The Chair of the Environment and Climate Change Committee, Councillor Lehmann, introduced the report and proposed the recommendation.  He said that the Council was doing good work to combat climate change. 

Councillor Dolley Wooster, Vice-Chair of the Environment and Climate Change Committee, seconded the recommendation and reserved her right to speak.

The Leader of the SIA Group welcomed the report and asked that future reports highlighted what the Council could realistically achieve.

The Leader of the Conservative Group said that whilst the Council was not likely to achieve net zero carbon it should continue to try to.  He was concerned that only 1% of parking provided electric vehicle charging points.  He raised concern regarding proper waste recycling and that education was key to achieve this.  The Leader of the Conservative Group was not convinced that the car share scheme was of any benefit and queried how much it cost to implement.

The Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group spoke about the importance of ensuring the Council had a Local Plan as it impacted a lot of what was included with the report.  She referred to the emergency planning section of the report and considered there had been some missed opportunities and that the Council should be encouraging residents to sign-up to the Flood Line and looking at the effects of extreme heat on residents.  She asked that  communication with local businesses on reducing their carbon footprint be improved moving forward.

Other Members were invited to speak, and points raised included:

·         The Council should provide compost bins;

·         the Council should invest in services for local people rather than climate change;

·         this would have no impact on climate change;

·         just because the Council could not do everything to reduce carbon globally that was not a reason to do nothing;

·         the longer the Council did nothing to reduce its carbon footprint the more radical the changes would need to be in the future;

·         contaminated recycling waste bins was not just about education, as some residents just could not be bothered to recycle;

·         referred to the savings made by the Council due to work carried out to reduce the Council’s carbon footprint as set out in the report;

·         America and China needed to do better in relation to climate change; and

·         requested that more detail be included on wetlands as Swale was a coastal borough.

The Mayor welcomed the report and requested that as a coastal borough more work be included on the borough’s wetlands.  He said he was disappointed that no schools from Swale had been nominated at the Green School Awards 2024.  He was aware that schools in Swale were doing good work in this respect, and he encouraged Members to raise awareness of the awards in their areas.

Councillor Wooster reminded Members that the Council had declared two emergencies, housing as well as climate change and hoped that before devolution happened, they would both be a priority of the Council.  She said that climate change affected every resident in the borough and one which all parties should work together to resolve, and that the Council needed to be realistic on what was achievable.  With regard to car sharing club schemes, Councillor Wooster said more clarity from Government was needed.  She spoke about the setbacks the Council had endured with the Covid-19 Pandemic and cuts to the waste budget, and praised how the Council had reacted to those challenges and made positive improvements.

On being put to the vote, Members voted in support.

Resolved:

(1)   That the Annual Climate and Ecological Emergency Progress Report be noted.