Peterborough’s climate emergency priorities

But ambition is needed, as scientists tell us that climate change is an urgent issue and that we may have only 10 or 12 years to avoid irreversible changes in the global climate. We are already seeing floods in south east Asia and wild fires in Australia. The impact in the UK has been less severe, but spells of very hot weather in summer and storms and floods in winter are becoming more frequent, and more severe.

The City Council’s Tory cabinet were asked to produce a carbon action plan by 31 March 2020 to start delivering on the target of getting to zero carbon by 2030. The plan has just been published, but it is deeply disappointing.

There is little in the plan on farming or food production. It is estimated that around 20 per cent of the UK’s carbon emissions come from transport, yet Peterborough’s plan has no proposals other than to lease an electric car for the Mayor. No commitment to reverse the 50 per cent reduction in public transport subsidy imposed by our Tory Council in 2012 and no commitment to change the current massive bias in transport funding towards road widening and duelling schemes.

Many councils across the country are proposing massive increases in tree planting, as trees can remove carbon from the atmosphere and hence help to reduce global climate change. Norfolk Council is proposing to plant 1 million trees over five years, for example. Cambridgeshire is aiming to have large scale tree planting on its farm estate. So what does Peterborough propose? “A 10 per cent increase in tree canopy cover within the next 10 years, equivalent to 4,126 trees”. That is just over 400 trees each year for 10 years. It is utterly pathetic, and its impact will be minimal.

The plan puts a lot of emphasis on the installation of LED street lights by the council, and the fact that they are now dimming them by 20 per cent. Sounds great, until you walk round many of Peterborough’s housing estates (Paston, Bretton, Ravenshorpe etc) and see the lights which have been left burning 24 hours a day, seven days a week. And then I could show you the Town Hall, where big searchlights in the foyer area are left burning 24/7 and the heating left on all weekend.....and that’s after the council has just spent £2.7 million refurbishing the said Town Hall.

The council’s waste incinerator emits massive amounts of CO2, yet that is not even mentioned in the Carbon Management Plan. I could go on with examples, but I think you may get the point.

So what would Lib Dems propose instead?

We asked our local members, and here are some of the suggestions they came up with:

l New housing development to be more pedestrian and cycle friendly.

l All buses (see photo) and taxis to be electric in the city by 2025.

l All new council funded homes to be carbon neutral .

l Use parking levies to fund better public transport .

l Introduce a rapid transit system (eg trams) .

You can argue about the priorities, but our message to our Tory Council leaders must be that they have to do much better than their current plan.

And above all, the Council’s budget needs to be refocused onto activities that will support transition to a lower carbon economy.