a)    By Councillor Carpenter

That with immediate effect this Council recognises the wishes of the Windsor Town Forum’s current membership to be known as ‘Windsor Forum’.

A maximum period of 30 minutes will be allowed for each Motion to be moved, seconded and debated, including dealing with any amendments.  At the expiry of the 30-minute period debate will cease immediately, the mover of the Motion or amendment will have the right of reply before the Motion or amendment is put to the vote.

Motions a) relating to the name for the Forum relating to issues in Windsor

Councillor Carpenter introduced her motion which asked Council to consider amending the name of the Forum based in Windsor as it represented five wards in Windsor which were either fully or partly unparished with most residents living outside of the Town Centre. She explained that the feeling from the residents involved in the Forum was that ‘Windsor Forum’ sounded more inclusive than ‘Windsor Town Forum’. She asked her colleagues to show that they were listening to their residents and support the motion.

Councillor Price seconded the motion but reserved her right to speak.

Councillor Sharp proposed a closure motion to move directly to the vote. 

Councillor Carpenter summed up by saying that she had moved the motion in order to amend the Constitution to reflect residents’ wishes.

Proposed by Councillor Carpenter, seconded by Councillor Price it was

RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY that

with immediate effect this Council recognises the wishes of the Windsor Town Forum’s current membership to be known as ‘Windsor Forum’.

Motion b) regarding writing to the Prime Minister about the impact of national changes on the local ability to meet Carbon Zero targets

The Mayor advised the meeting that the motion had been accepted under rule C6.2 and was therefore treated as a Motion without Notice under C13(s).

Councillor Karen Davies introduced her motion thanking the Mayor for allowing it to be added to the agenda as it was an important issue that could not wait. She explained that the previous week the Prime Minister had announced significant delays to the planned phasing out of diesel and petrol cars and gas boilers, and also scrapped commitments to make homeowners and landlords upgrade the insulation on their properties. Given that, in 2020, gas and other heating fuels in domestic use had contributed 29% of the borough’s carbon emissions and vehicle usage contributed 33% of the borough’s total carbon emissions, she was asking the Leader of the Council to write to the Prime Minister to express their concerns at how this national delay would impact on the ability of local authorities to reach net zero carbon, and asking for an urgent renewed commitment to funding the improvements to electricity infrastructure necessary to enable to enable residents, businesses and local authorities to make the necessary transitions to reach net zero.

She said that the national issue but directly impacted on the borough’s residents, on businesses in the borough and on the Council’s ability to reach its target of net zero carbon by 2050. Delaying the phased climate pledges was ‘kicking the can down the road’ for someone else to pick up. She stated that the administration was fully committed to the Council reaching net zero by 2050 at the latest they could only achieve this by working in partnership with communities, businesses and Government, and any watering down of the commitment from Government made it harder for them to achieve this. 

She explained that the Social Market Foundation had estimated that private renters would pay £1bn a year more in energy bills because of the scrapping of proposals to make landlords upgrade insulation on their properties. Phasing was really important in the trajectory towards net zero and having adopted the Tyndall trajectory they were on course to achieve a 50% reduction by 2025, because carbon removed early was more valuable but noted it only got harder to keep achieving further reductions. She stated that the change was a U turn on pledges and abandoned the cross-party consensus which had benefitted this vital work over the last few years.

Councillor Reynolds seconded the motion stating that he was proud that the Council was on track to achieve a 50% reduction in carbon emissions by the end of 2025. He stated that they needed government funding to support improvements to the energy infrastructure. In September 2022 RBWM had the fifth highest number of new electric vehicles registered across the country but a study a year before had shown that they were the sixth worst local authority for electric vehicle charging infrastructure. He was looking forward to the Electric Vehicle Charging Point procurement paper being considered at the next month’s Cabinet meeting. He concluded that they needed the commitment from government to ensure that local authorities could still reach their committed goals, aims and objectives. He asked colleagues to help leverage their power as a Council to lobby the government to do the right thing.

