Issue - meetings

CSD 21020

On the 18^th October 2021 a motion was moved by Cllr Ian Dunn with respect to the COP 26 Summit. This motion was originally due to be considered by Full Council but was referred to the ECS PDS Committee for consideration. Cllr Dunn felt that on the back of the Summit it would be good for the Council to consider what it could do to encourage residents, business and road transport to reduce carbon emissions.

He suggested that LBB should encourage:

·  Residents to install domestic insulation

·  Installing on street electric vehicle charging points

·  Promoting walking and cycling

The Vice Chairman stated that COP 26 was not the best vehicle to use to engage the general public in environmental matters, as the COP summit appealed to those who were already environmentally engaged. He suggested that the Council play a bigger role in signposting residents to organisations like the Energy Saving Trust and to other similar organisations. 

A Member said that in his view the COP Summit was not relevant to LBB. After all, we had no control over what other larger nations globally were doing. He felt that the motion would have been more relevant if it was linked to encouraging local initiatives. This seemed to be the general consensus of Members. A Member commented that he would not like to see time and resources put into what in effect could end up as just ‘talking shops’. Another Member said that the Council should continue to progress and develop with its Tree Planting Programme.

Another Member felt that LBB should not associate with COP 26 as it had received a bad press with news going around of the abuse of the duty free system and representatives flying in on gulf stream jets. He felt that LBB should focus on their own local initiatives.

The Chairman commented that Bromley had 300,000 residents and the task was to make these people do something different. He felt that one of the things that LBB should be doing was to help local residents with signposting so that they could access services and grants that may be available to them—for example, for insulation, migrating to energy saving tariffs and thermal insulation.

The Chairman suggested that Sarah Foster and her team draft a paper for the Committee that would explain what LBB was doing, what contractors were doing, and what the public could do to reduce their carbon foot print, save energy and apply for grants. The Chairman motioned this and it was seconded by Councillor Dunn.

RESOLVED that Sarah Foster and her team draft a report that would outline what the Council and Contractors were doing to save energy and reduce their carbon foot print. The report would also seek to show how the Council could signpost residents to various grants and services and any other local initiatives aimed at energy savings and reducing Co2 emissions. The report would be presented to the January 2022 ECS PDS meeting.