Southend Tories give council list of ‘immediate’ actions they claim are needed to tackle climate change

SOUTHEND Tories have called for more action over climate change, after the council declared a climate emergency earlier this year.

The Conservative group has tabled a motion listing 10 actions they claim could be taken ‘immediately’ to help bring down Southend’s carbon footprint.

The suggestions are listed in a motion, which the group has submitted to full council this Thursday, October 24.

Tories said: “Strong policies to reduce emissions have associated health, wellbeing and economic benefits.

“With a climate emergency declared by this council, and a commitment to making the borough carbon neutral by 2030, there is still so much more we can do immediately.”

The motion suggests Southend Council should adopt the following policies:
-Introduce free parking for electric vehicles in council car parks
-‘Support and promote’ car-sharing
-Switch all the council’s own vehicles to electric
-Put electric car charging points at council-owned locations and push for ‘rapid roll-out’ of curb-side charging points in residential streets
-Ensure all new homes and buildings in Southend are carbon neutral
-Retrofit all council-owned houses, schools and properties to make them greener
-Cut energy use in the council’s own estate and only use renewable energy suppliers
-Plant trees on council land to convert more carbon
-Only allow the council to buy or lease zero emissions vehicles, starting from 2020
-Report back on climate change progress every six months

The motion has been submitted ahead of this week’s full council meeting.

It will be automatically referred to Cabinet, which will discuss it and make a decision. If councillors are unhappy with the decision, they can call it to scrutiny.

Lib Dem councillor Carole Mulroney, cabinet member for the environment, said: “We will look at all the issues that they have raised and respond accordingly. But when you get a long list like that, it takes a long time to get all the information and come back on it.”