To debate a Motion submitted by the Administration in accordance with Rules 11 and 13 of the Council’s Constitution. The debate will last for a maximum of 30 minutes.

 

7 –  Administration Motion regarding the Climate Emergency

 

Councillor Rachel Blake moved and Councillor Amina Ali seconded the motion as printed in the agenda.

 

Councillor  Andrew Wood  moved and Councillor Peter Golds   seconded the following amendment to the motion to be debated.

 

Added text underlined & in bold

Deleted text scored out.

 

This Council notes:

 

1.                  That the Deputy Mayor Cllr Rachel Blake declared a climate emergency in Tower Hamlets in March 2019 as reported in minutes of the meeting, and Full Council supported that declaration through a resolution in July2019;

2.                  That the impacts of the climate emergency are clear for everyone to see, from the devastating fires in Australia and California, to the recent widespread flooding in the UK;

3.                  40% of residents in Tower Hamlets live in areas that breach EU and government guidance on safe levels of airpollution;

4.                  Our ambition to become a zero-carbon council by2025;

5.                  That Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has promised to deliver a green new deal for London with a target for the capital to be carbon-neutral by2030 in advance of his campaign to be re-elected.

This Council further notes the ongoing work locally to tackle the emergency and improve air quality:

 

1.                  Since the Climate Emergency declaration last year we have produced a Net Zero Carbon Roadmap that has baselined the Council’s emissions and produced an action plan of projects with the aim of the council becoming net zero carbon by 2025;

2.                  That at the July 2019 Full Council meeting, members resolved that a Tower Hamlets Climate Emergency Annual Report should be produced everyyear, and that none has yet been produced as of March 2020:

3.                  The council’s electricity supply has been switched to a 100% renewabletariff; at least a decade after it was possible to do so:

4.                  The street-light upgrade to LEDs has continued and is close tocompletion, but has chosen not to take the opportunity to add vehicle recharging points to the base of the new streetlights next to parking spots as other Councils including Hackney have done;

5.                  That we roll out LED lighting in all Council run facilities where possible; including switching off lights in the Town Hall when staff leave.

6.                  We are also working with other London Boroughs through London Councils, the London Environment Coordinators Forum (LECF), Association of Local Energy Officers (ALEO) and London Boroughs Energy Group (LBEG) to see how Boroughs can work together on projects to address the Climate Emergency and working together to make representations to Government around what supportwe need to be able to tackle the climateemergency;

7.                  We are currently carrying out a study to identify suitable roof space forsolar panels, since there are none on any LBTH owned /run buildings except Watney Market Idea Store despite previous government provided substantial incentives to install solar panels:

8.                The £15m Liveable Streets programme, which aims to make it easier, safer and more convenient to get around by foot, bike and publictransport, and which has chosen not to take the opportunity to consult the community on where to install new road side electric vehicle charging points; we have just 42 electric vehicle charging points well below that of neighbouring Hackney.

9.                  We are taking innovative action at a local level, for example London's first 'recycled' road was laid on Canrobert Street in Bethnal Green where approximately 100 recycled tyres were mixed into a new roadsurface;

10.            Tower Hamlets Council has been awarded £350,000 from the Mayor of London’s Local Enterprise Panel to help businesses tackle air pollution in the borough. The funding will enable the council to help small businesses reduce harmful emissions that contribute to poor air quality in TowerHamlets;

11.              The loss of £14.3 million of the value of our reserves through inflation in the last three years because we did not have a plan to spend some of that money for example to mitigate climate change e.g. buying solar farms;

12.            The launch of school and playstreets;

13.            To commit not to build new schools or expand them next to major roads when Environmental Health officers confirm that even at the height of the air intakes feeding fresh air into the school that pollution is high and that windows on the ground and 1^st floor should not be capable of being opened;

14.              To commit not to build new schools or expand them, which might force pupils to have to wait outside or play in areas with poor air quality like next to major roads;

15.            Our Air Quality Action Plan which outlines the action the council will take to improve air quality in TowerHamlets;

16.            The council is on track to plant more than 2,200 trees this year, taking the total number of trees delivered in the past two years to more than 5,000. We have recently been awarded £320k from the Greater London Authority which will be used towards new highways treepits; a realistic number compared to the 2 million trees Sadiq Khan promised in his 2016 London Mayoral campaign, which have not yet materialised. 

