Portsmouth Labour Party Standing up for you and our city
Back in March our Portsmouth Labour councillors put forward a motion declaring a climate change emergency, which was passed and should now be well underway in being implemented across every part of the council.
Working with the local community and campaigners, we were delighted that our motion was passed unanimously. The motion called on the Administration to develop an implementation plan to ensure Portsmouth’s net carbon emissions are reduced to zero by 2030. Our commitment was also to hold the council to account to ensure we deliver on this and work together to protect our planet.
Local campaigner Paula Savage, who was instrumental in bringing this motion forward, gave a deputation back in March and today went back to the cabinet meeting alongside St Jude Labour councillor Judith Smyth to press the administration on what they’ve been doing nearly 5 months on.
Paula said: “Portsmouth was one of the first cities in the UK to declare a climate emergency. Nearly five months later I’m back at today’s cabinet meeting to press the administration on what has been done so far to reduce our carbon footprint and reduce our reliance on single use plastic.”
Pressing the administration Paula asked for updates on the following:
- Cycling provision within the city to encourage less car use – looking to other UK and European cities pioneering cycling infrastructure.
- The need for better public transport and how we improve the use of assets like the park and ride.
- Alternatives to our dependence on fossil fuels following on from talks local MP Stephen Morgan has been having.
- The use of single use plastic and what support is being giving to a local crowd funder for a ‘plastic free shop’.
- Increasing recycling across the city with the introduction of bottle and food collection.
- Introducing permaculture, green walls, trees, wild and guerrilla gardening across the city.
- Encouraging schools to go plastic free and setting up a schools network across the city that allows them to share ideas and support.
St Jude councillor Judith Smyth, who proposed the original motion back in March, also gave a deputation to cabinet about her disappointment in their inaction and lack of ambition on the importance of this issue.
Following on from her question to the administration at this months full council Cllr Smyth said: “The paper being considered by the Cabinet is inadequate and unlikely to result in net carbon reduction reaching zero by 2030. I have offered some quick, inexpensive and practical solutions that can be taken into immediate action alongside the ones in the cabinet paper.”
Cllr Judith Smyth gave a number of recommendations to cabinet today which included:
- Looking at what other policies and strategies are being enacted by other local authorities particularly Nottingham city council.
- Running a Citizens’ Assembly involving citizens and businesses to generate ideas for action locally.
- Requiring all council reports to include an environmental impact assessment (similar to Equalities and Financial impact statements).
- Agreeing a set of ‘must do’ requirements for all city services, all contractors and partners to include carbon reduction.
- Incorporate these ‘must do’ standards into all contracts and partnership agreements so that no organisation can work to or with the city council without contributing to carbon reduction. By the end of 2019.
- Conduct an immediate audit of all the benchmarking information that we already have (and need) and a plan setting targets SMART targets until 2030
We will continue to push the administration to be braver and quicker in action regarding the climate emergency in Portsmouth. Let us know your ideas by sharing them with us below.