TORY COUNCIL LEADER SAYS CAMERON ‘IS WRONG’ ON CLIMATE CHANGE

By Alex Perkins, Canterbury Liberal Democrat Leader

Conservative City Council Leader John Gilbey claims that David Cameron “is wrong” over climate change and global warming, and that official Conservative policy on climate change is “nonsense”.

Leader of Canterbury City Council, Cllr John Gilbey, has ordered the total removal of any reference to Climate Change from the council’s key strategies, provoking uproar from opposition councillors and the public.

This policy contradicts Tory Leader David Cameron and his new ‘green’ agenda introduced in 2007, where he stated that "The long-term nature of the climate change challenge demands a framework and disciplines that no government, of any political colour, will ever be able to fudge”.

During a debate to finalise Canterbury’s Corporate Plan, which dictates the council’s policies and strategic responsibilities, local Lib Dem leader Cllr Alex Perkins asked that references to “Climate Change” (previously removed by Cllr Gilbey) be reinstated.

In asking councillors to support his proposal he directly quoted David Cameron’s submission to the LGA Climate Change Commission report.

However, in response Cllr Gilbey described the LGA report as “nonsense” (a matter he claimed he would “happily debate with anyone”) and instructed his fellow councilors to uphold his decision to expunge any reference to Climate Change from the council’s key strategy document.

The two sentences that Liberal Democrat members had asked be included were taken directly from the Conservative lead LGA’s Climate Change tool-kit for local councils:

‘Local authorities must strengthen leadership, build capacity, improve transparency and engage others to tackle climate change more effectively’.

and

“Canterbury City Council has a unique democratic mandate to engage other organisations and the wider community in tackling climate change”.

Lib Dem group leader Cllr Alex Perkins said, “Conservative Council Leader John Gilbey's asinine and reckless position on climate change is threatening everything we have been fighting for in this district for a number of years. He cynically trumpets the success of the city council’s recycling scheme without admitting that it was introduced by the previous Lib Dem administration. It is a matter of record that the conservative group did not vote for it. His” Flat Earth” opinions on climate change are frankly shocking and I don’t doubt David Cameron will be spinning in his Eco-mansion when he hears what Cllr Gilbey has said about his own leader’s policies on climate change!”

Lib Dem Cllr Nick Eden-Green said, “Canterbury now has a Tory-run council, which confirmed last night at the Council meeting (and this was confirmed at a vote by every single Tory councillor, not just their leader) that they deny the existence of climate change, have excised the wording from all council documents and are prepared to pay only lip service to environmental issues and will do as close to nothing about it as they possibly can.”