Labour administration backtracks on its green agenda

Labour councillors rejected a Lib Dem proposal to re-energise the delivery of the Solar for Business programme across the district. They continued to support the cancelling of the Solar for Business programme and removal of over £0.5 million of capital funding in this year’s budget, citing challenges of attracting suitable business interest and prioritisation of officers’ time. They refused to acknowledge mistakes and to learn from them, instead giving up at the first hurdle.

Lib Dems are committed to driving a rooftop solar revolution, as part of tackling the climate emergency as declared by North Herts Council in 2019.

Proposing the amendment to the capital budget, the leader of the Liberal Democrat group Cllr Ruth Brown said: “As we repeatedly hear at the start of these proceedings, the Council has declared a climate emergency. Our words mean nothing if we do not translate this into action. Our Green Belt is already under pressure from housing as well as solar farms. The more we can do to encourage the use of solar panels on the vast amount of unused business rooftops the better.”   

The amendment sought to conduct a swift lessons-learned exercise on the current difficulties and come up with a new plan to make it a priority in next year’s budget.

Cllr Brown reflected on the decision: “I’m deeply disappointed that the administration hasn’t listened to our concerns and tried harder to get traction behind a scheme that has proven successful for other councils. Liberal Democrats will continue to push for a fair deal on our environment, versus no deal.”