We’ve written to the Leader of the Council to take action on the Climate Emergency motion we put forward in March which was passed by Full Council. The Environment and Community Safety Portfolio has not previously been used to address climate change related issues in any significant way.

Labour’s environment and community safety spokesperson Cllr George Fielding said:

“Since declaring a climate emergency back in March little action if any has been taken. I’m disappointed at the lack of urgency and understanding from the leader and his deputy around this issue. Simply splitting the current portfolio in half doesn’t go anywhere near what we should be doing. 

The current environment portfolio looks after hundreds of things from bin collections , fly tipping and litter to pest control and trading standards to dog fouiling and our parks and open spaces. Thats why we are pushing for a specific portfolio on climate to help shape every decision the council makes in order to hit our target of being carbon neutral by 2030 if not before. 

We don’t think its good enough to just split the role, we need to show we mean business and take this issue seriously!”.

Newly elected Cllr Cal Corkery backs the calls and said:

“Looking back at the meeting papers over the past year the current portfolio has discussed air quality once, and that was linked to a statutory requirement. Other than that and recycling no other ways of tackling climate change have been broached.

If we’re serious about reducing emissions and moving towards a zero net carbon city then we need much more significant and co-ordinated action and that’s where our suggestion for a dedicated Cabinet post stems from”.

The leader of the council put forward proposals last week to say he was thinking about splitting the Environment and Community Safety portfolio in two. There was absolutely no mention of the Environment brief being focused more around Climate Change issues.