Green leader calls plans to push back North unitary’s carbon targets by 20 years a ‘joke’
Reform UK’s scrutiny panel is chaired by one of its own councillors, who held the casting vote last night
By Sarah Ward
North Northamptonshire Council’s plan to push back its carbon elimination targets by two decades has been branded a joke by the authority’s Green Party leader.
The council’s environment scrutiny committee was presented with a report by senior officers last night to scrap its 2030 target and move it back to 2050.
After almost an hour of debate from mainly opposition councillors, a vote was tied with four Reform UK votes in favour of scrapping and four from opposition parties in favour of keeping the 2030 date. Committee chair Cllr Trevor Conway used his casting vote to follow the lead of his other Reform UK councillors and vote to scrap the current target.
The recommendation of the committee will go forward to the Reform UK cabinet next week and it is likely the authority will follow its West counterpart and push back the date to 2050.
Green Party group leader, Cllr Emily Fedorowycz questioned why the targets needed to be revised, when the report stated that the majority of actions were on track for the 2030 date.
She said:
“To move it by 20 years is a joke. The members of the public who will be watching what this council does will be very, very shocked to hear about this.”
And the two Conservatives on the committee Cllr Helen Howell and Cllr David Howes were equally scathing of the proposal. A proposal by Cllr Howell to defer a decision was defeated.
Cllr Howell asked why there was such a rush to scrap the targets and Cllr Howes said that if the proposal had been put forward in a corporate boardroom it would be viewed as a farce.
He said:
“It does not feel anymore that this is a priority and we are going to kick the can down the road. Nobody has got to do anything significant in the next few years.
“The elephant in the room is that this is no longer a priority.”
Labour’s Cllr David Baker was also unimpressed and said not enough detail was being given in the report for the committee to assess the matter properly.
The committee had considered a report written by the council’s sustainability manager Nicole Geary and the assistant director for assets and environment Jonathan Waterworth, with the four officers at the meeting all declaring that the current target was unachievable.
The council set the target in the months after its creation in 2021 and since then has set about mapping its carbon usage and setting out the ways to eradicate that by 2030. Projects so far have included new boilers for Corby’s swimming pool and also replacing the petrol powered tools of grounds maintenance staff with electric alternatives.
Head of economic growth and sustainability Ian Achurch said ‘funding is a genuine challenge’.
He said moving the dates back was a ‘pragmatic way forward’.
He said:
“It does not involve stopping the work because a lot of that work is delivering well and delivering savings.
“What it does propose is not to do everything at any cost and we will take a prudent approach. Where there is a strong business case and savings and we have the investment to deliver, but if not the case it is not to deliver at that time until it becomes a prudent investment.”
Jonathan Waterworth said the financial costs of eliminating all carbon from the council’s activities is unknown as it would depend on each scheme, with many not costed as yet. He said a lot of the schemes would take many years to implement. Currently 28 buildings will need a survey, which will cost around £8,000 each before any work is done.
Nicole Geary said the council would be paying around £800,000 a year after 2030 to offset its carbon, if it had not reduced the carbon by then and stuck with the original date.
Boss of the directorate George Candler also backed the new date and pushed back on the lack of data assertion, saying that was all that was available to the authority and councillors would need to wait another 12 months for updated figures.
The annual report says that the council produces just over 20,000 carbon tonnes each year, with almost a third from gas and electricity usage in council owned buildings, almost a quarter from waste disposal, water usage and staff travel and almost a fifth from the council’s transport and car fleet.
The plan was to reduce the annual carbon tonnage by 12.5 per cent each year, however in the most recent year just 79 tonnes was reduced. However, Cllr Baker pointed out dividing the targets in such a way was crude, given that in the first few years the work being done involved assessment and planning rather than carbon reduction activity.
In a statement given to NN Journal today Cllr Fedrowycz said:
“This proposal is reckless, unnecessary and a waste of public money. The council’s own reports show that 95% of actions are on track for 2030. Why would we tear up a plan that is working, spend more money we do not have, and delay urgent climate action?
“Changing the date risks costing our area millions in lost funding, investment and jobs. It puts local people at greater risk from flooding, heatwaves and energy price shocks. This is not sound decision-making, it is playing politics with our future.
“We need to stop fixating on moving the goalposts and instead get on with the work. There is no credible data to justify this change.
“And we must ask the serious question: is there a conflict of interest here? Reform receives significant funding linked to the fossil fuel industry. Are they making decisions in the interests of local residents and businesses, or in the interests of their donors?”
Read more on the party’s donors here.
After he was elected, the council’s Reform UK leader, Cllr Martin Griffiths said net zero targets were making people poorer and it was a global matter.
Did you know there is a full archive of all the stories we have published since 2021 on our website? Visit nnjournal.co.uk
It is appalling that NNC can so naively defer the Green and Environmental Targets set for 2030 until 2050.
Council Officers should be holding predominantly Reform’s Feet to the hot embers of climate change .
Previous Conservative Council Administrations , not only broke the financial budgets that the general public attempted to interpret, but challenged and questioned at a local level.
But they also broke the finances of Northamptonshire County Council.
The Environmental Document produced earlier this year by the Council Officers , was the best material to present to the ReformAdministration
Did they read it ?
Could they attempt to admit the other evening ,that the local communities speak most forcefully regarding Environmental matters.
Many were elected last May, without substance and evidence on environmental matters clearly portrayed in their County Manifesto .
Being so dismissive , and ‘passing the buck ‘ till 2050. They age like everyone else and won’t be sitting in 2050!!
There is a huge problem with flooding in Northamptonshire....and the problem is getting worse. Thus us definitely down to climate change. Who in the Council’s is going to tackle this head on. Enough bla, bla bla. What we need is action. Reform Councillors seem to think that cancelling projects which have been ongoing will saved them money
It will not reduce their £90 million deficit. 😤