Sefton Green Party shocked at Council's poor Climate Plan.

Nearly three years after declaring a Climate Emergency Sefton Council are failing to deliver real actions to address climate change. In a report published by Climate Emergency UK, and featured in the Guardian 27th January, Sefton scores a miserable 32% for its progress so far. This compares with the best performer Somerset West and Taunton on 97%, and in our region, Manchester City on 87%.

The score measures what the councils have done across key factors in the fight against climate breakdown such as Mitigation and Adaptation, Setting and measuring targets, Community Engagement, and Diversity and Inclusion. A score of 1/5 is particularly disappointing in this last factor, when Sefton has more than its fair share of excluded and disadvantaged communities.

In fact there has been little or no genuine community engagement with Sefton’s plan, despite this being identified as a key action in phase 1. Covid has been blamed, and that is clearly a factor, but that has not prevented other authorities involving all parts of their communities in forming and delivering plans. 

Sefton has claimed a 10% reduction in Carbon emissions, but the reality is that is almost wholly due to the changes in working practices forced on the council by the pandemic. Plus there has been no independent auditing of the council’s progress, as recommended by Climate Emergency.

We need an urgent review of the plan to include effective Community Engagement through a Citizens Panel or Jury. We also need improved communications to keep everyone up to date on progress, and how they can contribute, ideally using a separate webpage as has been done by Somerset CC.

Laurence Rankin of Sefton Greens said, “Sefton Council are failing on Climate Action. The Sefton Climate Emergency Actions must engage everyone in our community. The Climate Emergency Declaration is not just for the council, but needs to be a vehicle for everyone in the council area to sign up to. This means, local residents, businesses, schools, faith groups, volunteer groups, everyone. We have a fantastic resourceful community in Sefton. We need to be given the chance to play our part in fighting climate breakdown.”

Contact:

Laurence Rankin

Sefton Green Party