Forest of Dean Council To Save The World!!
By Paul Homewood
h/t Cyan
https://www.fdean.gov.uk/media/le3ivv5b/climate-emergency-rapid-action-plan.pdf
Reader Cyan has sent details of his local council’s Climate Action Plan:
Note the last sentence demanding taxpayers’ money to fund their daft plans. Surely if it is a real emergency, the Forest of Dean’s own citizens would be delighted to cough up! And heaven forbid the money should come out of council pension funds.
And why all the rush? Apparently because if the council carries on with Business as Usual, we won’t meet the 1.5C target!
The Council’s own emissions are miniscule, running at about 1000 tonnes a year, just 0.2% of the District’s emissions.
But that won’t stop our bold bureaucrats from trying to save the planet!
They have already set up a Climate Emergency Cabinet Portfolio Support Group, and have agreed to provide officer support of 0.8 Full Time Employee to support the delivery of Rapid Action Plan during 2020-21.
Maybe we should organise a survey of other councils’ plans, particularly identifying costs. If readers are willing to FOI their local councils, I will collate replies.
FOOTNOTE
I would suggest these questions:
1) Have you declared a climate emergency?
2) Have you established an action plan to address it
3) What costs have you incurred so far as a result?
4) What costs have you committed to?
5) What are the estimated costs of the action plan?
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NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT 
Ignorant, delusional, self-important, jumped-up little twerps. Apart from that, these people are fine.
It’s practically every dumb local council in the land. Our local ‘town council’ (actually a parish council, but because it covers a population of 20,000 it calls itself a town!!!) has voted unanimously to be carbon neutral by 2030 no less!!!! I patiently and carefully wrote to them to point out – given that this is only ten years away and already six months of one year had gone – how were they going to achieve that target. I noted that with 9,000 homes, 11,000 cars and 1,200 business it was impossible. I noted from pretty robust calculations I made that this was likely to cost £100 million a year for the next decade… Needless to say I got the usual brush-off… but this madness is everywhere.
It is not just emissions . A lot of councils around the country have used the pandemic emergency to push through local changes to try to stop people using their cars by bringing in cycle priorities on the roads .
Cambridge spent over £2 Million in converting a roundabout into ” Dutch Style ” cycle priority .
In Holland about half of the roundabouts have cycle priority , and even with the Dutch awareness of cyclists , these have a far higher accident rate than the normal roundabouts .
http://www.aviewfromthecyclepath.com/2014/05/the-best-roundabout-design-for-cyclists.html
So are the council just trying to stop cars , did they not do any research to find these roundabouts are a lot more dangerous , or is it really that they did not want to call it an
” Organ Donor roundabout ” , because it is near a hospital .
Young nurses and doctors have much more viable organs to offer too.
‘Those whom the gods wish to destroy they first make mad!’
As a resident of Gloucester, across the river from FOD, it doesnt surprise me. 😀
The Forest of Dean is barking up the wrong tree !
If you can send me details of what I need to ask my council (Hammersmith & Fulham), will do so.
Ask them to cost for every £1 spent the amount of global temperature rise they can GUARRANTEE their measures will avoid. This should be provided in units of temperature rise, or if the idiot virtue signallers on your council are into climate change as their cause celebre then it should be expressed in units of climate change avoided per £1 spent with a clear definition of what a unit of climate change is.
If you wish to be really naughty you could ask them to point to ( not to the claims) but the statistically significant empirical data set(s) which demonstrate conclusively that the problem ( what problem I ask) is caused by CO2. You can ask them to point to the precedents set in geological history while also pointing out that nowhere over geological time is there a correlation between atmospheric temperature and CO2 content. Further you can offer the observation that the claimed greenhouse effect is just that, a claim and not an empirical data based conclusion, supporting this question with the observation that the signature of Water Vapour totally swamps that of CO2 in the Infra Red so even “if” the effect exists or has any merit then the main factor is Water Vapour not CO2. You can ask how they know that this the fourth in a series of warm periods in human history is man made given that it started 350 years ago at the end of the IceAge. To be able to make an attempt to prove that firstly it must be proven what caused the three previous warming periods and that NONE of those processes apply today.
