More action on climate needed
As far as a significant majority of people within our community are concerned, the climate emergency and the need to find a solution to it are among the most pressing issues of the moment, if not the most pressing issue.
It is very disappointing, therefore, to note that, according to recent analysis carried out by the campaigning organisation Climate Emergency UK, Horsham District Council’s climate action plan scores well below the national average, achieving only a 30 per cent score against an average of 46 per cent for English councils.
Climate Emergency UK scored the action plans against a number of criteria, including how well councils’ plans would mitigate the impact of climate change locally, whether climate and ecological emergency was integrated into existing policies, community engagement and commitments to tackle the ecological emergency.
Annie Pickering, Climate Emergency UK’s campaign and policy officer, said in response to the results of the analysis: “Local authorities can help to deliver 30 per cent of the cuts in carbon emissions needed to get to net zero, according to the sixth UK Carbon Budget published a year ago, so it is vital that councils do as much as they can…While we understand that councils need much more support and funding from the national government, and have been stretched by responding to the pandemic, the fact that some councils have developed well thought out, costed and ambitious plans, shows that it is possible.”
Surely it is incumbent on Horsham District Council to respond to the concerns of the district’s residents and strive to be amongst those councils which have developed well thought out, costed and ambitious plans, but it is clear from the analysis that this is an area in which the council it is clearly failing.
On behalf of all those worried about the future of our planet, we call on the council to take urgent action to improve their rating.
KEVIN O’ SULLIVAN Horsham Labour Party candidate in the Denne byelection, Mill Bay Lane, Horsham