Councillor says to ‘judge on actions’

Royal Borough: Authority defended after ranking ‘below average’

A councillor has urged residents to judge the Royal Borough on its actions after the council finished below average on a list ranking each local authority’s climate action plans.

Councillor Donna Stimson (Con, St Mary’s), lead member for sustainability, added that the borough has only recently increased its small team who are tasked with tackling the global emergency.

Green group Climate Emergency UK listed each council’s climate strategy’s based on a series of different criteria, including emissions targets and funding, with the Royal Borough finishing with a total score of 48 per cent.

Wokingham Borough Council (WBC) finished high on the list with a score of 79 per cent, but Buckinghamshire Council ended up with a total score of 35 per cent. An average score is 50 per cent.

Dave Scarbrough, founder of the independent RBWM Climate Community group, thinks the Royal Borough should be learning from Wokingham.

He added that the borough’s Environment

and Climate Strategy, which was adopted in December, needs to be more ‘joined up’ and questioned the level of funding dedicated to the issue.

The Royal Borough has also agreed to establish a ‘climate partnership’ which will bring together organisations to oversee the delivery of the strategy.

“It is a bit disappointing. With Wokingham being so close and of a similar size you would expect that they would have been talking to each other,” Dave said.

“The good thing is that the budget did have some money put towards the first three years of the climate partnership, but it had no other reference whatsoever to the climate.

“It [the strategy] needs to be more joined up.”

Dave added: “They are doing things – but they have got very little money and few staff and are trying to address a huge emergency. “Every councillor and officer needs to put it at the top of their thoughts in anything they do.”

Cllr Stimson defended the borough’s position and called for the council to be judged on its actions, including planting thousands of trees and lobbying central Government for cash to make housing more sustainable.

“These are things that we have just gone ahead and done,” Cllr Stimson said. “This [position] is exactly where I thought it would be.

“A lot has happened and with the partnership on top, we will have a much more focused and active team. Judge us not on our plans, but our actions.”

Buckinghamshire Council said in a statement that it is ‘certain’ its strategy ‘will see us reach our target of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050’.

A £5million ‘Climate Change Fund’ has also been set aside to tackle the crisis, while £8million has also been secured externally, it added.

WBC called its ranking an ‘amazing result’ for the borough, adding: “We have some extra work to do in places, but this is great, impartial feedback of the work we have done to date.”