Plans to tackle climate change in Scarborough Borough underway
The Council's been responding to claims it has done 'absolutely nothing' to tackle the issue
Scarborough Borough Council says it does have targets on measures to tackle climate change two years after declaring an emergency.
It has been responding to claims made last week by Scarborough and Whitby MP, Robert Goodwill, who says the authority has done 'absolutely nothing' in that time.
He was asked to support a Climate and Ecological Emergency Private Members' Bill, proposed by Green Party MP Caroline Lucas, and he says he is NOT going to.
Scarborough Borough Councillor Michelle Donohue-Moncrieff, cabinet member for environment and sustainability, said:
"We have to have a debate with the average person on the street. We have to make this the transition to low carbon work for the average person because most people have limited means. They cannot just afford to go out and buy many of the technologies. Many people in the borough could not buy an electric car.
"It's down to politicians to ask the questions 'where is the funding? How are we going to fund this? Do we need more research and development? Does the Government need to step in and fund some of that research and development so that we can bring forward a lot of these technologies. So it's not about what we're doing, the question is what is Robert Goodwill's Government doing first?'
"We've got a body of work now which is well advanced on putting more electric charging points into our car parks and we are looking at how we believe we can get 75 percent funding, so we need to look at how we do the rest and how we can make that work. Ryedale have done a similiar scheme so I'm pretty determined and confident that we can come up with something that's across the borough.
"The argument that we are not doing very much is simply not correct and it's quite concerning that he seems to think that. Now in all the time that I've been in office in this role, I've not once had a conversation or any queries by Robert Goodwill or his office about what the Council is doing to implement this agenda.
"My door is open. I'm happy to speak with him and we've got bids in for the community renewal fund that we've done with North Yorkshire County Council at the moment that's gone to Government. I'd love to sit down and talk to him about how we make sure we get some of those bids across the line.
"There's a draft idea around an electric shuttle bus from the Railway Station to go around Scarborough and the seafront. I'd love to work with him on that but we need help from people that actually have a voice in Westminster to sometimes get these schemes across the line."
You can read the authority's Climate Change Strategy here.