Councillor ‘Uneasy’ About GBC Owning Garage Because of Effect on Climate

Published on: 23 Jun, 2019
Updated on: 27 Jun, 2019

Cllr James Steel

By Rebecca Curley

local democracy reporter

Cllr James Steel said he feels “uneasy” at Guildford Borough Council owning a petrol station because that affects the climate.

The Bellfields Service Station in Woking Road, let to Euro Garages Limited for 71 years from 1983, is among 159 properties in the council portfolio, which also includes a supermarket, nightclub, five restaurants and six shops.

The council also has two shopping centres, two barns and a theatre in its £161m investment property fund which generates more than £9.2 million a year in rent.

The nightclub is the Armour Buildings in Bridge Street, let to Stonegate Pub Company until 2030. It was bought in 2016 for £2.9m.

Cllr Steel, (Lib Dem, Westborough), lead member for leisure, told GBC’s executive meeting on Tuesday, June 18: “I feel a bit uneasy about us owning [a petrol station] because it contributes to the climate change emergency.”

Cllr Joss Bigmore

Cllr Joss Bigmore, lead member for finance and asset management, said: “I think it’s up to us how we define how we want to invest. We have an investment portfolio which covers a wide range of purchases.

“We are very cognisant that ethical investing is a new growth area and it’s up for us to decide how we want to rebalance the portfolio.

“I think to be fair to the petrol companies, most of them are investing quite a lot into electric infrastructure.”

He said there had to be value for the council to switch their purchases to more “ethically sound” investments.

Responses to Councillor ‘Uneasy’ About GBC Owning Garage Because of Effect on Climate

David Roberts Reply

June 23, 2019 at 11:32 am

Ethical investing is not a “new growth area”. It has been around for at least 30-40 years. I produced policies on this for 3i, the private equity company, from 2009-2015.

Well done Cllr Steel for raising the issue. GBC need a positive and coherent approach, not just a patchy blacklist of things that make them “uneasy”. I’m happy to offer free advice!
Aaron Fletcher Reply

June 23, 2019 at 11:39 am

I think there are a lot more things to feel uneasy about than the council owning one petrol station. I hope we have more constructive output from Cllr Steel.
Paul Bishop Reply

June 28, 2019 at 10:20 am

Does he also feel uneasy about the council owning internal combustion powered vehicles? Quite a short-sighted comment really.

A fuel station can still be used for different types of zero emissions re-fueling – hydrogen, electric charging etc. Maybe the council should be pushing to include more of this infrastructure in their properties to help drive a solution rather than just sell off the problem.
Martin Elliott Reply

June 28, 2019 at 12:35 pm

Perhaps Cllr Steel should impose a condition on all vehicle associated businesses operating in Slyfield Industrial Estate (owned by the council) that they only sell or work with zero emission vehicles.

A target of zero emissions is, maybe, laudable but even the current government, leading the way in Europe, has only a (very optimistic) target of 2050 for zero carbon dioxide emissions, not an immediate ban.

Bit of realism in the science and economics, please.