon by 2030. Despite being in lockdown, we’ve: -

• Agreed to switch next month to a green electricity supply, which will save the Council an estimated 2,470 tonnes of Co2e
• Granted planning permission for low carbon homes at Turpin Court
• Prepared a programme for retrofitting the worst EPC rated Council homes (to bring E, F, G rated homes up to C), after the first step of property surveys has been completed
• Commissioned a ‘Citizens Assembly’ for next month, to enable us to receive external advice and feedback on our environmental priorities
• Commissioned 48 Electric charging points to be installed next Spring in our carparks
• Established funding for electric taxi charging and incentives to switch to electric taxis
• Offered our residents with electric vehicles free parking in our carparks
• Agreed to roll out across the District’s towns the ‘Better Points Sustainable Travel’ initiative that was successfully trialled in Leamington
• Prepared our first tree planting programme, which will be implemented in this winter’s planting season, subject to Council’s final approval next month
• Agreed that all events supported by this Council must now be plastic free
• Eliminated 10 plastic sources from Council operations (plus seeking ways to address others)
• Extended to 85 outlets located across the district the ‘Refill Scheme’, which encourages us all to refill water containers, reducing the use of ‘single-use’ plastic bottles

It’s a start and we recognise that there is so much more to be done, but thanks to the dedication of our officers, lockdown has not stalled our ambitious environmental plans.

Finally, on behalf of all the residents of Warwick District, this week our Chairman wrote to thank our ‘team’ of some 30 council officers who have given extraordinary service during this challenging period. We’re proud of the values and spirit they demonstrated working together, at short notice over long hours to shield our most vulnerable and keep us all safe, in ways many will never realise. You may be interested to read more about their work.

Keep smiling and stay safe.

Cllr Andrew Day
Leader, Warwick District Council

Chris Elliott
Chief Executive, Warwick District Council