Southwark is second-best town hall for cutting emissions – but opponents condemn lack of concrete plans

BY TOBY PORTER
toby@slpmedia.co.uk

A town hall has been revealed as one of the best for tackling climate change – but has been condemned by opponents for not implementing its plans yet.

Southwark is one of the best councils in London for tackling climate change, says a survey by independent action group Climate Emergency UK.

Southwark plans to be carbon neutral by 2030 and last year set aside £25million for reducing carbon emissions – but no concrete proposals have yet been put forward by town hall chiefs.

Experts at Climate Action assessed council plans across the UK for their commitment to tackling climate change and their strategy to deliver those promises.

They found that Southwark was one of the best councils in London for allocating funding to meet its zero carbon targets and had best practice plans in place for transport, business, heating and buildings to become more environmentally friendly.

Its plans include a Citizen’s Jury, where 25 residents, from across the borough’s population, independently put forward recommendations for how best Southwark can tackle the climate emergency fairly and effectively.

In the ‘scorecard,’ which details how well the council performed under the action group’s assessment criteria, Southwark received full marks for its plans to reduce toxic emissions and was praised for its approach in helping residents, staff and elected members understand the importance of tackling climate change together.

Councillor Helen Dennis, cabinet member for the climate emergency, said: “I am delighted that our work in tackling climate change has been recognised by Climate Emergency UK.

“We are proud of the work that the council and our local communities are doing to meet our ambitions to be carbon-neutral by 2030, but we know that we can always do more, and have already committed to updating our action plan this year.

In particular, we will want to reflect the forthcoming report from our Climate Change Citizen’s Jury.

“Tackling the Climate Emergency is top of the council’s agenda and we’re excited by all the positive benefits that this will generate for Southwark residents – cleaner air, new green jobs, more trees and quality green spaces across the borough, and warmer homes.”

But Southwark Liberal Democrat opposition councillors say none of the money has been used or dedicated to any projects in almost a year.

This information emerged in follow-up data requests after an Overview and Scrutiny Committee (OSC) meeting on January 27.

Liberal Democrat OSC vice-chairman Cllr Victor Chamberlain asked Cllr Helen Dennis, cabinet member for climate emergency, about the funds at the OSC meeting.

She said announcements about the fund will be were due soon.

Cllr Chamberlain has now demanded the cabinet publish this year’s targets on climate emergency spending from the capital programme before the May elections, in an attempt to speed up the council’s climate change action.

Cllr Chamberlain, Vice-Chair of OSC, said: “Southwark Labour do not understand that we have to act urgently to tackle the climate emergency and have relied on us to force them to go greener, faster.

Spending on the emergency or dedicating money to relevant projects has to be an urgent priority and no-one can afford for the council to sit on large funds for years.

That’s why we pushed the Labour administration to announce before the May elections how they will use this £25m this year.”

Picture: Southwark Town Hall