News

Plan to create climate change committee collapses

26 October, 2021 12:00 am

2 Min Read

26 October, 2021

The Conservatives were accused of “throwing their toys out of the pram” for withdrawing the plan
By Victoria Munro

A plan to create a new committee to scrutinise Waltham Forest Council’s response to climate change collapsed last week.

At a full council meeting on 22nd October, the Conservatives withdrew a motion to set up the new committee, after a Labour amendment said it would replace an existing one.

Conservative councillor Justin Halabi said simply renaming the neighbourhood committee to create a climate change committee “does nothing more than wipe away any ounce of progress”.

Responding after the meeting, deputy leader Clyde Loakes said it felt like the Conservatives “were throwing their toys out of their pram” after realising “just how poor a motion it actually was”.

At the meeting, Cllr Halabi said the Conservatives want to “diversify the council’s spending on climate change” because the “vast majority is spent on ill-implemented policies, namely Mini-Holland”.

He questioned why more than half of a £1million Climate Emergency Fund ring-fenced in 2019 had been spent on creating traffic restrictions around schools, rather than suggested measures like introducing more energy-efficient street lamps.

Following the meeting, Conservative leader Tim James said the plan fell through because of “Labour’s refusal to be held to account and playing political games”.

He added: “The committee they wished to scrap just happens to be the one that would have responsibility for scrutinising such things as the Edmonton incinerator plans.”

In response, Clyde Loakes said the Neighbourhoods Scrutiny Committee “already has scrutiny of the borough’s climate work… and has been doing great work doing just that”.

He said: “[The Labour group] could see how they may have wanted to have a name change to better focus attention on these important matters. We accepted this and proposed removing the non- climate and environment matters to another scrutiny committee.

“Whilst the local Conservatives might want to talk and talk about their sudden and recent interest in the climate emergency, we’re busy getting on with delivery.”

No news is bad news

Independent news outlets like ours – reporting for the community without rich backers – are under threat of closure, turning British towns into news deserts.

The audiences they serve know less, understand less, and can do less.

If our coverage has helped you understand our community a little bit better, please consider supporting us with a monthly, yearly or one-off donation.

Choose the news. Don’t lose the news.

Monthly direct debit

Annual direct debit

£5 per month supporters get a digital copy of each month’s paper before anyone else, £10 per month supporters get a digital copy of each month’s paper before anyone else and a print copy posted to them each month. £50 annual supporters get a digital copy of each month's paper before anyone else.