Despite earlier supporting all party moves to update the Town Council’s Environmental Charter, Conservatives on the Town Council recently voted down their own proposals for reform, refusing to respond to calls for a working party to continue to discuss the issue, and instead voted to retain the current policy.

Whilst the Council itself has fairly robust environmental practices, more explicit policy guidelines and targets would be more in tune with modern environmental standards, and act as a model of best practice, just as it already does in many other areas of its work.

The timid approach of the Conservatives, refusing even to support the need for the Council to insist that any contractors it employs operate to the same environmental standards as the council itself, appears to show any new found commitment to environmentalism is skin deep. The current charter requires an annual environmental audit, which under the Conservatives has not taken place, and they rejected alternatives explored by the working party.

A Liberal Democrat administration introduced the current environmental charter, and Liberal Democrats nationally and locally are committed to ensuring sustainability and that consideration of the environment is always a factor in any decision making. The current charter is fairly general, best practice has moved on since its development, and we now need a more explicit framework to govern the council’s impact on the environment.