Budget cut sparks fear over council’s pledge to tackle climate change
Plans to cut sustainaibility budgets by £200,000 have sparked questions over Shire Hall chiefs’ commitment in tackling climate change.
Gloucestershire County Council, which has a carbon footprint equivalent to 400 tonnes of CO2 a year, has an action plan to reduce emissions and reach net zero by 2030.
Net zero means achieving a balance between the greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere and those removed from it.
But Green Party councillors have questioned how a budget cut of £200,000 to sustainability budgets will help achieve that target with 2030 just four years away.
The council’s budget proposals for 2026/27 were debated at the corporate overview and scrutiny committee on January 7.
Councillor Chloe Turner (Minchinhampton) said she recognised the financial constraints the council is operating in but took issue with the suggestion the Liberal Democrat’s proposed budget for Shire Hall was “green”.
She said the nature, climate and waste reduction portfolio should be funded better.
“I slightly take issue with this being a ‘green’ budget,” she said. “I feel that Martin’s Horwood portfolio has not been adequately supported financially.
“A number of places where that would be the case in terms of £445,000 over four years to support what sounds like the whole of the climate adaptation work of this council.
“Use of sustainability budgets £200,000 and the narrative says ‘support climate action plan through project delivery’. But actually it is a £200,000 saving, isn’t it? So it’s a cut.
“We are four years away from 2030 now, what do these kind of cuts mean in practice for the climate and nature team?
“And how does that align with the council’s commitment to addressing both the climate and ecological emergency?”
Cllr Horwood (LD, Leckhampton and Warden Hill) said overall their environmental spending is going up and the council will be spending more on ecology and promoting initiatives such as sustainable urban drainage systems tree and hedgerow maintenance.
“You are right to identify one budget that is going down, but others are going up,” the Liberal Democrat said.
“Overall there is a direct increase.”
He said the responsibility for tackling climate change is for the whole council.
“If we do get £15m onto roads, that helps public transport, it helps cyclists as well,” he said.
Cllr Horwood also explained that a lot of work has been done in reducing emissions linked to the council’s buildings by moving to renewable energy sources.
However, he said 90 per cent of the council’s carbon footprint is from suppliers and contractors.
“If we hadn’t been addressing that we would have been ignoring most of the impact this council has on the environment,” he said.
He explained a group has been set up to look at monitoring the carbon emissions of the council’s suppliers and contractors and to find ways of encouraging them to take action to reduce emissions.