Bridgend Council’s Cabinet has turned down a request by a council scrutiny committee to provide costings for the council’s flagship net-zero carbon strategy.
The scrutiny committee “called in” the strategy on January 4th. They voted 6-5 in favour of referring it back to the Cabinet for reconsideration, having criticised the lack of costings associated with the strategy.
Citing inflation, technological advances and changing Welsh and UK Government agendas, the Corporate Director for Communities, Janine Nightingale, said Bridgend Council could “come up with a figure today, but it would be irrelevant tomorrow”.
She went on to add that it was “practically impossible” to provide an accurate figure – which was a repeat of points made during the call-in meeting.
One example given was electric vehicles. They’re currently priced higher than fossil fuel vehicles, but the price will likely come down and reach parity with diesel and petrol – possibly as early as 2025 – once more vehicles come onto the market. Some of these costs were already included in the council’s budget or were funded by grants.
Committee “didn’t outline how they wanted the policy changed”
Cabinet Member for Communities, Cllr. John Spanswick (Lab, Brackla West Central), compared attempts to cost a strategy across seven years to setting a council budget for 2030 now. This view was backed by his Cabinet colleagues.
Cabinet Member for Education, Cllr. Jon-Paul Blundell (Lab, Cefn Glas) said global events that affect climate change preparedness – like the Russian invasion of Ukraine – can’t be predicted years ahead, so there was a need for flexibility.
Cabinet Member for Wellbeing & Future Generations, Cllr. Rhys Goode (Lab, Nantymoel), understood where the scrutiny committee were coming from. However, strategies like those relating to carbon reduction may get harder to deliver and less predictable as time goes on.
There was also criticism that the scrutiny committee didn’t outline how they wanted the policy changed.
It was accepted costings associated with the strategy were provisionally in place until 2024. However, these costs were spread across separate directorates and weren’t under a single “climate change/carbon reduction” heading.
Despite the efforts of the scrutiny committee chair, Cllr. Paul Davies (Lab, Caerau), the Cabinet rejected asking officers to come up with a figure.