17.              Commit to no net loss of trees on any re-development especially on publicly owned land;

18.              Commit to growing green walls/parks/tree barriers/installing planters next to all major roads in the Borough especially where residential properties are next to main roads which will help absorb pollutants and particulate matter;

19.              Not to spend £120k on a metal A12 Acoustic Barrier but trial a plant based barrier to reduce noise instead;

20.              Commit to introducing more greenery whether at ground level, on vertical walls (as at Arnhem Wharf school) or hanging from street lights (as in Belgravia) which will help absorb pollutants and particulate matter (as well as make the Borough a more attractive place);

21.              Commit to install new accessible bicycle parking spots across the borough including at our new Town Hall site in Whitechapel as well as at Mulberry Place;

22.              Our anti-idling campaign continues, with a minimum of one site visit/anti-idling action undertaken every week and LBTH remains part of the pan-Londonscheme; despite the fact that not one single fine has so far been issued.

23.              We are reviewing the waste fleet ofvehicles, after recently installing new diesel fuel storage tanks at the transport depot on Silvocea Way and spending £10 million on new fossil fuelled refuse vehicles despite the City of London first trialling new electric refuse vehicles in May 2018;

24.              That of the 109 refuse vehicles the council operates 97 are diesel vehicles.

25.              That the council should review the whole of its own vehicle fleet, to speed up the use of electric, hydrogen or hybrid vehicles, to install  electric vehicle chargers on Council properties;

26.              That recycling rates have fallen in recent years; the percentage of household waste sent for recycling in Tower Hamlets is 28% against a London average of 33%.

27.            The failure to get developers to deliver on site energy generation options except for a few dock based heat exchangers;

28.            To substantially expand the network of permanent air quality monitoring stations which can provide real time online data from the current four to having some kind of online sensor outside every school so that should air quality deteriorate that appropriate actions can be taken by school staff;

29.              We are installing two electric vehicle charging points to facilitate zero emissionsice cream vans; while continuing to lack electric vehicle charging points in LBTH owned / run facilities unlike Brent Council; just £150,000 has been budgeted for more electric vehicle charging points for 2020/21. This is not enough. Much more money needs to be invested as this is also an income earner for the council and adequate funds should be invested.

30.              To commit to having electric vehicle charging points on every street by 2022 following the example of Hackney Council as set out in November 2019;

31.            That we will look to encourage or set up ourselves last mile depots where deliveries can be made by truck but that onward transport can be done by cargo bikes or electric bikes/vehicles as is done in places like Hamburg by UPS.

32.              We are working with partners and projects including Citizens UK, Sustrans, Low Emission Neighbourhoods, Zero Emission Neighbourhoods to help our communities reduce airpollution;

33.              That we will stop allowing new homes to be built so close to major roads especially when they are not air conditioned forcing residents into an invidious choice between opening their windows (assuming they can).

34.              We will write to the Port of London Authority to thank them for installing air quality monitors on the Isle of Dogs to monitor cruise ships moored at Greenwich, where we failed to take any action, despite local residents asking for air quality from these ships to be measured.

35.              We will write to Greenwich Council to make our opposition to cruise ships being moored without an onshore power supply at Greenwich Pier known.

36.            We will greatly expand our CCTV network to proactively use it to deter vehicles that fly-tip, causing damage to our environment. We will use this evidence to prosecute those who flytip or dump abandoned vehicles. We currently only have 360 CCTV cameras. All our neighbouring boroughs have more, Hackney 2,500, Newham 1100, Lewisham, 504, Southwark 464.

This Council believes:

 

1.                  That sustained and ambitious action is needed at a local, national and international level in order to tackle the climateemergency;

2.                  The climate emergency affect everybody but has a particular impact on those less able to adapt is also a social justice issue, with the worst affected by the crisis and poor air quality the lowest contributors to the changingclimate;

3.                  We should stop displacement activity, blaming others for their weaknesses in order to divert attention from our own failings, when we have our own house in order we can then spend time on chastising others for their inaction;

4.                  That the Conservative Government is not taking the emergency seriously enough, with the former President of the COP26 UN Climate talks condemning the Prime Minister’sinaction;

5.                  That the Government’s Brexit negotiating position threatens to severely weaken our own environmental protections andambitions;

This Council resolves:

 

1.                  To call on the Government to recognise the seriousness of the climate emergency and take a more active role in tacklingit;

2.                  To support the next Mayor of London in his or her efforts to transform London into a carbon- neutral city and examine what Tower Hamlets Council can do to support thataim;

3.                  To introduce climate impactassessments;

4.                  To continue to deliver our Air Quality ActionPlan;

5.                  To deliver the Net Zero CarbonRoadmap:

6.                  To be much more pro-active and to focus on delivery rather than virtue signalling through motions;

7.                  To stop building over green areas and sites of biodiversity. Limehouse Triangle gained planning permission at the 5^th attempt last year, just weeks after the council declared a climate emergency. Tower Hamlets ranks as the third worse borough in London for available green space;