Sadly you will not be dealing with thinking people rather bureaucratic pions who see money in all of this while being too stupid to realize that none of what they are doing is sustainable ( their word not mine).
The lunatics are in charge of the asylum.
You will be dealing with an office worker who will simply ask the boss for a link to a cut and paste reply, probably drafted by Harrabin.
I would suggest:
1) Have you declared a climate emergency?
2) Have you established an action plan to address it
3) What costs have you incurred so far as a result?
4) What costs have you committed to?
5) What are the estimated costs of the action plan?
I have written to Forest of Dean Council asking if it safe to visit.
That is an excellent idea!
Never mind a net-zero goal. Perhaps someone should remind them about what has just happened to global economies as a result of the rapid lowering of carbon fuel emissions created solely by the coronavirus lockdown. No expensive legislation required. Just do it??? Where have they been?
Well, if interested, here’s Herefordshire Council’s Carbon Management Plan:
Click to access draft_carbon_management_plan_202021_to_202526.pdf
Here’s dear Ellie waxing lyrical about it:
And here’s me having my say in comments at the local rag:
https://www.herefordtimes.com/news/18499136.herefordshire-council-sets-new-goal-reduce-carbon-emissions/
Well presented stickybuns : but I doubt the ‘researchers’ would get past your first 10 words
“Well presented stickybuns” – saveenergy
hahaha. Yeah, I had a good laugh imagining her “cycling” in to work. I can hear her co-workers when she’s late…
“Anyone seen Ellie? She said she’d start cycling in this AM. Oh, and did any of you see that ambulance zooming by earlier? I wonder what that was all about?”
Also, what is “Cllr Chowns”? And why is Clowns misspelled?
She really has NO idea what she’s talking about, does she!
The executive approves the policy approach of using 100% renewably sourced energy. On the 1 September 2019 the council switched its electricity supply to 100% renewable energy. We are exploring options for renewable gas as part of this plan.
The above is taken straight from Hertfordhire’s carbon neutral plan. How can they say that all their electricity supply is from renewable sources? Surely they, like the rest of us, get off the national grid.
Now we just need Hampshire, and we can say that Hurricanes Hardly Happen.
” Global Temperate Rise”
Ye Gods! they don’t even understand what they are trying to deal with… Or perhaps they are just plain ignorant?
Maye we can promote and encourage it in as this weeks new word for the climate orthodoxy which like all the other marxist driven causes out their, makes it up as well as the language they use as they go along. Indeed for the billions spent we only have silly new words or phrases to show for it, certainly no empirical data based science which even a 12 year old could get away with. We have had climate positive climate neutral carbon positive carbon neutral net zero net positive…the inanity just goes on and on as long as their is public money to divert to fund this bullcrap. The only positive thing I can see is the neutral brain activity associated with all of this navel fluff contemplation by those who clearly show themselves to be not the sharpest knives in the drawer.
There is a clue in the name. Forests have a lot of trees nes pa. So planting more should do the trick
But planting more trees can never stop because trees also die and the oxygen they created is used to re cycle their carbon back to CO2 and water. And never mind the land they take up or the chances of forest fires. Don’t forget that more trees are in competition with land for solar panel farms and agriculture for the humans that plant all these things. The idiocy cycle?
I wouldn’t believe their graphs of prior CO2e emissions cuts, never mind their future projections. Such statistics are easily wangled as we have seen on a national scale, e.g. by claiming that biomass wood pellets are carbon neutral and by simply neglecting to count the foreign fossil fuel consumption used to supply our imports.
These people need to be confronted with the stark reality that “carbon neutral” means net zero fossil fuels. Ask them how that is going to work when the UK as a whole is currently a firm 79% dependent on fossil fuels for its primary energy supply while the electricity supply from UK flagship renewables wind and solar contributes just 3.5% of UK primary energy consumption.
Let them try to spin their way out of that. The entire Western establishment is living in climate change cloud cuckoo land. They simply refuse face up to reality, e.g. as spelled out here: https://edmhdotme.wordpress.com/fossil-fuel-dependency-shows-net-zero-is-impossible/.
Unfortunately I live in the Forest of Dean
I’d love to live over there, unfortunately Im stuck next to the old A38, nice view of the peak at Cinderford though lol
There must be laws that limit what local councils can spend money on. They are probably allowed to spend money on coping with the consequences of extreme weather, but surely not allowed to spend money on changing the weather?
