‘Bucks must generate more power’

It outlines plans for Bucks County Council to set up an ‘energy supply company’ which would earn the authority money.

Energy sources include from its new incinerator at Calvert, a possible ‘heat network in Aylesbury town centre’, solar panels on school roofs and ‘renewable installations’ across its agricultural estate.

An introduction to the strategy says that Buckinghamshire generates little of its own energy and as a result, there is an ‘outflow of financial support to those areas which are utilising their energy resources’.

At the same time, communities across the country are ‘achieving social, economic and environmental benefits including increased energy security, from the generation of their own energy’.

The report adds: “Doing nothing is no longer an option.”

The four themes in the strategy are ‘improving the efficiency of buildings’, ‘increasing local energy generation’, ‘ensuring communities influence and benefit from projects’ and ‘growing the local economy’.

The county council and Bucks’ district councils have formed the strategy in partnership with the Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes Natural Environment Partnership.Bucks County Council’s cabinet will decide whether to progress with the strategy when it meets on Monday, May 11. It will then be for the full council to formally adopt the strategy.