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Agenda and minutes

Venue: Council Chamber Council Offices Market Street Newbury

Contact: Democratic Services Team 

Note: In accordance with Part 13 of the Constitution this meeting will comprise a 5 minute presentation of the petition and the petition will then be discussed by Councillors for a maximum of 15 minutes. 

Items
No. Item

23.

Declarations of Interest

To remind Members of the need to record the existence and nature of any personal, disclosable pecuniary or other registrable interests in items on the agenda, in accordance with the Members’ Code of Conduct.

Minutes:

There were no declarations of interest received.

24.

Council response to Climate Emergency Petition

To provide a response to the petition submitted to the Executive meeting on 17 January 2019 by Councillor Steve Masters.

The wording of the petition is as follows:

‘We, the undersigned, petition the Council to Declare a Climate Emergency and work towards West Berkshire becoming net Zero Carbon by 2030

We call on the Council to declare a ‘Climate Emergency’ and:

1.    Pledge to make West Berkshire carbon neutral by 2030, taking into account both production and consumption emissions;

2.    Ensure West Berkshire’s economic leadership in the region continues by investing in renewable technologies and capitalising on the growth in renewable innovation;

3.    Call on Westminster to provide the powers and resources to make the 2030 target possible and work with other governments (both within the UK and internationally) to determine and implement best practice methods to limit Global Warming to less than 1.5;

4.    Continue to work with partners across West Berkshire and the wider region to deliver this new goal through all relevant strategies and plans;

5.    Provide an outline strategy by 1st June 2019 to ensure the transition to a zero carbon future by 2030 is initiated.’

Minutes:

The Council considered a report (Agenda Item 3) which provided a response to the Climate Emergency petition containing 2,009 signatures which was submitted at the Executive meeting on 17 January 2019 by Councillor Steve Masters.

Prior to the discussion starting on this item the Chairman, Councillor Graham Pask, explained that in accordance with paragraph 1.4 (f) of Appendix C (Procedure Rules for Dealing with Representations) to Part 13 (Codes and Protocols) of the Constitution the procedure for dealing with this item would be that the petition organiser would have five minutes to introduce the petition and the petition would then be discussed by Councillors for a maximum of 15 minutes. This time limit was specified in the Constitution and could not be extended during this meeting.

Councillor Pask continued by explaining that the Council had three options for dealing with petitions for debate:

1.    To take the action the petition suggested;

2.    Not to take the action for the reason(s) put forward in the debate; and

3.    To commission a further investigation into the matter.

Members could propose one of the options which, if seconded, would be put to a vote. The vote on any proposal which had been seconded would take place at the end of the debate to ensure that Members could consider all comments prior to voting.

Based on proportionality, the Conservative Group would be allocated eight of the 15 minutes, the Liberal Democrat Group six minutes and the Green Party one minute.

Councillor Pask concluded by drawing Members attention to the wording of the petition which was set out on the agenda:

‘We, the undersigned, petition the Council to Declare a Climate Emergency and work towards West Berkshire becoming net Zero Carbon by 2030

We call on the Council to declare a ‘Climate Emergency’ and:

1.         Pledge to make West Berkshire carbon neutral by 2030, taking into account both production and consumption emissions;

2.         Ensure West Berkshire’s economic leadership in the region continues by investing in renewable technologies and capitalising on the growth in renewable innovation;

3.         Call on Westminster to provide the powers and resources to make the 2030 target possible and work with other governments (both within the UK and internationally) to determine and implement best practice methods to limit Global Warming to less than 1.5;

4.         Continue to work with partners across West Berkshire and the wider region to deliver this new goal through all relevant strategies and plans;

5.         Provide an outline strategy by 1st June 2019 to ensure the transition to a zero carbon future by 2030 is initiated.’

Councillor Pask invited Councillor Masters to introduce the petition.

Councillor Masters explained that when he started this petition in November 2018 there was a 12 year period to act decisively on climate change according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). He commented that it was unfortunate that it had taken five months for a debate and vote to be scheduled, however he thanked the new Council Leader for arranging  ...  view the full minutes text for item 24.