Background – The Local Agenda 21 partnership with Woking Borough Council began when Woking LA21 was set up in 1994 following the Earth Summit in 1992 which called for partnerships of Local Government with local communities to set a sustainable agenda for the 21st century. A WBC environmental co-ordinating officer was the link to LA21 and Liaison Group meetings, between elected Councillors, WBC officers and LA21 Steering Group members, have provided a regular means of exchanging information and ideas. Some points on the evolution of the partnership are described below.
The Woking LA21 Action Plan produced in 1998 provided a blue print for sustainabilty. ‘Active participation by Councillors in promoting sustainability has been a main contributer in achieving main-streaming of sustainability throughout the Council’s business activities.’ (quote from Beacon Status submission document 2004).
A recent review of our action plan of ten years ago showed that most of the original actions have now been implemented by the Borough Council.
We have now renamed ourselves as Woking Local Action 21, or more briefly, Woking LA21, to retain the spirit of the original Rio agenda, but make the name more meaningful demonstrating that we mean action!
Succesful projects implemented by Woking LA21 were the Gardening for Life project and two publications, Green Pages and Greener Homes. Details about these can be found elsewhere on the site.
Recently the group set up a project group structure with named leaders for each project group, and a wide range of volunteers to work on the developing projects. More can be found on the emerging groups here and here.
Our future plans are to involve all communities in Woking in engaging more with climate change and sustainability and we plan to hold a community led event early in 2009.