Councillor Sharpe acknowledged that climate change was important but thought the focus should be on getting on with making changes and did not think the letter would do any good.

Councillor Julian Tisi noted that the Prime Minister had made multiple backtracks on environmental commitments that were vital if the UK was to meet its targets of Net Zero by 2050. He stated that none of changes would help those struggling against the cost of living crisis for example generally the poor don't buy new cars and despite the Prime Minister’s claim that this would result in lower costs the opposite was true. He commented that they needed to move away from fossil fuel reliance so that people were less exposed to price hikes dependent upon global factors beyond control. The Independent Office of Budget Responsibility had estimated that the cost of not hitting net zero would be double the costs of reaching it. He observed that these changes would lead to uncertainty in manufacturing with planned investments in the production plants to meet the previous 2030 target which would push off investment and reduce credibility on the government. He explained the abandonment of nutrient neutrality rules which required developers to ensure that excess nutrients were not released into rivers and streams was not just a national issue or far in the future. Within the Eton and Castle Ward they had seen an example of the impact of this issue locally as the Eton and Wick Waterways Group had been clearing the weeds out of streams during the summer. Together with Councillors Wilson and Devon Davies he had joined the local volunteers literally in the river clearing out weeds which had caused flooding of the meadow and part of the village but the weeds would come back if there were excess nutrients here and in rivers around the country.

The Mayor requested brevity within the debate and that contributions were focused on the motion.

Councillor Moriarty added that it was such a shame that just as society was starting to get behind the idea of the climate emergency that something so public and so prominent might dampen that now. He was worried about small businesses within the borough explaining that scope three within the Environment Social Governance standards meant that corporations would have to demonstrate not only their own environmental credentials but those of their whole supply chain. He reflected that it was the sorts of organisations that were at the recent Maidenhead and Windsor Business and Community Awards that would have their opportunities clipped if the Council was not able to support them in meeting their own climate targets in their own climate infrastructure. He considered it was important to demonstrate to residents that the Council would not let something like this be ignored and they’d keep fighting to support them and their own business opportunities.

Councillor Del Campo commented that one of the reasons that was often given for dialling back on clean technology was that it is prohibitively expensive and whilst it was true that it is currently much more expensive to buy an electric car than a petrol one this was because it was an emerging technology which only became affordable when it became mainstream.

Councillor Coe observed that residents in Datchet, Horton and Wraysbury were on the front line of climate change as their homes would get flooded more frequently as rainfall increased as the flood alleviation they needed had not been done. He observed that climate change was not an abstract idea in a distant future as it was seen in the weather, in the bushfires in Australia and America, in flooding in Bangladesh, stronger hurricanes in the Caribbean and increased rainfalls in the UK. He reported that he had regular conversations with the environment agency that the extra capacity put in by the Jubilee River was getting used up by increased rainfall and the flood evaluation for areas around the river would move and properties that had been protected would move back into a position of being vulnerable. He considered that another few years would be lost instead of the Prime Minister taking action now.

Councillor Wilson commented that in his adult lifetime the average surface temperature had increased nearly one degree from 16 degrees to 16.96 degrees driven by greenhouse gas emissions now referred to as carbon emissions. He said that they needed to heed the warnings and act now.

Councillor Price commented that it was for her grandchildren and what was being bequeathed to them which frightened her. She stated that they should be doing absolutely nothing to make it worse and should be striving to do more than they were currently doing because she feared for what they were going to live through.

Councillor Reeves noted that the Council’s Highways contracts were being linked to CPI and inflation was struggling to come down which would mean that the value of the road improvements available to the Council was lessening by the day. He asked that the letter include support for additional funds to support the Council’s highways improvements such as cycle lanes, cycle routes plus fixing the large number of potholes and the increasing deterioration in the roads. He stated that increased PM 2.5 from brakes and tire condition was obviously impacted by rough roads. He proposed to add to the letter that funding to actually improve highways and particularly cycle lanes and cycle routes was a more active way to achieve the target of Net Zero by 2050. 

