Climate Emergency - Will Kirklees take it seriously?

Speaking at the Climate Strike demo in Huddersfield

At last weeks Kirklees Full Council meeting I attempted to submit a Green Party motion on the £100 million of regional funding from West Yorkshire Combined Authority that is being used to support the expansion of Leeds Bradford Airport. The Combined Authority is Labour Controlled and Kirklees Labour Leader Shabir Pandor sits on the Authority. There is a clear conflict with the statements by Leaders supposedly supporting the calls for a Climate Emergency. In the meeting I requested that a Green Party motion that was the first motion on the agenda be substituted for our motion on Leeds Bradford Airport that was much later on the agenda. I made the point that we have declared a climate emergency and as such this was an important issue that we ought to debate and as we were simply substituting one Green motion for another there was no detriment. The Labour Party Councillors voted down this change in the agenda. They clearly did not want to debate it. In the end no motions were debated at all as Council was guillotined at 9.00pm.

This has been the month when millions of children and adults from around the world have been demonstrating to show the need for urgent action given our deteriorating climate. Only days ago Greta Thunberg in the United Nations has berated those politicians who have failed to act in the face of undeniable evidence from climate scientists saying that the need for action is urgently required.  Commendably Leeds City Region has stated how it aims to be carbon neutral by 2038 however a study by researchers at the University of Leeds has shown that Leeds City Region Carbon Targets could be blown completely by Leeds Bradford Airports expansion plans.

My reading matter this week.

In the next few weeks Kirklees Climate Emergency Working Party, of which I am a member, will be reporting on its recommendations for action by the Kirklees Labour Cabinet. We have heard a lot of evidence from Council officers and some input from relevant local businesses. I hope the recommendations from the Working Party will be challenging but realistic. Of course realistic can be radical, realistic can be cutting edge and realistic can be pioneering but it requires political will and being prepared to take risks. Mediocrity on climate action is not acceptable and is completely ineffective.  I have been concerned to hear leading Labour politicians talking of being ‘realistic’ when what they really mean is doing the bare minimum. I feel that the voices of the Labour Old Guard hold sway. Those who at worst don’t really understand the threat of climate change and at best don’t recognise the opportunities we have to make significant change. A change that could really show the way for other  Local Authorities across the country.  If we are led by dinosaurs we will simply go the way of the dinosaurs.

Hearing the Labour Cabinet Member with responsibility for Climate Change speak at the Climate Strike Demonstration in St Georges Square on Friday claiming, hopefully through ignorance, that we were the first Council in the country to declare a climate emergency was particularly concerning. We were actually about the hundredth in the UK. We weren’t even the first in Yorkshire. It’s not that it was Green Councillors who successfully proposed the first climate emergencies that concerns me ( in Bristol, Nationally and Scarborough, Regionally) but that Kirklees Leaders have such a lack of self awareness as a Council that we don’t  recognise that we are no longer one of the Leading Authorities on action on Climate Change. There’s no shame in that if we have positive plans to improve but not recognising reality is not a good place to start from.

There is an urgent need for politicians in Kirklees to ‘step up’ and provide a radical and inspiring plan showing how we can be local leaders on climate action and not simply take the easy path that is destined to achieve very little. I remain hopeful and I will do my best to advise Kirklees on what action it should take but I believe that perhaps the most useful thing would be to play Greta Thunberg’s speech to the United Nations before the next Kirklees Full Council meeting. That should help focus Councillors minds.

An open letter regarding investment in Leeds Bradford Airport to members of the Leeds City Region Board from Green Party Councillors in the Region

An open letter regarding investment in Leeds Bradford Airport to members of the Leeds City Board from Green Party Councillors in the region

You will of course be aware that only a few weeks ago Leeds City Region and its constituent Councils declared a Climate Emergency in response to the stark warnings on the threat of climate change from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the fact that we have a limited amount of time to bring our emissions under control.

Proposals to invest public money in transport links to Leeds Bradford Airport are aimed at supporting its expansion plans which can only mean more flights and more carbon emissions making our chances of hitting our net zero carbon emissions target by 2038 remote if not impossible.

A study by academics at Leeds University has shown how support for the expansion of Leeds Bradford Airport is incompatible with our declaration of a climate emergency. This contradiction needs to be addressed.

As Green Party Councillors in the Leeds City Region we are calling on you to oppose the use of public funds to improve transport links to Leeds Bradford airport and for that funding to be reinvested in projects that will significantly reduce carbon emissions.

I am sure you will agree with us that declaring a climate emergency and then making no changes to those actions which are in conflict with that policy makes no sense.

Cllr Andrew Cooper - Kirklees Council
Cllr Karen Allison - Kirklees Council
Cllr Sue Lee-Richards - Kirklees Council

Cllr Ann Blackburn - Leeds City Council
Cllr Ann Forsaith - Leeds City Council
Cllr David Blackburn - Leeds City Council

Cllr Martin Love - Bradford City Council
Cllr Kevin Warnes - Bradford City Council

Cllr Andy Brown - Craven District Coumcil
Cllr David Noland : Craven District Council

Cllr Andy D'Agorne - York City Council
Cllr Denise Craghill - York City Council
Cllr Dave Taylor - York City Council
Cllr Rosie Baker - York City Council

Holiday house book review - The Ladybird Book - The Story of Plastics

There's been a bit of a fad in the last few years for spoof Ladybird books such as the Ladybird book of  'The Mother' 'The Student' etc so imagine my delight to find some on the bookshelves in the holiday house we stayed in in Scotland.

They were actually not spoof books but the real thing that with hindsight were  grimly amusing.

