Dominique Hill

Dominque Hill, Climate Change Project Officer, Merton Council, provided an update on the Climate Action Plan. In 2019 Merton Council declared a climate emergency with a target of achieving net zero for the Council by 2030 and borough by 2050. The Council is responsible for less than 2% of emissions. A Climate Strategy and Action Plan was agreed in 2020 and followed by two climate delivery plans.

There is a long way to go to meet targets and meeting them will require partnership working. There are other benefits to these actions including improving air quality, helping the local economy and jobs, as well as reducing fuel poverty.

Climate Action Group supports community action on climate in areas like buildings and energy, transport, green economy and greening Merton. Projects have included Merton Garden Streets, where residents and businesses have got involved in planting up their streets. So far 115 streets have signed up, with over 10,000 volunteer hours. Other projects include Energy Matters, promoting energy efficiency in schools, and the Wheel repair café, a chance for residents to bring goods that can be repaired. The Climate Action Group is looking for more volunteers and you can email the team if you want to get more involved.

The Council is developing a Climate Action Engagement Strategy to look at how best to engage residents and will be developing a survey for residents to take part.

Coming up to mark Car Free Day on Thursday 22 September there will be Dr Bike sessions in Morden and Wimbledon; a Cycle cinema at Canons House in Mitcham on Friday at 7.30pm, and a Repair Café at Canons on Saturday. The best way to keep in touch with that is happening is to sign-up to the e-newsletter. You can also pledge to take action and share your story online using the hashtag #MertonClimateAction to encourage others to do the same. You can find lots of pledge ideas by looking up Merton climate pledges

A resident asked about involving Clarion in improving the energy efficiency of homes. Dominque replied that Clarion are keen to be involved so it is worth raising this with them. 

A resident asked about the connection with the tree strategy and Dominque said that they work closely with the Green Spaces team.

A resident asked about insulation in existing housing. Dominque said that retrofitting properties is very important. The new Local Plan has been improved to make sure new properties do not add to the problem, but existing homes will need to move over to heat pumps rather than gas and these require well insulated properties. The Council is promoting the Mayor’s Warmer Homes Programme and is working with social housing landlords. Lots of pots coming from national govt and will link to these in our websites. The team is looking to recruit specialist retrofit officers to plan this work.

A resident asked about involving private landlords and Dominque said we will need to incorporate these as it is a complicated area. The Mayor of London also looking at this and there are national standards for energy efficiency of homes.

A resident asked about the Solar Together scheme and problems with some of the suppliers. Dominque said this is a Mayor of London scheme, and they are reviewing this currently, they are also looking how to include businesses. There was an issue in phase 4 of the scheme due to high demand exceeding the supplier’s capacity but Dominque is happy to pass on any concerns.