Brent Council and Climate Change Policy

I have always thought that the current Labour administration in Brent has not had enough credit for its environmental record.  Thanks largely to the Civic Centre, the Council has had a strong cut in carbon emissions.  It has also greatly increased recycling after the years of stagnation under the Liberal Democrats.  This cut greenhouse gas emissions as landfill produces huge amounts of methane.  At the same time we continued the sustainable planning and transport policies that have driven much of the Borough's improvement in air quality as well as reductions in climate change emissions.

The one area of these policies that had limited success was engaging residents at large in the wider climate change debate.  Here we inherited a climate change strategy built around the idea of a residents and businesses group functioning as a network.  Rather than reinventing this, I tried to reboot the same scheme when I became lead member in 2010.  Unfortunately, some of the people who turned up to the group simply saw it as an opportunity to block initiatives and complain about the Council rather than to push things forward among the wider community.  This tended to put the other members of the group off, so that there was a deadening effect on climate change actions.  We managed to circumvent this to some extent with some good events by schools and businesses, but it was a constant uphill task.

Post the elections next year, it would be a good opportunity to revamp the policy and try to get rid of some of the negative elements.