THE next steps in Northumberland County Council's battle against climate change have been agreed by the council's cabinet.

On Tuesday, councillors approved proposals for the next steps in the council's climate action plan, which was set up 18 months ago after the authority declared a climate emergency.

The report set out seven priority action areas for the council to achieve its goal of net zero carbon emissions.

These include conducting carbon emission evaluations on new housing projects, carbon assessments for new policy decisions, and the creation of an enhanced service plan for each of the council's service areas to see how carbon emissions can be reduced.

In addition, councillors agreed to allocate £69,300 required to continue heat mapping work.

Councillors unanimously approved the proposals, and pointed out that the county was at the forefront of the battle against climate change.

The council's leader, Coun. Glen Sanderson, said: "I think we're very much leading the way in the North of England and nationally as well.

"We've shown from small schemes like the free tree for each household, which was over subscribed within four days, all the work we are doing in schools to the larger projects like the heat source pumps and some of the major points in this action plan show we're taking this very seriously indeed.

"Everything we do now as a council needs to be checked against our action plan, which is a very significant step."

Coun. Jeff Watson added: "I welcome this report, especially about the forestry industry and saving carbon in that area.

"Northumberland is leading the way."