The Mayor clarified that rather than being an amendment to the motion being debated it was a proposal for inclusion in the content of the letter and this was accepted.

Councillor Bermange observed that when referring to Net Zero 2050 the year 2050 was getting nearer and nearer but it still felt like a fair way in the future and the policy that it would ‘be alright on the night’ did not stand up to scrutiny. He explained that as set out in the Climate Change Act 2008 it is not just about getting to Net Zero by a certain date but about having the five-year carbon budgets which set a trajectory in order to get to Net Zero. He continued that what was being suggested was to shallow that curve now with a steeper curve later but too much carbon could have been emitted by then causing the climate to hit breaking point.

Councillor Hunt stated that she was delighted to hear that they were still going to hit the target by 2050 and sticking to the target of reducing emissions by 68% before 2030. Since 1990 the carbon emissions from electricity generation had fallen by three quarters, the proportion of electricity generated by renewables like wind and solar had grown to around 40 percent in the last few years up from just over 10 percent a decade ago, so she reflected that the government were doing things. Buildings account for about 17% of the UK's greenhouse gas emissions mainly due to burning fossil fuels and the government had committed to installing 600,000 heat pumps a year by 2028 to replace the gas boilers. She noted that the government was offering grants of £5k to help homeowners in England and Wales to install heat pumps which were three times more efficient.

Councillor Brar contributed that as Chair of Licensing Panel that they had spoken about taxis converting to electric or hybrid cars by 2025 / 2030 do this was a backtrack and she supported the motion.

Councillor Jones raised concerns with electric cars, battery charging and disposal looking to the future as she could not see how this would be coped with. A stop / start approach to net zero does not work for big business, reduced investor and developer confidence which increased the cost of capital and overall cost of decarbonisation.

Councillor Taylor requested if Councillor Werner would add to the letter to ask the Prime Minister to start looking now at funding grants to cover the increased costs for things such as electric vehicles and servicing heat pump boilers. She reflected that more development needed to take place for the safety and affordability of electric vehicles. Residents were keen but it was too expensive so they would need help.

The Mayor confirmed with Councillor Werner that this was an accepted edition to the letter to be drafted.

Councillor Howard added to Councillor Taylor’s comments but focused on the skills gap to achieve the environmental goals. There were currently fewer people able to help support a air source heat pump than a gas boiler. He requested that Councillor Werner asked that funds were requested from the Prime Minister to help people train, to build knowledge and help people participate.               

The Mayor confirmed with Councillor Werner that this was an accepted edition to the letter to be drafted.

Councillor Karen Davies summed up the debate by saying that she thanked members for their support, especially for Councillor Reeves’, Councillor Taylor’s and Howard’s suggestions for inclusion in the letter to be drafted. She reflected, in response to Cllr Hunt’s remarks, that the government’s claim that the UK has done better than other countries on cutting emissions was based on decarbonisation carried out decades ago, not under the current government. Emissions cuts measured from 1990, and the UK’s dash for gas, which displaced coal for power generation in the 1990s and 2000s, delivered a large share of the roughly 50% fall in carbon emissions since then. Under the current government she observed that while emissions from power generation have continued to fall, those from transport, homes and farming had remained high. She concluded that whilst their opposition may or may not make any difference to the national government she felt this was a serious issue on which the Council needed to make a stand.

A recorded vote was requested.

The motion was therefore carried.

Proposed by Councillor K Davies, lead member for Climate Change, Biodiversity and Windsor Town Council, seconded by Councillor Reynolds it was

RESOLVED that

the Council agrees to ask the Leader of the Council to write to the Prime Minister to express our concerns at how this national delay will impact on the ability of local authorities to reach net zero carbon, and asking for an urgent renewed commitment to funding the improvements to electricity infrastructure necessary to enable to enable residents, businesses and local authorities to make the necessary transitions to reach net zero.