I think that changed about a decade ago. Local authorities were given wider competence to spend on anything that was for the good of their area. Traditionally you are correct – they could only spend on things that they were specifically told to do by legislation.
Thank you for the feature Paul. Commentators rightly ridicule the RAP but the background is much more sinister: In December 2018 the Forest of Dean unanimously approved a ‘Climate Emergency’ here:
https://meetings.fdean.gov.uk/mgAi.aspx?ID=15458
Researching the phrases used I discovered that other councils approved climate emergencies using the same statements. Councils as geographically diverse as Scarborough, Eastbourne, Chichester, Frome, Bristol, Lambeth all used the same phrases, some of which were the unattributed comments of Guardian reporters. This is clearly a national conspiracy.
The “Zero Carbon 2030” message is now being written into all council policies in the same way that “Sustainable Development” entered council policies many years ago. Sustainable Development came from UN agenda 21, so no prizes for guessing where Zero Carbon comes from.
Meanwhile, fly tipping, littering, road defects, potholes, crime, street lighting and the rest can all take a back seat. Who do councils represent, political activists or their local residents?
I think we should declare a democracy emergency.
“Who do councils represent, political activists or their local residents?” – Devoncamel
Whoever can enrich them the most.
That’s where the subsidies come in. It’s a money laundering operation, in which those who are paid the subsidies kick some back to the pols who provided it for them, and will again if kept in power. It’s the only “renewable” in this whole corrupt process.
My thoughts exactly. Thanks.
Did they ask the trees in the forest what they thought of having their growth food reduced?
“…climate activist Greta Thunberg stood before a sea of news cameras at the United Nations Climate Action Summit in New York City”
I’m calling B.S. on her Asperger’s diagnosis!
https://wrongplanet.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=112787#
I’m guessing more Sociopath, like so many other members of that religion appear to be. In fact, I don’t think you can get in otherwise.
I live in the FoD, and am currently affected by 3 planning sites of 230, 36 and 6 properties. In each case many of us have submitted our comments re. the FoDDC 2030 Carbon neutral agenda and sustainability, including the local Town Council. Not one thing has been included, no grey water collection, solar panels on new roofs, heat source pumps or actual provision of electric car fast charging facilities. The reason, it is not Council Policy! The whole thing is a farce, if they don’t have policies to facilitate their aims.
Jo, Councillor Chris McFarling holds the brief for Climate and Planning at FoDDC, a poison chalice if ever there was one. Why not put a question to the next full council meeting asking him how he squares the requirements of his Climate Emergency with the planning sites you mention? His response will be informative to us all.
Alternatively, our local newspaper “The Forester” has an excellent reputation for presenting both sides of the climate agenda. I have had numerous letters published there pointing out the absurdity of many of his arguments and I know that the council are sensitive to bad press.
I find it helps to remember that COUNCIL is actually an acronym: Collection Of Useless Numpties; Corrupt, Incompetent & Lazy
I have received this response from Gateshead council to the 5 questions suggested by Paul. It will be interesting to see just how long their “it is practible to do so” turns out to be.
“Whilst every effort will be made to respond to your request within the time limit of 20 working days, due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on services across the organisation, you are unlikely to receive a full response within that time frame. Whilst it may be possible to respond to part of your request within the 20 working day timescale, you will be provided with a full response as soon as it is practicable to do so.”
So I found Cheltenham “Climate Action Plan” and it contains this gem:
“Upgrading the crematorium to zero carbon operation”
I don’t know what to say …
Whilst those questions might embarrass the councils, I would far rather try to educate them by requiring them to learn some facts. So my questions would be :-
1.Do you know what Carbon Dioxide is
2.Do you know how much there is in the atmosphere ?
3.Do you know how much heat is caused by CO2
4.Do you know what Logarithmic means
5.Do you know which is the largest greenhouse gas ?
Hello Paul. I got this reply to my request. It seems we are indeed a year into the emergency. Other than that…….Mr Charles Walkercharlie.walker@orange.frOur ref: 28951Dear Mr WalkerEnvironmental Informati