Paradise lost
A bold and ambitious climate change policy at Mendip Council is destined to die with it on 1 April. What did they achieve? What will be the legacy they pass on to the new unitary council?
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Paradise Lost
Along with many other councils, in February 2019 Mendip District Council (MDC) declared a climate emergency. They resolved to work towards a target of becoming carbon neutral by 2030. Councils across England approached this in one of two ways. The majority preferred to have a target to make their own activities carbon neutral by 2030.
However MDC went for something much bolder, much braver. To try and ensure the whole district would be carbon neutral by 2030. The difficulty of this task being that they would have to influence behaviour of organisations other than their own.
MDC was not completely powerless of course. After all it is a planning authority, it could ask developers to adhere to carbon neutral standards. That would be open to challenge and appeal – but a brave council could have done that. In the end MDC was not quite that brave.
There were other less controversial things MDC could do. For instance it could run projects to provide charging points for electric vehicles and provide retrofitting for houses to make them better insulated and more energy efficient. And of course it could plant trees. These were things MDC did have a go at doing.
First things first though. The council started with a statement of intent. By creating a new cabinet level portfolio holder for Strategic Policy and Climate Change. Tom Ronan, councillor for Wells St Thomas was given the portfolio.