North Yorkshire Council dismisses appeals to strengthen climate change oversight
The authority has pledged to put consideration of environmental issues at the heart and soul of everything it does
The leadership of a local authority which has been told it is lagging behind in tackling the climate change and biodiversity crises has pledged to put consideration of the environmental issues at the heart and soul of everything it does.
As North Yorkshire County Council’s Conservative-run executive rejected appeals by Green and Liberal Democrat councillors to bolster oversight and leadership over the key issues, it emerged measures such as introducing a dedicated climate change committee to scrutinise the authority’s efforts could cost the taxpayer up to £120,000 annually.
The council’s deputy leader Councillor Gareth Dadd said given the financial pressures facing the authority, it needed to save every penny it could.
The decision to dismiss two environmental notices of motion put forward by opposition councillors in July follows mounting pressure for it to redouble its climate change and biodiversity efforts and allow opposition councillors to play a greater role in shaping such policies.
Both of the motions proposed the establishment of a new committee specifically to scrutinise the council’s progress and leadership in tackling climate change and establishing biodiversity plans to ensure oversight of the collective ambition of the council.
Liberal Democrat councillor Steve Mason said there were gaps and question marks all over what the council was doing to cut emissions and that the authority needed positively engage in the local community to show leadership over climate change and biodiversity.
He said: “Other councils have set up these committees and are leading the way and are way ahead of where we are. We have got a good plan, I have to say I’m impressed with the plan. I thik there’s lots of gaps. I think if we showed the right leadership within the community we could take the lead nationally.”
Green Party councillor David Noland said the council’s scrutiny committees were already busy and would not have the same time or expertise that a forum dedicated forum on the issues could offer.
Executive member Councillor Greg White, whose brief includes climate change, told the meeting the subject was “too important” to have a dedicated scrutiny committee and that it was by addressing each council department, where most money was spent, that the biggest differences could be made.
He defended the council’s relatively low ranking in some environmental league tables, saying it was partly because the coucil had made “a conscious decision not to be very early adopters of uproven technology”.
Coun White said the council’s existing scrutiny committees were the best place to “reinforce over and over again” the importance of climate change and biodiversity issues.
He said: “The risk of having a separate committee is that we put it into a silo.
“People who are interested talk about it and it gets left on the side. I much prefer that all those people who are very interested – and I have to say a lot of councillors are very interested in reducing our carbon emissions – they should be making those cases in the existing overview and scrutiny committees.”
He added creating a working party to develop policies would divert conversation away from where it needed to be.
The authority’s leader, Councillor Carl Les, added due to the council’s constitution limiting the size of the executive, there would be no space for someone solely looking at climate change.