Brighton & Hove Carbon Neutral Fund

The Carbon Neutral Fund supports climate action across our services to deliver the Carbon Neutral 2030 programme. This is our main response to the climate and biodiversity emergencies.

You can find more details about all of these the projects in Appendix 1 of the Policy and Resources committee report for 6 October 2022. 

On 7 July 2022 councillors approved the following allocations from the Carbon Neutral Fund capital funding:  

• Air quality, 2 automatic analyser stations and continued diffusion tube monitoring - £50,000 for 2022-23 and £150,000 for 2023 to 24
• Expanding Liveable Neighbourhoods - £1.1 million for 2022 to 2023 and £1 million for 2023 to 2024
• Carbon reduction measures to operational buildings - £1.5 million for 2022 to 2023 and £2 million for 2023 to 2024

 Read about the 2022 to 2024 projects allocated carbon neutral funding, by theme.

Energy and Water

• Traffic signal carbon reduction programme - £600,000 
• Seafront heritage lighting restoration 2022/2023 to 2025/2026 - £1.4 million 
• Low carbon heat implementation at 2 children centres/nurseries in Hangleton and East Brighton - £250,313 
• Moulsecoomb hub and housing project - £725,122 
• Sustainable building improvements for St Ann’s Well café - £75,000 
• Solar panels at Stanmer workshop - £40,000 
• Electrical infrastructure for City Parks fleet - £100,000
• Electric ’all-terrain’ vehicle for Waterhall - £31,500
• City Parks diesel reduction programme, Preston Park and Brunswick - £130,000  
• Rechargeable medium-sized machinery, such as hedge cutters, mowers and smaller strimmers - £12,500 
• Energy and water efficiency for 4 public toilets (Hove, Portslade, Rottingdean and Queen’s Park) as part of the public toilet refurbishment programme - £126,500
• Allotments - water Infrastructure upgrades at 6 allotments sites – Hove, Portslade, Rottingdean, Hangleton and 2 sites in Whitehawk - £210,500
• Water efficiency fund to broaden the monitoring scope of the council’s water use - £50,000 

Transport

• ECargo Accelerator Project to buy more eCargo bikes to meet increased demand - £90,000 
• Electric vehicle fast charger installations and improved access initiatives - £86,000 
• Western Road Improvement Project, includes tree planting - £532,500
• Use of technology to collect emissions data around or on entry to Air Quality Management Areas (AQMAs) from vehicle flows and types - £200,000

Built environment

• Improving the biodiversity and sustainability of the Kingsway to the Sea project - £700,000
• Install renewable energy technologies in the Palace Place & Old Steine buildings - £89,000 

 Waste

• Improving the communal bin system to improve recycling rates, starting with a pilot in Brunswick and Regency wards - £820,000  
• Install new, more secure Waste Electricals and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) bins and increase the overall number of WEEE recycling points - £84,555 
• Refurbish and redeploy large capacity, solar smart bins to Rottingdean, Ovingdean and Saltdean - £115,000 

Circular economy

• Provide subsidised home composters to residents across the city and introduce a subsidised water butt scheme for residents - £48,000 
• Trial the use of new techniques to rejuvenate and extend the lifecycle of 14 failing concrete roads (£1 million)

Adaptation

Climate adaptation

• Flood Drainage Systems for tree pits alongside parks - £150,000 
• Purchase specialist machinery for the decompaction of high use grassed areas to improve their water retention and carbon sequestration - £27,000
• Norton Road rain gardens - £75,000

Nature and environment

• Install guided trails around the new Waterhall Local Nature Reserve, improve low-carbon travel options to site, and raise awareness of climate change and biodiversity - £15,500  
• Downland dew pond creation at Waterhall to help increase the site’s biodiversity - £25,000

Carbon Reduction

Energy and water

• Supporting schools with energy efficiency projects - £500,000
• Low carbon (heat pump) pilot at Carden Community Centre and Portslade Town Hall - £190,000 
• Water efficiency measures across the council’s property portfolio - £50,000 
• Energy audits and improvements on 10 of the council’s larger commercial properties - £50,000 
• Replacing existing lighting with low energy LEDs in some sports facilities - £187,000 
• Hollingdean depot HGV EV charging infrastructure - £408,000 
• EV fast charging points at four council housing locations - £80,000 
• 30 EV fast charging points in parks depots - £31,600

 LED lighting at Withdean Sports Complex

Transport

• Installation of fast electric vehicle (EV) chargers - £50,000 
• School streets project - £25,500
• Bus exhaust converters to lower emissions - £99,500 
• Air quality monitoring - £160,000 

Waste

• Community composting - £33,960
• Drinking water fountains - £72,600

Circular Economy

• Madeira Terrace restoration – reducing embodied carbon - £300,000

Adaptation

Climate adaptation

• Eldred Avenue Sustainable Drainage Scheme - £50,000 
• Preston Park Sustainable Drainage Scheme - £80,000 
• Strategic Sustainable Drainage Scheme programme 

Conserving and enhancing biodiversity

Nature and environment

• Wilding Waterhall - £41,000
• Wildlife and wildflowers in grass verges - £80,000 
• Tree planting - £1 million

 Cows grazing at Wilding Waterhall

In 2021 £3.9 million of Carbon Neutral Funding was allocated to transport and travel projects including infrastructure such as: 

• Charging points to encourage the uptake of electric vehicles 
• Local investment in pedestrian crossings, cycle facilities, the bus network and rights of way improvements to encourage people to travel more sustainably