Skip to start of page content

Lancashire Environment 2002

Introduction

What is in the report?

The report presents 35 key indicators that show the state of the environment now and show how environmental conditions have changed in Lancashire, with respect to the following:

What is the purpose of the audit?

The purpose of this audit is to present a picture of the current state of Lancashire's environment. This includes investigating whether environmental conditions are getting better or worse. Indicators have been selected which can show trends over time.

Where possible there is a particular emphasis on looking at change over the last decade. In particular 1991 has been used as the base year because this was when the first comprehensive environmental audit for Lancashire was published.

'Lancashire - A Green Audit' contained a huge amount of data and it is not the intention here to update every piece of information from that document. An attempt has been made here to focus on the key indicators.

'Lancashire's Green Audit 2 - A Sustainability Report' published in 1997 presented data for a small number of environmental indicators alongside social and economic indicators. Many of those environmental indicators have been used and updated in this Audit.

Criteria for indicator selection

A number of criteria have been considered when selecting indicators for inclusion in this audit:

  • Does the indicator relate to an important environmental issue?
  • Is the data available?
  • Was the indicator used in the first Green Audit?
  • Will the indicator reveal a trend/is historic data available?
  • What is the role of Lancashire County Council in influencing this issue?

We have concentrated on indicators which measure things that we are responsible for or can influence in some way.

The need for further monitoring

This audit has revealed that data availability is limited in many key environmental areas. There is a need for more effective monitoring of environmental change through developing qualitative indicators, including looking at how our climate is changing and what impact that is having in Lancashire. In areas such as landscape, countryside and nature conservation, there are good measures of how much land is designated as 'special' or 'protected' but not of whether those areas are improving or deteriorating.

There is also a lack of indicators to measure the quality of the local environment. This includes issues which people may perceive as priorities in their own neighbourhoods and communities.We will need to develop indicators to measure street cleanliness, litter, condition of parks and open spaces and the amount of derelict and under-used land in the county.

We will be working with our partners to develop these indicators which will enable us to better measure the effectiveness of current policies. These new indicators will appear in future audits. Some of this work is being done to develop indicators to help monitor the effectiveness of policies in the Joint Lancashire Structure Plan.

Lancashire County Council 'Protecting the Environment' Best Value review

Lancashire County Council carried out research with market research company MORI in 2001 to find out what the citizens of Lancashire felt the major priorities for our work should be. Our role in protecting the environment was identified as a key priority. We will now be doing a major review of all our work which contributes to that. This will help us to deliver services in a more effective manner where this is required.

This audit will provide valuable information for that review by identifying what the major environmental issues are in Lancashire.

This review will be one of a number carried out by Lancashire County Council as part of Best Value, an initiative aimed at improving the effectiveness of Council service delivery.

Tell us what you think

We will be doing further survey work next year as part of the Best Value 'Protecting the Environment' review. In the meantime tell us what you think.

  • What environmental issues are the most important for Lancashire?
  • What have we missed out?
  • What would you like to see (more) information about in the next update?
  • Or just give us any other comments.

How the information is presented

The 35 indicators are presented under the twenty theme headings.

For each theme, the key findings are outlined showing how conditions have changed in the last decade and highlighting any issues this raises.

There is then a brief outline of the role of Lancashire County Council (LCC) and other agencies in taking forward issues raised.

Detailed descriptions of how the indicators have been measured are given in the appendix, together with details of where you can get further information about each subject.

 
| Environment Directorate
What's New |