On Tuesday 18^th July I attended a full meeting of Babergh District Council.
We were treated to a report on Greenhouse Gases for the period 2021-22 and the first question of the day was why were we looking at figures fifteen months out of date. I didn’t quite understand the response but I gather that as they hadn’t been reported earlier it was thought that they ought to be before the 2022/2023 report was due. Which prompted the question that as that report was over three months in the making when would we see it? The answer was that we should expect to see it at the September meeting.
We were also treated to a motion by Green member Councillor Jamieson asking us to reiterate the Council’s commitment to making its services carbon neutral by 2030.
I was less than enamoured with the motion and responded that the motion indicated that since July 2019 there had been no improvement in the climate or biodiversity emergencies. What I was unable to understand is why in the last four years there had been no improvement in the situation. What have we been doing? How far have we advanced on our target of being carbon neutral by 2030?
The commitment we were asked to make was without any explanation as to where we were now, how much we have spent, how much we’re going to spend, where we going to spend it and how will it be financed?
The motion lacked coherence or meaningful purpose.
All I could see was an unyet disclosed pathway to pillaging the taxpayers’ pockets to pay for the commitment. Which is why I was unable to support the motion, which was a waste of time, air, and good trees. It was weak, insipid and had no place in the assembly.
If this is the Greens at their best, I dread to think what we can expect during the next four years.