8.                  To make better use of our extensive resources to mitigate the negative impacts of climate change, poor air quality and other damage to our environment; 

9.                  To begin to replace the council’s stock of vehicles with green electric/hybrid vehicles. Out of 206 vehicles in the council fleet 183 are powered by diesel;

10.              We will write to Greenwich Council to explore ways Tower Hamlets Council can help facilitate the instillation of on shore power supplies for cruise ship that moor at Greenwich in the future;

11.              Not to build new schools next to major roads.

 

Following debate, the amendment was put to a vote and was defeated.

 

Following debate, the motion was put to a vote and was unanimously agreed.

 

RESOLVED:

 

This Council notes:

 

1.            That the Mayor declared a climate emergency in Tower Hamlets in March 2019, and Full Council supported that declaration through a resolution in July 2019;

2.            That the impacts of the climate emergency are clear for everyone to see, from the devastating fires in Australia and California, to the recent widespread flooding in the UK;

3.            40% of residents in Tower Hamlets live in areas that breach EU and government guidance on safe levels of air pollution;

4.            Our ambition to become a zero carbon council by 2025;

5.            That Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has promised to deliver a green new deal for London with a target for the capital to be carbon-neutral by 2030.

This Council further notes the ongoing work locally to tackle the emergency and improve air quality:

 

1.            Since the Climate Emergency declaration last year we have produced a Net Zero Carbon Roadmap that has baselined the Council’s emissions and produced an action plan of projects with the aim of the council becoming net zero carbon by 2025;

2.            That at the July 2019 Full Council meeting, members resolved that a Tower Hamlets Climate Emergency Annual Report should be produced every year;

3.            The council’s electricity supply has been switched to a 100% renewable tariff;

4.            The street-light upgrade to LEDs has continued and is close to completion;

5.            We are also working with other London Boroughs through London Councils, the London Environment Coordinators Forum (LECF), Association of Local Energy Officers (ALEO) and London Boroughs Energy Group (LBEG) to see how Boroughs can work together on projects to address the Climate Emergency and working together to make representations to Government around what support we need to be able to tackle the climate emergency;

6.            We are currently carrying out a study to identify suitable roof space for solar panels;

7.            The £15m Liveable Streets programme, which aims to make it easier, safer and more convenient to get around by foot, bike and public transport;

8.            We are taking innovative action at a local level, for example London's first 'recycled' road was laid on Canrobert Street in Bethnal Green where approximately 100 recycled tyres were mixed into a new road surface;

9.            Tower Hamlets Council has been awarded £350,000 from the Mayor of London’s Local Enterprise Panel to help businesses tackle air pollution in the borough. The funding will enable the council to help small businesses reduce harmful emissions that contribute to poor air quality in Tower Hamlets;

10.         The launch of school and play streets;

11.         Our Air Quality Action Plan which outlines the action the council will take to improve air quality in Tower Hamlets;

12.         The council is on track to plant more than 2,200 trees this year, taking the total number of trees delivered in the past two years to more than 5,000. We have recently been awarded £320k from the Greater London Authority which will be used towards new highways tree pits;

13.         Our anti-idling campaign continues, with a minimum of one site visit/anti-idling action undertaken every week and LBTH remains part of the pan-London scheme;

14.         We are reviewing the waste fleet of vehicles;

15.         We are installing two electric vehicle charging points to facilitate zero emissions ice cream vans;

16.         We are working with partners and projects including Citizens UK, Sustrans, Low Emission Neighbourhoods, Zero Emission Neighbourhoods to help our communities reduce air pollution.

This Council believes:

 

1.            That sustained and ambitious action is needed at a local, national and international level in order to tackle the climate emergency;

2.            The climate emergency is also a social justice issue, with the worst affected by the crisis and poor air quality the lowest contributors to the changing climate;

3.            That the Conservative Government is not taking the emergency seriously enough, with the former President of the COP26 UN Climate talks condemning the Prime Minister’s inaction;

4.            That the Government’s Brexit negotiating position threatens to severely weaken our own environmental protections and ambitions;

This Council resolves:

 

1.            To call on the Government to recognise the seriousness of the climate emergency and take a more active role in tackling it;

2.            To support the Mayor of London in his efforts to transform London into a carbon-neutral city and examine what Tower Hamlets Council can do to support that aim;

3.            To introduce climate impact assessments;

4.            To continue to deliver our Air Quality Action Plan;

5.            To deliver the Net Zero Carbon Roadmap.