Hadleigh Councillor and well known, local environmentalist Jacqui Thornton updates Castle Point residents on two questions relating to climate change which will be heard at the Full Council meeting on Wednesday.
“Declaring a climate emergency may be an acknowledgment of the situation, but without an adopted commitment to positive actions, it is just words.
Therefore, in July 2021, the Conservative Administration went above and beyond declaring a Climate Emergency, and instructed the council to adopt a Climate Action Plan (CAP), approved by Cabinet in July 2021. It was also resolved that quarterly updates on this vital work work be reported to Cabinet to allow progress to be monitored and in the public domain.
Not only that, the Conservative administration also formed the Climate Action Forum, including key representatives from the Castle Point Climate Action Group to meet regularly with officers and members of the council to monitor the CAP, scrutinise the work the council is doing on reducing its Carbon Footprint, and advise on potential new initiatives and direction.
Sadly, I had to question the new administration at Cabinet last month because since they took over, the Climate Action Plan has not been updated, it has been removed from monitoring via the Forward plan and meetings with representatives of the Climate Action Forum had also been suspended.
Following my question, all action appears to be being pushed forward into next year. Consequently, and due to the apparent stalling and current lack of scrutiny from the council on its work to tackle the climate emergency, I feel it warrants reconsidering whether declaring a Climate Emergency, linked to its Climate Action Plan, is now needed to hold this new administration to account.
To that end, and following discussion at a recent meeting of the Castle Point Climate Action Group, I added the option to the end of a Motion I was submitting to be heard at this weeks Full Council on actions the council should be taking to assist residents in understanding and monitoring the Climate Emergency.
Sadly, my motion has been refused by the council allowing me to only ask it as a question. This means there can be no debate or discussion on this important issue, nor any meaningful vote on action.
Its disappointing that members have been denied the opportunity to debate and vote on taking such action, it will be interesting to see how my question will be answered, and whether this too will be pushed forward into next year.
My original motion was directed at the full council. My question, as rewritten by the council in order it is acceptable, has now directed to the PSC and reads:
“Will the Chairman of the Environment Policy & Scrutiny Committee when reviewing the Climate Action Plan to reinforce its commitment made to tackling climate change through the continuation of work already identified through its Climate Action Plan, consider action to introduce an easy to navigate dedicated presence on its website in order that residents can quickly access details of this councils Climate Action strategies, including but not limited to:
* Regularly updated versions of the Climate Action Plan,
* Advice to residents and businesses on reducing their carbon footprint
* Regularly updated data on the current Air, Pollution and Water Quality in the borough.
* Advice to residents on waste reduction and recycling
* Links to initiatives, projects and schemes available through our Partner Organisations.
Also, will the committee revisit the question of whether it feels now is the time to declare a Climate Emergency linked to its CAP”
