A major consultation on how the north of England decarbonises within 25 years has been brushed off by councillors in Keswick with one calling its ambitions “airy fairy” and another branding it “half a report”.
Transport for the North (TfN) has been consulting on a 63-page draft decarbonisation strategy which was published in June. It contains ambitions for the north of England to achieve a target of “near-zero” carbon emissions from surface transport – road, train and ship – by the year 2045.
The draft document also said the north needs to “push further and faster than current national policy” and achieve a phase out of petrol, diesel and hybrid car and van sales within nine years. It would require an “ambitious” uptake of zero carbon emission vehicles by 2030, the strategy admitted.
But members of Keswick Town Council remain sceptical about how some of the targets can be achieved. They have called on transport officials to be more explicit about the costs the public would face.
Cllr Paul Titley said: “We need some honesty over what it’s going to mean to you – not the country, Keswick, or some nebulous bunch of people – but to you. What are you going to have to change?
“How are you going to have to change the way we all do things? Without that, it’s only half a report.
“It’s very easy to say the country is going to do this, the nation will do that and the north will do the other, but I want to know what I’m going to do. Until that’s made clear, no-one’s going to actually grasp the realities of what climate change brings.”
It was a view shared by Cllr Peter Terry who dismissed some of the statement in the document as “airy-fairy”.
Cllr Terry said he was disappointed that documents of its type often overlooked the huge costs involved in transition.
Cllr Terry said: “This is going to require big, big money. They talk in the report that in Sweden they can get a grant of 5,700 Euros for an electric car but there’s no such thing as a grant – it’s taxpayers’ money.
“At the moment, every day we use 140 billion kilowatt hours of energy in petrol and diesel, and we talk about putting in charging points here, there and everywhere.
“Where and how much is it going to cost the north west energy companies to put those cables in the ground and how much is it going to add to our electricity bills? I want to see a lot more effort put into telling us what it’s actually going to cost us. There’s not a word about that in here.”
The council agreed that councillors Titley and Lansbury would respond to the consultation once they had received feedback from members.
Cllr Lansbury said: “It’s important we take part in the consultation process so that we are putting this area on the map and putting down a marker for Keswick and ensuring that the pathway to Keswick’s own transport decarbonisation process are fed into the plans at a strategic level.
“If we are not involved, we can’t influence the direction of travel.”
It was agreed that those Keswick councillors involved in its dedicated climate change group prepare a full response to the consultation to be submitted on behalf of the town council.
