Kirklees Elections 2022 - Why Kirklees Labour need to lose.

 

Save Kirklees Trees Campaigners

We are heading into another round of Kirklees Elections. In theory it's a Council with a minority Labour Administration but effectively has a majority due to the support of a former Labour Councillor who is now an Independent, frequent absences by some non Labour Councillors and an opposition with differing priorities.

Labour have been a shambles on Kirklees Council. The evidence is plentiful. The debacle over the Council breaking it's promise to host the National Rugby League Museum in The George Hotel, the A629 road widening project which will see the felling of 126 trees on an iconic entrance way to Huddersfield, Labour Councillors backing the building of a modern hotel on Castle Hill, the site of an Iron Age hill fort and the Leader of the Council proclaiming he had encouraged the environmentally disastrous Amazon Warehouse development near Cleckheaton then denying later he had any view on the planning application. Leadership on Kirklees Council has been sadly lacking and the Labour Group seem unable or unwilling to address the problem.

On Climate Change, Labour in Kirklees are a pretty average Council but talk as if they are national leaders. They just aren't. Climate Emergency UK who independently assess councils responses to Climate Change gave Kirklees a humiliating 0% due to their lack of a Climate Action Plan to address the problem. This was confirmed this week when a report by the University of Leeds identified the lack of a Climate Action Plan. As the report is published on the Council's website  and has the support of the Kirklees Climate Commission it is pretty clear it's accepted by Kirklees. The fact is that many other Councils have got Climate Action Plans and have done much more than Kirklees on Climate Change.

The Labour Administration of course wouldn't accept they are poor and would point to some of their activity which you will find on the Kirklees Website. One such example is the pilot project retrofitting 8 council properties on Abbey Road in Fartown. Labour Cabinet members trooped up there for a photocall with Labour Leader Keir Starmer. It looks like some good work has been carried out there but it is a one off pilot project with no plan to be replicated and no funds to do it again. In the Green Group Budget Amendment we proposed using the Energiesprong approach used by among others Nottingham City Council. With no funding coming from central Govt this offered a self funding and economically sustainable model. Labour rejected it.  There are other examples 6 years on from the All Party Passivhaus report that recommended making the Passivhaus Standard the norm for Kirklees new build housing projects, Labour are finally doing a 6 house pilot project. We have no idea really what will be learned from the pilot that can't be gleaned from just asking more forward thinking Councils like Exeter City Council that started on the Passivhaus approach 15 years ago. It is another example of timidity and tokenism when we need real leadership.

So the possibility of a Labour Council with a majority doesn't exactly fill me with hope and joy just potential disappointment. Don't get me wrong there are plenty of good people in the Labour Party and I would much rather have a Labour Party that I could work with than what we have in Kirklees at present. So on May 5th vote Green, elect more Green Councillors and let's play our proper part in tackling climate change and the cost of living crisis.