Local environmental data

New on this page...

1. Local State of the Environment report for Poole
2. Local State of the Environment report for Bournemouth
3. Local State of the Environment report for East Dorset
4. An example climate profile for Cornwall - local data to support climate change action plans
5. Local State of the Environment report for North Cornwall
6. Local State of the Environment report for North Devon
7. Local State of the Environment report for Torridge
8. Local State of the Environment report for Teignbridge

There have been significant improvements in the amount of environmental data available at a local (site specific, local authority or county) level. However, accessing this information can be a lengthy task, involving many different websites. This facility marks the first attempt to gather this information & make it readily available from one site.

Local climate profiles

There is a growing amount of information now freely available that can help to pull together a picture of how climate change is affecting an area and to help support local climate change action plans.

An example has been pulled together for Cornwall, which could be used as a template for other areas.

The Cornwall example currently contains the following data:

• Maximum temperature at St Mawgan (1957 - 2007)
• Minimum temperature at St Mawgan (1957 - 2007)
• Number of days of air frost at St Mawgan 1957 - 2007
• Rainfall (mm) at St Mawgan 1957 - 2007
• Cornwall rainfall data
• Total rainfall (mm) at St Mawgan 1957 - 2007
• Total sunshine duration (hours) at St Mawgan 1955 - 2007
• Sea level rise at Newlyn 1916 - 2006
• Monthly mean sea temperature at Newlyn 1984 - 1994
• Newlyn highest and lowest tide surges
• St Marys highest and lowest tide surges
• % basking shark sightings in the South West and Scotland 1988 - 2005
• Fish & shellfish landings into major ports in the South West 2006
• Planning applications objected to by the Environment Agency on flood risk grounds 2006/2007
• No. of decisions where application was approved by Local Planning Authorities contrary to Environment Agency advice 2006/2007
• Cornwall local authority total eco footprint
• Cornwall local authority eco footprint - CO2 per capita
• Electricity consumption (2006)
• Gas consumption (2006)
• South West installed renewable electricity capacity (MW) April 2007
• Installed renewable electricity capacity by local authority area April 2007
• South West renewable heat capacity (MW) April 2007
• Installed renewable heat capacity by local authority area April 2007
• Bracken, ticks and heather indicators of climate change in the South West uplands (Bodmin, Dartmoor & Exmoor)
• Mortality from malignant melanoma in Cornwall's local authority areas 1993 - 2006

All data is sourced, so easily to find for another county or area. Any comments on this collection of data is welcome, email Annette Carr

Local State of the Environment reports

With the large amount of environmental data now emerging at a county, local authority or parish level, we have pulled together some examples of how this can be drawn together into local state of the environment reports. You can now download reports and summaries of the state of the environment in:

The data for all of these reports can be found in the full local data spreadsheet

Local Area Agreements

Local Area Agreements are currently being renegotiated and refreshed to take into account changes that were announced in the 2006 Local Government White Paper, Stronger and Prosperous Communities.

The new agreements will take effect from June 2008 and are designed to give local authorities and their partners in the Local Strategic Partnerships (LSPs) more freedom to decide how to focus their efforts and resources, therefore making them more effective and accountable.

A national set of 198 performance indicators were announced by central government as part of the Comprehensive Spending Review 2007 thus replacing the estimated 1200 that existed before. From this new set, LAAs will have to incorporate 35 that best reflect the needs of their local area. Together with 18 statutory education and early years targets these will have to be reported on to central government. In addition local areas can agree additional targets for inclusion in the LAA but these will carry no statutory reporting requirements.

The Government have defined a new set of Local Area Agreement (LAA) indicators, of which 14 cover environmental topics.

Data for these LAA environmental indicators in the South West can be downloaded here.

Locally available environmental data

More environmental data is now becoming available at a local level, so we have tried to accumulate statistics on a variety of environmental topics that we know is currently available (with an indication of the geography). If you know of anything that we have missed then let us know.

You can download each dataset according to theme below, or download all of the known statistics in one spreadsheet here.

Key statistics from around the region

The South West Local Intelligence Networks also collect in a wide range of environmental, social and economic data for their areas.

Do you know of local environmental data that should be included? Let us know.