CONSERVATIVES BLOCK LIB DEMS CLIMATE CHANGE PLAN

The Conservative controlled Bromsgrove District Council voted down Lib Dem calls for funding to tackle climate change on Wednesday (26.03.20).

Lib Dem Councillor for Norton, Rob Hunter proposed a critical amendment to Bromsgrove District Council's annual budget requesting that the council's £170,000 reserves of unused money be utilised to tackle the climate emergency by permitting the council's climate change working group to allocate this funding, instead of the fund going into general reserves.

The Conservatives voted unanimously against Councillor Hunter's proposal.

Councillor Hunter expressed disappointment at the Conservatives' actions stating "we already have over £4 million in reserves, I cannot understand why the Conservatives wouldn't get behind this plan. Yes we need to safeguard our council's finances for the future but we also need to act urgently to protect the future of our planet. Bromsgrove must play it's part. This was only a modest investment that was easily affordable within the council's budget""

The council's climate change working group was formed in late 2019 after Lib Dem Councillor for Central Siobhan Hughes' motion calling on the council to declare a climate emergency and form a working group achieved unanimous cross party support.

However the group has only met 3 times since then and it has no budget.

Councillor Hughes stated she was frustrated with the lack of action the working group had achieved and was disappointed in the Conservatives for their lack of urgency in their response to climate change.

Councillor Hughes expressed "When we declared a climate emergency, I was pleased and optimistic that the council I had just been elected to had decided to take seriously the most important issue of the day. Since then the climate action working group has met only three times and has made no decisions on how to make our district carbon neutral.

This amendment would have seen money that is being put aside for the future instead be invested in saving our future. I hope the Conservatives on the council will go home after this meeting and realise what an opportunity they are missing."

Councillors in the Bromsgrove Alliance and Labour Group also supported the Liberal Democrat amendment but it failed to pass when the Conservatives opposed it.