Cheshire East marked its last ever meeting of the environment and communities committee by revealed it has achieved 60% of its target to be carbon neutral by 2030, writes Belinda Ryan.
But councillors warned it was important to keep the momentum going, especially during a backlash against climate change measures from some national politicians and media.
Environment officer Emma Williams told the meeting: “We are now 60% of the way towards our carbon neutrality target.
“That involves a reduction in our baseline emissions of 20%, the remainder being made up of our insetting, which is the tree planting, purchase of green electricity, and generating our own electricity.”
She continued: “We’ve had more than £10 million of public sector decarbonisation scheme funding.
“We have 22 roof-mounted solar arrays, 18 sites that have fully transitioned to LED light fittings and 16 air source heat pumps.
“We have transitioned 30 of our vehicles to electric vehicles, and all of those have had associated charging infrastructure put in place.”
Mrs Williams said the new food waste fleet is going to be fully electric and the council had completed its target of creating 120 hectares of mixed woodland planting.
The council’s solar farm at Leighton Grange on outskirts of Crewe, in operation for a year, generates electricity for the composting plant with additional electricity being exported to the grid.
Knutsford councillor Tony Dean (Con) said: “It does feel a little bit to me as though it’s running out of steam.”
He said there appeared to be no specific plan on how to fully decarbonise leisure centres, which reflect the majority of gas use in the department.
He was assured by Dane Valley councillor Andrew Kolker (Con), a trustee of EHL which runs the leisure centres, that ‘EHL is spending an enormous amount of its own funds on reducing its carbon footprint’.
He said one thing being investigated was the possibility of using water power where there are rivers and streams nearby, for example in Nantwich and Congleton.
Cllr Mary Brooks (Macclesfield, Lab) said if the council was looking at staff mileage and car use, was it also doing the same for councillors’ travel, especially for things like planning site visits.
“I know that neighbouring authorities have a little minibus that takes members to the site altogether,” she said.
“Maybe there is a business case for that kind of thing.”
She also said a recent report stated political and media narratives are driving a ‘false backlash’ against net zero and public opinion is much more supportive of climate change action than people are led to believe.
“It is a shame that there are some national politicians that are actually saying that they’re going to get rid of the Climate Act but hopefully we, as a committee, will be united in supporting this excellent work that’s going on at the council,” she said.
The committee voted unanimously to approve and adopt the refreshed carbon action plan 2026-2030.
UK 1% Global Emissions must be eradicated at all and any costs to Joe Public? 🤣 – Barking Mad Quixotic Miliband will be orgasmic, bless him!🥳🥳🥳
That’ll sort it, Xi Jinping are you watching?