Yet another success story…. West Somerset and Taunton Deane Council have followed Frome Town Council and Somerset County Council in declaring a climate emergency.

Green Party councillor David Mansell’s motion came with seven recommendations.

1. To declare a climate emergency.
2. Make Somerset West and Taunton carbon neutral by 2030
3. To call on the government to provide guidance and the powers and resources to make carbon neutrality possible by 4. writing to local MPs and ministers
4. To develop a ‘Carbon Neutrality and Climate Resilience’ plan starting from July 2019, with a cross party working group and the necessary officer support to assist with investigative work, drafting the plan and the delivery of early projects.
5. To report to council before the end of 2019 with costed proposals for projects for the Council to effectively start addressing the climate emergency. These include provisions for cycling, walking, public transport, providing electric car charging points in car parks, utilise renewable energy sources and reduce use of fossil fuels. The project also aims to waste reduction and create more efficient recycling services in the area. A specialist officer will be appointed to oversee the ‘Carbon Neutrality and Climate Resilience’ plan.
6. To provide an annual review and update of the plan thereafter.
7. To allow a provisional budget of £75,000 to be allocated to allow this work, including early projects agreed by the working group, to be undertaken either through resources already available or through commissioning.

These were all passed apart from recommendation number 7 where the provisional budget was reduced  from £75,000 to £25,000…. many councillor’s voiced their concern in the reduction.  Hopefully this will be addressed and more money will be released to mitigate against catastrophic climate change and help West Somerset and Taunton Deane to contribute to keep us all within 1.5 C of warming.