Council invests in cutting emissions
Authority pledges £1m to go carbon neutral
Maidstone Borough Council (MBC) is investing £1 million to tackle climate change.
The money will be used to help the authority reach its goal of making the area carbon neutral by 2030.
A cross-party biodiversity and climate change working group, set up by MBC to review pollution in the town, was tasked with producing an action plan to combat the issue.
It will be given £1m of capital expenditure to implement it. Details of the proposal, including which initiatives the money will be spent on, are being developed and will be presented to the policy and resources committee in April. The working group is in the process of gathering information about emissions from council activities including its buildings and vehicles.
It has also sought the views of young people, residents and landowners on ways to restore lost biodiversity and address the unfolding climate emergency. The information collected will be used to create the plan, which aims to reduce net emissions to zero by 2030.
Cllr Martin Cox, leader of MBC, said: “In April 2019 we declared twin emergencies in biodiversity and climate change and this funding demonstrates our commitment towards tackling this national emergency. “This funding will make a huge difference. It is our small contribution to fighting climate change globally.”
MBC declared a climate emergency in April 2018, the first council in Kent to do so. It came after Friends of Earth found Upper Stone Street generates the fifth highest level of pollution in the UK, outside London.