A Green Gwynedd

The risks of coastal flooding and erosion are increasing with the impact of climate change which means that sea levels are rising and more intense storms occur more often. Gwynedd has the largest coastline in Wales and due to the nature of our landscape a high percentage of our communities, and the infrastructure that serves them, is on the coast. 

We will collaborate with other agencies, in order to prioritise our coast based on risk, and form an action plan to get to grips with the risks where this is possible. 

There is also a risk of inland flooding when water accumulates and rivers overflow. We will draw up catchment area plans in order to help avoid/respond to existing and increasing future threats. 

We will prepare a new waste and recycling strategy to try and increase the county's recycling level to meet the national target of 70% by 2025. This will assess how effective the current waste collection arrangements are in terms of promoting recycling (from door-to-door and in our centres) and introduce new arrangements where required.

The Council's Climate and Nature Emergency Plan sets an ambition that "Cyngor Gwynedd will be net-zero carbon and ecologically positive by 2030."

The Plan includes a wide range of projects to reduce carbon emissions from the use of our fleet and travel, use of buildings, procurement, street lighting and several other fields. We will commence with further investment of £3m in renewable energy schemes and we will also draft specific measures to get to grips with the side-effects of climate change on Gwynedd communities.

Active travel aims to ensure that walking and cycling becomes the normal choice for daily journeys, to improve our personal health, air quality and to make places more pleasant to live and work.

We will improve the county’s existing walking and cycle paths, and introduce new active travel routes to facilitate more walking and cycling in our communities.

We will review our existing public transport provision with the aim of developing a public transport network that will be convenient, reliable and reasonably priced to allow the residents of Gwynedd to travel every day of the week. 

As a part of this plan, we will also introduce new electric buses.

We will draw-up a new Local Development Plan for Gwynedd that will address housing needs, employment and the social and environmental needs of the county's residents over the next 15 years.

Recent engagement work has highlighted that clean and tidy communities are essential to promote pride in the area.  In response, we will facilitate physical improvements to the built environment within and in the vicinity of Gwynedd's towns and villages, by focusing on open public spaces. We will also promote local ownership and foster pride in the area by working at a community level to forge relationships with local groups/organisations, volunteers and the third sector.