Peterborough climate change meetings to be held in public

The cross-party city council group was established to provide recommendations to the Conservative Cabinet following the declaration of a climate emergency which committed the authority to become carbon neutral by 2030.

The group has helped produce an action plan for the council, but all of its meetings have been held in private.

However, in March the council voted to require evidence gathering sessions of working group meetings to be held in public, unless the subject matter is “sensitive in nature”.

According to a new report which will be considered by the Cabinet next week, the climate change working group “agreed that its terms of reference should reflect this”.

The proposed change, which is expected to be rubber stamped on Monday, states: “Working group meetings will be held in private, with the exception of evidence gathering sessions with key witnesses, which the public will be invited to observe, unless the subject matter is considered to be of a sensitive nature, in which case it may not be possible to hold the evidence gathering session in public.

“Any report to the Cabinet or a Cabinet member will be published on the website (once such matters arising are agreed by the chair as an accurate record).”

The working group has no fixed end date and will be drawn to a close if agreed by the Cabinet or Full Council