Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council’s deputy leader said Reform are ‘not climate change deniers’ but still pushed ahead with plans to make a major change.
Councillor Mike Bannister told a cabinet meeting why they planned to rescind the climate emergency the council declared back in 2019 to take action and to work towards achieving carbon neutrality by 2030.
Cllr Bannister said that while they are ‘not climate change deniers’, what they do believe is that the 2030 target was unrealistic but they did plan to continue to make changes that would impact locally..
It came after two residents made impassioned pleas for the council not to rescind the climate emergency.
Linda Parsons of Attleborough Wildlife Watchers spoke about how the Met Office confirmed there were 2,700 heat related deaths during the heatwaves in May and last month and urged the cabinet to make climate change a priority.
“Climate change is no longer about protecting nature, it is about protecting people,” she said.
“The Joint Intelligence Committee warns us that climate change is a threat to national security. If top intelligence and security experts believe climate change is a serious threat, then surely councils must take action to protect the people they represent.”
She continued: “Our council cannot solve climate change on its own but it can make choices that reduce pollution and help Nuneaton and Bedworth prepare for the future.”
Her speech received applause from the public gallery in the Town Hall last night (July 15) as did that of Elissa Noves, who is a mum of a young disabled boy, who cannot regulate his own body temperature which puts him at risk of heart issues and seizures.
“He attends a special school in Nuneaton, which like most of our infrastructure, is not set up to deal with hot weather,” she said.
“There is no air conditioning, there is no affective air cooling and the temperature in there is absolutely unbearable for those children who, bear in mind, are at increased risk of death if heat rises and they cannot regulate their temperature.
“Which leaves us as families in a really difficult situation because we either send our child to a school that could already be too hot or throughout the day become too hot or we keep them off and we have the then loss of education, the loss of income for families who have to lose work.
“I am a bit confused by the recommendation because a climate emergency declaration because a climate emergency declaration is just that, it just shows what this council’s priorities are, the priorities are to protect the health and safety of residents in this regard.
“Now that is not in exchange for practical action as one thing should feed into the other but the budget doesn’t seem to be there to do that, so I am very concerned about that.
“I would ask that we do take more practical action, I would absolutely would welcome that we do but we should also keep the declaration in place as a statement of priority that this council does really want to look after the health and well-being of its residents.”
Millions of pounds
Cllr Shane Coates-Jarman, who is the cabinet member for planning, enforcement and public services, said that, since December 4, 2019 when the emergency was declared, no fully-funded action plan had ever been created, nor were there any deliverable planned projects.
He said it created ‘unrealistic expectations for the council to be carbon neutral by the original 2030 plan, something that would cost millions.
“We are looking at figures of around £30m over the next four years,” he said.
“How can we put that onto our Council Tax for our people? And it would be front loaded so the significant part of that cost would be over the next two years, we can’t put this onto people when they can’t afford heating, they can’t afford to eat.
“I feel like this was just made up in the air really.”
Cllr Coates-Jarman said that the council could still meet the statutory 20250 carbon neutral plan without having a climate emergency declared by naturally replacing and upgrading equipment to the specified standard over the next 30 years.
But Labour leader, Cllr Brady Hughes, asked what measures are being put in now.
Green Party councillors continued to urge the cabinet not to scrap the climate change emergency declaration.
Cllr Keith Kondakor said: “We have an emergency, not saying it is an emergency doesn’t make it go away. If you are on the Titanic and you have a committee meeting, you cannot vote for the ship not to sink.
“We have to gradually, and we cannot do it in four years as we have done nothing for seven years, we cannot now do it in four years. But we have to stay in an emergency mode because whenever anything is changed, done or rebuilt, that may not be rebuilt or changed for 30 years.
“We need to change what we do and we need to do it now as this is serious. We need to keep the emergency (declaration).
“We are effectively in a rowing boat that is effectively leaking, there is no point in saying we won’t bail out for another 20 years, then we will bail out at the end, we need to be bailing the sinking rowing ship all of the time.
“Everything we do should bear in mind the climate emergency.”
Cllr Chris Watkins said that having the climate change emergency declaration in place has helped to secure funding in the past to make efficiency changes in the past and he ‘begged the cabinet to keep it in place.
‘Not climate change deniers’
Cllr Bannister responded saying: “Number one, we are in Nuneaton and Bedworth, we aren’t going to change the world.
“We aren’t climate change deniers, this has been going on for thousands and thousands and thousands of years and at the day, we can make environmental changes, we can do all of the things, if we have got the money, to make sure our homes (council homes) are fit for purpose in winter or in summer, we can deal with flood relief.
“We can do all of those things but we are not going to be able to change the position on the changing climate of this world.”
The deputy leader added: “All we are saying is we don’t want to spend money unnecessarily, we want to direct the money where you can see the results, not going down the Greta Thunberg route and frightening everyone that the world is coming to an end and we have to go around declaring climate emergencies as it makes us look awfully good.”
Cabinet members agreed with the proposal to rescind the council’s climate change emergency but the final decision will be made at a full council meeting.
The decision formed part of the Reform’s ‘100 day action plan’ after taking minority control at the Town Hall during the local elections in May.
It lays out its plans for the few months and you can read more about the other proposals by keeping an eye on CoventryLive.
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