ONE of the key pledges in the climate emergency declaration made by BCP Council has been dropped.

The creation of a citizen’s assembly to gather public views was one of eight measures agreed almost unanimously by councillors last year.

But the council’s cabinet member for sustainability, councillor Mike Greene, has now confirmed the idea has been scrapped.

The climate and ecological emergency declaration was brought forward by Green Party councillors Simon Bull and Chris Rigby last year and was supported by all but one of the 76 councillors.

Within their motion was a call to “set up a citizens’ assembly to enable views of the general public to be taken into account”. It was estimated this would cost £70,000.

This would have involved the selection of a random selection of people from Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole to consider ways of tackling climate change in the area.

The work was put on hold earlier this year by the Unity Alliance as part of a range of measures paused in a bid to meet the costs of responding to the initial outbreak of the coronavirus.

But, responding to public questions at Tuesday’s full council meeting, Cllr Greene confirmed the new Conservative administration was scrapping the idea permanently.

“The proposal for a citizens’ assembly on climate change was shelved by the Unity Alliance during their period as the administration on the grounds that the expected cost of £70,000 to the taxpayer could not be justified at this time,” he said. I support that decision.

“As and when there is an opportunity to find an additional £70,000, I will be looking for projects to spend it on which will actually contribute to action countering climate change rather than talking about it.”

The decision has been condemned by Cllrs Bull and Rigby who said it “raised questions” about the council’s commitment to engage with the public.

“It’s outrageous that the Conservative cabinet is dropping a core pledge of the climate and ecological emergency declaration and denying the residents of BCP a stake in the decisions needed to make their home conurbation a greener, more sustainable and equitable place to live,” Cllr Bull said.

“It’s even more outrageous to decide this after claiming that public engagement and participation would be a hallmark feature of your administration, as the new BCP Council leader did in his leadership bid.”

However, they welcomed confirmation that a consultation on the council’s action plan would still be going ahead but warned against “predetermined positions”.