Hampshire County Council opposition councillor criticises climate change targets for 'lack of ambition'

This week, Hampshire County Council published its first climate change annual report, which examines the progress being made to reduce carbon emissions and tracks what the council is doing to tackle climate change.

But while Conservatives have praised the 'excellent' commitments made in the report, Liberal Democrats say the council needs to push harder to meet the 2050 carbon neutral target - espeicially when it comes to recycling.

Liberal Democrat spokesman for economy, transport and environment, Cllr Martin Tod, said: 'There is a lack of clarity and ambition on sustainability and tackling the climate emergency.

'The difference between the 2017 and 2021 climate strategies is that a few words have been added, and the word sustanability has been removed.

'We need a clearer ambition on recycling not just for carbon reasons, but because of the circular economy and other pressures that reycling has the potential to relieve.

'The statistics for Hampshire recycling rates once again show we had the worst rate of any disposal authority, and the second worst for residual waste. On both these metrics, Hampshire is unacceptably poor.'

Latest figures published by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) show that from April 2019 to March 2020, 364,000 tonnes of collected waste was not sent for recycling - the sixth highest of all local authorities in England.

SEE ALSO: Hampshire council tax rise on the cards as £80m budget cuts take another step forward

But Hampshire County Council leader, Cllr Keith Mans, said of the county council's report: 'This is an excellent record of the depth and breadth of our commitment to meeting the targets we have set – to be carbon neutral by 2050 and to be prepared for a two degrees rise in temperature.

'I am delighted to see that tremendous progress is being made, particularly in embedding climate change into the DNA of almost everything that we do.

'I fully understand that there is still a long way to go. That said, this is a great start to that journey.'

In the report, the county council highlighted that more than 1,250 trees have been planted in the past 12 months, and that funding has been secured for the installation of 50 on-street residential electric vehicle charge points in Winchester and Eastleigh, with plans to expand the scheme in the future.

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

We’ve reduced the cost of digital subscriptions to our website by 50 per cent for a limited time.

You can now subscribe here for unlimited access to our online coverage, including Pompey, for less than 13p a day.