Local Climate Impacts Profile for North Buckinghamshire (Aylesbury Vale)
Aylesbury Vale District Council in partnership with Buckinghamshire County Council (BCC) and the Bucks Strategic Partnership (BSP) jointly funded an MSc graduate to undertake a LCLIP for the Aylesbury Vale district which encompasses the north half of Bucks County.
The focus was on adaptation activities and was carried out through archive searches through local news agencies and archive record trawls and officer interviews at both AVDC and BCC.
The project gathered data and archive from as far back as 2001 on extreme weather events with the aim of putting opportunity cost to these. This to allow the councils concerned to better plan for future increased frequency occurrences.
The local climate impact profile has provided clear evidence that extreme weather has many impacts to both district and county services. However, the degree of impacts is impossible to quantify under current reporting mechanisms. Most financial costs are not quantified and staff time dealing with the impacts from the weather is in general not recorded.
Service areas that have historically been impacted by extreme weather have started to adapt. However this generally occurs after the incident. Strategically, a more proactive approach towards managing the impacts of the weather will be required.
The Impacts of the weather it should be noted are not exclusively negative. Hot summers appear to have a positive effect on leisure activities and tourism; potentially milder winters may reduce what were traditional health (fuel poverty), transport infrastructure and waste collection issues. With the climate changing, potential opportunities exist within local authorities to enhance revenue and customer satisfaction.
The financial costs identified may not seem significant when compared to the overall operating capital of the authorities. However due to current reporting mechanisms, the impact is largely unknown and is therefore an undefined risk. Most service departments treat the impact from the weather as a cost which is absorbed within operating budgets. An example of which can be seen for BCC Waste Services. When questioned regarding the impact of the weather, no formal costs were identified. Subsequent information appears to suggest a cost of over £12,000 in one week transporting excess rain water from an In-Vessel Composting (IVC) site. Clearly additional costs would be uncovered with better reporting practices.
The impact and costs, extreme weather has had on the local economy has not been identified in this study.
Extreme weather has the potential to paralyze the delivery of local authority services and significantly impact finances. These alone have sufficient standing to put extreme weather and a changing climate as a strategic issue and a risk which will require monitoring and addressing.
Contact Email:
Organisation:
Aylesbury Vale District Council (AVDC)
Funding Details:
Funding was derived from the three partners and £2,000 was made available from each partner. Graduate was hired by AVDC as a consultant and line managed by AVDC and BCC. Cost of 12 week project was £4,000. However, because of need to expand scope slightly, pay expenses and report on findings towards the end, a further £1,000 was paid.
Status:
Completed March 2008. Report has been delivered to senior officers and local authorities at a UKCIP conference in Oxford Feb 2008
Website relating to case study:
http://www.aylesburyvaledc.gov.uk
Keywords relating to this case study:
LCLIP, Adaptation, NI 188, climate, extreme weather, flooding, risk management, Aylesbury, UKCIP
South East groups case study relates to:
Emergency planning
