Posted on Friday 14th November 2025
A new environmental vision for Staffordshire is to focus on delivering direct benefits for the county’s residents, the economy and the countryside.
Andrew Mynors, Cabinet Member for Connectivity, said the new approach will shift away from prioritising Net Zero to prioritising the local landscape and wildlife, helping households and businesses and promoting Staffordshire produce and enterprise.
Andrew said:
”As proud custodians of this amazing county, we are 100 per cent committed to preserving and enhancing Staffordshire for everyone.
“However, for far too long, there has been a blinkered focus on Net Zero targets. Our refreshed vision widens our approach and sets out action, which will see a much more proactive focus on key priorities and activity to support the economy, nature and communities.
“We will take bold action and work together with residents, businesses, public services and national government to drive meaningful change and ensure the environment remains at the core of these actions.
“Importantly too, our environmental strategy will not stand in isolation, but will dovetail with real issues which matter to people including; managing flood risk, encouraging wildlife to flourish and meeting local transport needs.”
The new draft strategy sets out eight key themes:
• Reduce SCC’s overall environmental impact
• Ensuring services and communities can adapt to severe weather
• Supporting economic growth
• Local nature recovery
• Waste minimisation
• Supporting access to affordable, reliable energy
• Assist in the delivery of a multi modal transport system in line with economic growth
• Work with partners to deliver innovative actions across growth, transport, energy, buildings, waste and environmental adaptation
In October, it was agreed at Full Council to withdraw the Climate Change Emergency and adopt a broader Environmental Vision.
Andrew added:
“Our new joined up approach will focus on protecting and enhancing Staffordshire’s environment and help make businesses more affordable to run and more sustainable in the long-term.
“By doing this we can help our fantastic county to flourish and really showcase to everyone what an amazing place Staffordshire is.”
The new draft environmental strategy will now be discussed at a meeting of scrutiny on November 17, before being finalised and presented to Cabinet in December.