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Moorlands Climate Action has broadly welcomed the renewed commitment of Staffordshire Moorlands District Council to addressing the pressing issue of climate change, despite what it sees as essentially a wasted twelve months until now.
“We have obviously been disappointed with progress, or lack of it, since SMDC declared a Climate Emergency over a year ago,” says Nigel Williams, chairperson at MCA. “We have made it clear where we felt the problems lay.”
But we are heartened that key councillors such as James Aberley and Nigel Yates are moving determinedly to put the right structures in place to ensure a more collegiate and accountable approach in the future.”
Putting the Sub-committee on a sounder footing should mean that decisions are made in a more energetic, transparent and evidence-based manner.”
Working groups will be set up in key areas such transport, energy and buildings with direct input from groups such as MCA and Staffordshire Wildlife Trust. Reports from these and the sub-Committee will then be sent to the SMDC Cabinet.
“Follow-up action can be monitored and scrutinised in the way that all local authority processes should be, and usually are,” said Nigel Williams.
MCA member Maggie Pollard added: “We welcome the fact that there will be a renewed emphasis on the central issue – the need to reduce carbon emissions in order to avoid a catastrophic rise in global temperatures. Measures such as reducing the use of single-use plastic drinks containers, while laudable in themselves, are a very small part of the central task.”
She said that the teenagers and twenty-somethings who are increasingly engaged in climate change issues have been put off in the past by endless talk and few tangible results: “They want action, not words.”