Kirklees Council axes its climate emergency declaration after lengthy debate
Kirklees Council has axed its climate emergency declaration, with just two votes separating members for and against.
The move was put forward in a motion by the Reform group and had been criticised by the Greens and Lib Dems in the lead up to the meeting, as well as the Kirklees Climate Commission.
Kirklees first declared a climate emergency in 2019 after a motion from Labour, Lib Dem, Green and Independent councillors was upheld.
The Reform motion to the meeting on October 21 proposed 13 actions in total, and now approved, will also call off the council’s target to reach net zero by 2038.
The motion seeks to prioritise “statutory services, affordable living, reliable infrastructure, local economic opportunity and practical environmental improvements with demonstrable benefits to residents”.
One action initially suggested was that the council’s environment and climate change scrutiny panel be scrapped. But the Tories put forward an amendment to block this.
Leader of the Council, Coun Sarah Wood, said that her group accepted their amendment and “welcome” scrutiny.
When introducing the amendment, Leader of Kirklees Conservatives, Coun John Taylor, said that “we all have a responsibility to leave the world in a better state for future generations”, in terms of both the environment and economy.
He said: “The real question is not whether we care about the environment. The question is whether the policies we adopt are practical, affordable and deliver tangible benefits for the people we represent.”
A debate on the matter took up much of the meeting. Leader of the Lib Dem Group, Coun Anthony Smith, said his group was in “strong opposition” to the motion.
He said: “This motion has been presented to the chamber under the guise of common sense and value for money but when you examine the details, it achieves neither.”
Coun Smith said that “precious” council time and taxpayer cash would be spent on a “massive ideological paper chasing exercise” to erase the word “climate” from council paperwork.
He described the approach to flood management as set out in the motion as “undoubtedly, a wait until you’re underwater policy”.
Responding to comments raised during the debate, Coun Wood said that there was “demonstrated clarity” that “a lot of people” in the chamber had either not read the detail of the motion or not thoroughly understood it.
She said: “In general, I think that what a lot of members of the council have done is they’ve failed to understand the central point of the motion, which is, this is just the start of the process, not the end.”
Coun Wood said the impact of the 2019 declaration has “penetrated quite deeply into the very fabric of the council” and given rise to more than 236 public documents.
She said: “When people have raised the administrative burden that is potentially placed on this council, I think we should look at the administrative burden that was actually placed on this council over the last seven years of rolling it out.”
The motion was ultimately carried with the Conservative amendment, with members of Reform and the Tories in favour. The vote was 32 in favour, 30 against, with the Lib Dems, Greens, Kirklees Independents, Valley Independent Group and other Independents in opposition.