Given the impact of Blue Planet showing how plastics have polluted our oceans and caused umtold damage to our marine ecosystems The one that caught my eye was the Ladybird book of ' Plastics' published in 1972. I laughed out loud when I saw the page on 'before plastics and they had a picture of stone age cave dwellers, as if the whole of history was completely primitive before the age

of plastic.

The whole book is completely uncritical as you would expect from an educational book aimed at children just before the dawn of the Green Movement in the UK and probably written by the industry itself. What really did strike me was what innocent times those were. Our actions had no perceived consequences. We don't have that excuse anymore.

Climate Change? No problem let's move to Havering!

As sea levels rise, heatwaves ravage the populations of our cities and crop failures leave millions facing starvation what are we to do? We are told by Climate Scientists after years of peer reviewed science that climate change will affect us all but fortunately they are rather surprisingly wrong, in Havering at least!

Now I'm no climate change denier as a general rule but the good Councillors of the London Borough of Havering when presented with a motion at a Council meeting in July asking them to 'Declare a Climate Emergency' voted against it. It would be uncharitable to suggest they ignored the scientific evidence, that they valued their own opinions, or that of some bloke in a pub, more than that of climate scientists so all I can assume is that the London Borough of Havering has a very resilient micro climate or a protective shield which maintains a stable environment. That's not all of course their economy must also be independent of all the same influences that those of us unfortunates on the rest of the planet who are actually affected by a climate emergency have to put up with.

The London Borough of Havering is a truly blessed place. So when our homes and streets are inundated, when extreme weather conditions make large parts of the world uninhabitable then the London Borough of Havering is the place to go to. I am sure that was what the Councillors who opposed the Climate Emergency meant. They want Havering to be a beacon for climate refugees. Perhaps they could build a 'Statue of Climate Liberty' saying beneath it " Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses your yearning masses". What a good spirited bunch are the Councillors who opposed the Climate Emergency motion are and what were those Havering Councillors who proposed the motion thinking of?

Sounds from Number 76

I did a couple of compilations of varied music that I liked about 10 years or so ago. I found one of  the CDs yesterday so I thought I'd put them all in a blogpost. Harder to lose! Harder to scratch. This obviously comes under the "and also anything else I fancy talking about" part of my Blog description.
 It's pretty varied from 17th century choral music to the Dead Kennedy's but I think it hangs together OK. It finishes off with 'That's Entertainment' by The Jam. I've mentioned to a number of people that I'd like it played at my funeral. So if you happen to be there and they don't play it then please feel free to complain on my behalf.

Enjoy or not!

Kingfisher Court will not be a new Grenfell Tower

Today I and my 2 Newsome Cllr colleagues Sue Lee-Richards and Karen Allison were on the scene as officers from Kirklees Council and West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service entered  Kingfisher Court, on Manchester Rd in Huddersfield to issue a notice making it illegal for the flats there to be used overnight as sleeping accommodation due to non-compliance with fire safety elements of the building regulations.

Kingfisher Court is supposed to be student accommodation  and during the summer it is generally overseas students who are still in residence which has limited to an extent the number of people disrupted but it was good to see Kirklees staff on hand to help those people who would have nowhere safe to stay that evening. The people managing the blocks now need to rectify the problems identified so Kingfisher Court can be a safe place for people to live in.

The relatively new buildings have had a troubled history with some of the student flats appearing as places to stay on Air BnB in contravention of their student status and therefore eligible for Council Tax. There was also some speculation that those rooms may have been used for purposes other than simple overnight stays.

So how do we end up with a situation where new buildings end up in contravention of fire regulations? Building Regulations in the UK are privatised. Developers don't have to use the Council's diminished Building Control function. Instead they can get a private contractor to carry out this work who they pay, who may cut corners and not be as stringent on compliance with the rules as they should be. It looks highly possible that this is what has occurred in this case, So with all that been revealed in the Grenfell Enquiry has anything meaningful being done to change the Building Control system? Last years amemdments to Building Regulations certainly tightened things up but in my view Building Control should be re-regulated brought back into the public sector and be properly resourced to ensure safety for residents and strict compliance with Building Regulations. The private sector should never override the public interest ever again.

Local Government Association - Climate Emergency Task and Finish Group - some thoughts

A few weeks ago the Local Government Association (LGA) declared a Climate Emergency following on from over a 100 Councils doing so, from around the country, in response to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report saying we have only 12 years (now 11 years!) to stabilise emissions to a level which can achieve the Paris Climate Goals agreed at COP21. As part of this declaration the LGA established a Climate Emergency Task and Finish group to examine the issues and make recommendations. I am one of five Councillors from around the UK on this group. 

Here's some thoughts in advance about some of the the recommendations we could make

• establish a National Climate Taskforce including Ministry of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, Ministry of Communities, Housing & Local Government and the Local Government Association representatives to drive action on climate change at the local level, addressing barriers to action and making good practice examples the mainstream 
• Councils to produce  Climate Action Plans on how they can cut emissions quickly and what actions they could take with greater support from central Government.
• Councils to lead local Climate Action Partnerships to drive deeper action on carbon emission reductions. This would draw in support from business, the wider public sector, the voluntary sector and the wider community
• Government  to give  a clear steer to local Councils that they are expected to insist on higher energy efficiency standards in new buildings up to (and preferably) the Passivhaus Standard. This to be followed as swiftly as possible by strengthening of the energy efficiency standards in Building Regulations.
• Reregulate and strengthen the Building Control function to ensure strict adherence to energy efficiency standards.
• Councils to produce a plan (with a timetable) for a complete electrification of their vehicle fleets and to work with other large fleet operators on similar plans.
• Revive the Home Energy Conservation Act powers of Local Government and ask for new plans to be established within a year for costed plans to improve the energy efficiency of homes in line with the emissions savings we need to achieve the Paris Climate goals within a ten year timeframe.