Climate emergency declaration scrapped by council

A third council in West Yorkshire has scrapped its climate emergency declaration, seven years after it was introduced.

Kirklees Council, now under the control of Reform UK, voted to roll back its 2019 commitment to reach net zero emissions by 2038 at a full meeting of the authority on Wednesday.

Councillors voted by 32 votes to 30 in favour of the motion on an "undeclaration of climate emergency" after a lively debate in which Reform was accused of providing a lack of detail on their plans and perpetuating "this wider culture war" over the issue.

In response, Reform council leader Sarah Wood said critics "had either not read the detail of the motion, or haven't truly understood it".

The vote means Kirklees Council joins Wakefield Council and Calderdale Council in scrapping its climate emergency declaration.

Reform took control of all three authorities in May's local elections.

Wood said the impact of the declaration had "penetrated quite deeply into the very fabric of the council".

"When people have raised the administrative burden that is potentially placed on the council, I think we should look at the administrative burden that was actually placed on this council over the last seven years for rolling it out."

Charles Greaves, who leads the Valley Independent Group on Kirklees Council, and who was a signatory of the 2019 declaration, accused Reform of a "lack of understanding" about what it entailed.

Greaves told the meeting Reform's proposals were "incredibly vague".

"I can't help but think this just forms part of this wider culture war that just seems to be the only thing that matters to some," he said.

"[Reform] don't even know whether this will save a penny, or whether this will cost residents money."

Greaves added: "I can't help but think that a lot of policies are just sent down from above and you just copy and paste."

Poala Davies, who represents the Liberal Democrats, asked the meeting: "Who's going to pay for the pointless re-writing of these policies and documents?

"When are leader and cabinet going to start acting in the interests of the Kirklees residents they were elected to represent?"

Wood told the meeting that revoking the climate pledge "was just the start of the process, not the end".

The motion was carried with an amendment submitted by the Kirklees Conservatives, which would ensure the council's environmental scrutiny committee remained.

Conservative councillor Richard Smith said: "Any democratic body needs scrutiny, or else where are the checks and balances?

"As a Conservative, I care deeply about the environment [but] I don't subscribe to the view we should have a complete obsession with climate change over and above any issue."

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