Letter: Local Conservatives Need to Agree Their Policy on Climate Change

Published on: 22 Apr, 2019
Updated on: 22 Apr, 2019

From Fiona White

Lib Dem County Councillor for Guildford West and candidate for Westborough in the borough council elections to be held on May 2.

I was intrigued to see Council Leader Paul Spooner’s response to the article Opinion: For A Green Councillor Vote Liberal Democrat supporting the Lib Dems stance on Climate Change.

It came in the wake of the Conservative’s response to a climate change motion put forward at Surrey County Council by the Green Party councillor, and seconded by me on behalf of the Lib Dems, as follows:

“Full Council believes that Surrey County Council and all governments (national, regional and local) have a duty to limit the negative impacts of climate breakdown, and local governments that recognise this should not wait for their national governments to change their policies.

“It is important for the residents of Surrey to commit to carbon neutrality as quickly as possible. Bold climate action can deliver economic benefits to Surrey in terms of valuable new jobs, essential economic savings and much needed market opportunities (as well as improved well-being for people worldwide).

“Full Council is to:

Declare a ‘Climate Emergency’ in Surrey;
Pledge to make Surrey carbon neutral by 2030, and strive to work
with Surrey’s borough and district Councils in taking a leadership role, taking into account both production and consumption emissions;
Call on the government to provide the powers and resources to make the 2030 target possible;
Report to county council within six months with the actions the council will take to address this.”

The response of the Conservatives at Surrey, including members of Paul Spooner’s borough Executive, was to put forward an amendment, seconded by Cllr Graham Ellwood (Con, Guildford East), that ripped the heart out of the original motion. Details of the amendment and the debate, together with the recorded vote are on the Surrey website.

It looks as though the Conservatives need to have a conversation with themselves

Responses to Letter: Local Conservatives Need to Agree Their Policy on Climate Change

Keith Kerr Reply

April 23, 2019 at 9:11 am

In 2015 I voted Conservative because they promised that all new buildings would be carbon neutral by 2016. They broke that promise in a big way and they are still willfully building on the countryside. They are not replacing the desperately needed council homes that they sold off at the taxpayers’ expense and any new homes being built now are still not carbon neutral.
They are responsible for closing many council recycling depot’s.
They are responsible for cutting support for Surrey Wildlife Trust.
They are responsible for imposing parking charges for people that want to enjoy our healthy countryside.