CLIMATE change polices have now become “commercially savvy” according to BCP council deputy leader Philip Broadhead.
He says the authority will be one of the few in the country to embed climate and ecological concerns into every aspect of council work, often making savings.
“We are not only caring about greenhouses gases, but nature as well,” he said.
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Cllr Broadhead said the climate change policies of the council were not only good for the climate but also for its finances.
He told Tuesday’s council meeting that the unitary authority is going further than any other council he knows of in the country with a £10million “green futures fund.”
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The meeting witnessed again, the often repeated spat, where climate portfolio holder Cllr Mike Greene accused the previous administration of cancelling all climate work, causing what he described as “a hiatus” for the team working on climate projects.
His claim led to former leader Cllr Vikki Slade saying she was fed up of hearing the often repeated lie – a word the council chairman forced her to apologise for and withdraw, although she replaced the word with “continual mis-truths.”
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She explained that the work had not been cancelled, just put on hold, while the pandemic was dealt with.
Cllr Greene described the climate action plan as one which would achieve the greatest possible reduction in greenhouse gases, for the least possible cost: “It is not an action plan for the car hater, or the pet hater,” he said in a reference to a claim from Cllr Mark Howell at a previous meeting that pets should also be considered as part of the overall package of actions.
Cllr Greene described the council’s action plan as “robust” aiming to achieve net zero in its own operations by 2030 and enable the area, as a whole, to become carbon neutral by 2050 at the latest.
He said the council frequently issued press releases and used other media to get the message out about what it was doing over climate change and he hoped that residents would engage with the authority and help achieve its aims.
Cllr Toby Johnson told the meeting that the council was to have the most generous home insulation scheme in the country under its climate policies.
He said residents would be able to apply for grants to bring their homes up to the national efficiency rate of D, provided the property had an energy efficiency rating of E, or below.
“Applicants with a household income of up to £42,900 are likely to receive a 100 per cent grant to fund newly installed insulation,” he said.
Cllr Johnson claimed the savings could be £300 a year in fuel bills for a typical home.
“Forty per cent of emissions come from our homes, if we can shrink that number, we should,” he said.
At the start of the meeting, during the public session, campaigner Susan Chapman said: “BCP’s plans, so far, are hopelessly inadequate.”
She said more information needed to be made available by the council to make local people aware that the natural world was in crisis with the potential for the collapse of all living systems.
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