South Hams councillors reject calls to spend reserved climate change funds
As part of the 2019/20 budget, South Hams District Council set aside ÂŁ400,000 to implement its climate change proposals that were emerging in its Action Plan.
Last updated 28th Sep 2020
Councillors have rejected calls for urgent steps to be taken to put in place plans for spending ÂŁ400,000 that was set aside earlier this year for addressing the Climate Change and Biodiversity Emergency.
At last Thursday’s full council meeting, Cllr John Birch, during discussions on an update on the Climate Change and Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan, proposed that expenditure proposals be put before the next Full Council meeting to bring a sense of urgency to tackling Climate Change in South Hams.
But the amendment was rejected by 17 votes to 13, with councillors having already in the meeting, as part of the emergency budget they had to agreed to tackle the ÂŁ1.3m deficit they are facing, to put all unallocated reserves under review.
They did agree though that the the Climate Change and Biodiversity Working Group be requested to compile the first version of the Strategy and Action Plan to bring back for adoption at the Council meeting in December.
Lib Dem Cllr Birch, in putting forward his proposal, expressed concern at the lack of action being taken by the Council in coming forward with Climate Change projects.
“The public welcomed the Council declaring a Climate and Biodiversity Emergency last year and were heartened by the subsequent allocation of £400,000 for Climate Change projects. The fact that the Council had not brought forward plans for its expenditure gave the impression it was rowing back on its commitment,” he said.
“This is most disappointing and it now looks that climate change is slipping down the priority list at SHDC and certainly devalues and makes a mockery of the climate emergency declared by the Council in July 2019.”
Cllr Joseph Rose added: “It is appalling that the £400,000 is under review and I am worried about the lack of prioritization here. We are not treating like this as the emergency we declared.
“If we won’t put our money where our mouth is, then we are treating it like a joke. This is the most important thing – and if we don’t take a big step on what we are doing – we are signing the death certificate of our children.”
Cllr Keith Baldry added that the council was turning into a talking shop when they need to get on and do something, while Cllr Denise O’Callaghan said that the budget of £400,000 for practical projects to help the local environment had caught people’s imaginations and that she really hoped this money will be restored as not doing so will send out a terrible message about our priorities at a time of climate and biodiversity emergency.
But Cllr Judy Pearce, leader of the council, said that the decision to not allocate the money didn’t mean it wouldn’t be spent.
She said: “We have already passed the budget earlier in the day, so we cannot accept this. We have to set a balanced budget in February and we have no idea what will come and hit us between now and then.
“But this doesn’t stop us talking, hearing back people from people about what they want to do, and as soon as we know the reserve is there, we can start allocating money to us and others. The £400,000 will have to last awhile and be spent wisely. Let us see what we need to set a balanced budget, and so we can go at this cautiously, but lets us go at it.”
Cllr Daniel Brown added that there was a lot that the council had already done to fight climate change locally.