Welcome To Wirral

The Council is a big organisation with many employees, and many buildings to run. Those buildings include leisure centres, schools, and our own stock of housing and residential homes.

As a result, we use a massive amount of energy - on heating and lighting for example, and we get through an awful lot of raw materials in the course of our work - materials like paper, wood, and brick which all exercise their own drain on the world's resources.

We are working hard to reduce energy consumption in Council run public buildings, and whenever possible, buy 'green' ie. recycled products via an environmental purchasing group.

Similarly, some of our raw materials like timber are sourced from 'sustainable' sources, but we still have much work to do.

We're looking at the way we work with our own employees, and with others, to make sure we work as environmentally efficiently as possible. Our eleven departments now have their own 'green teams' who look at the way we work and suggest how we could be less wasteful and more environmentally conscious. Their simple common sense ideas have resulted in savings on lighting, heating, water, and raw materials like paper (at the council, for example, we never use a notebook where scrap paper would do!)

We're looking at how we can adapt our policies, so that departments work in partnership, sharing experience and resources. Special systems which look at the environmental impact of the way we work are also being introduced.

We constantly compare our performance with other local authorities to ensure that we are giving Council Tax payers good value for money, and continuing to embrace the ideals of Local Agenda 21.

Our vehicles are becoming more environmentally friendly with old 'gas guzzlers' being phased out and replaced by 'greener' vehicles running on cleaner fuel.

We're spreading the 'green transport' message to our staff, encouraging them to consider alternatives to the car, and making it easier for them to cycle to work by providing cycle storage facilities.

As you've already read, there's much the Council does already to further the aims of Local Agenda 21. However, there is still much to do, which is where you come in.

The work we have done so far falls under a number of themes. All of these contribute towards our Local Agenda 21 policy aims.

We have tried to give you some examples of projects already taking place, and some of those planned for the future. We would like you to read about them, then tell us what you think in our on-line questionnaire.

Key actions for the future:

Staff travelling between our buildings in Wallasey and Birkenhead will be soon be able to use a free half-hourly gas powered 'shuttle' which means they don't have to use their cars to attend meetings, which is wasteful on fuel. The service can also be used by visitors to our one-stop-shops in Wallasey and Birkenhead.