Council needs to 'get its own house in order' on the environment before asking Doncaster residents to make changes, claims councillor

Doncaster Council should ‘get their own house in order’ before they start telling people in the borough on how they can best tackle climate change.
The newly-formed climate commission panel is chaired by Doncaster MP Ed Miliband,The newly-formed climate commission panel is chaired by Doncaster MP Ed Miliband,
The newly-formed climate commission panel is chaired by Doncaster MP Ed Miliband,

Conservative group leader Coun Jane Cox, who sits on the newly formed climate commission panel chaired by Doncaster North MP Ed Miliband, said the council can carry out ‘quick wins’ to get the ball rolling.

The commission meets every six weeks and will produce findings for what to do next in April.

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Members of the panel include the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, Doncaster Chamber, councillors, council officers, Doncaster Youth Parliament and other private and public sector organisations.

Doncaster Council has set a target of reaching net zero carbon emissions by 2050.

Coun Cox, said: “This needs to be kept simple - I go there to the meeting as a Doncaster resident and I’m not an expert on green credentials.

“But we need to make it easy for the general public to get on board working with the schools, children for them to lobby parents not to have their cars running outside of school, turn your thermostat down - things where people can do and feel like they’re making a difference.

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“What we need to do also is leave the bigger ticket policies to the academics and the experts and ask them if certain things are feasible for the council to carry out.

“But we can’t do any of this until we get our own house in order - I’m sick of saying that we have to lead from the front. After the findings are published, what we don’t want to be doing is going out and lecturing people on climate issues if we’re not doing them ourselves.

“If I go past Civic Office on an evening and there’s no one in but all the lights are on, how can I ask my constituents to tell them to turn their lights off. There are quick wins we can do now.

“I don’t want to come out after six months of talking and there’s nothing to show for it.”