On Tuesday 18th November, Bolton Conservatives, backed by other parties, asked the council to reconsider its existing target of making all council activities net zero by 2030. Under current proposals, the council is planning to spend millions of pounds replacing hundreds of vehicles and retrofitting enormously expensive new heating systems into existing council owned buildings, like the Town Hall. This is to hit a Net Zero target a full 20 years before the Governments official target of 2050.
Councillors were reviewing the strategy at Place Scrutiny, following a call-in by the Shadow Executive Cabinet Member for Climate Change and Environment, Cllr Toby Hewitt. At the meeting of the Executive Cabinet Member weeks earlier, Cllr Hewitt challenged council officers on the cost and achievability of the Net Zero target. At that meeting, council officers confirmed they didn’t believe it was realistic to hit Net Zero by 2030 but they would persist with the strategy regardless.
The motion to review the Net Zero target, at least pushing it back to 2050, will be presented to Council on Wednesday 26th November by Cllr Toby Hewitt and seconded by Cllr Martyn Cox.
Commenting, Shadow Executive Cabinet Member for Climate Change and Environment, Cllr Toby Hewitt, said:
Trying to hit a net zero target 20 years ahead of schedule makes no sense at all and could lead to the council taking costly decisions that will negatively impact local Council Taxpayers. We have a duty to protect taxpayer finances above the socialist ideology of the Left.
Commenting, Cllr Martyn Cox, said:
It never made any sense setting a wholly unachievable net zero target, a target we are unsurprisingly miles away from hitting. With residents already burdened by ever rising tax bills. it makes no sense imposing these very costly and artificial targets. We hope councillors will recognise the unfairness of making local residents pay for targets that should never have been set in the first place.
