WEST Devon Borough Council has voted to put its own house in order to cut carbon emissions causing climate change — with proposals including setting up a solar farm to provide green energy and introducing a fleet of electric vehicles.

The full council on Tuesday (December 16) agreed to back an action plan to make the council carbon neutral by 2030.

However, Cllr Ric Cheadle sounded a note of caution, asking how some of the more ambitious proposals would be funded, given that the council already had a £500,000 budget deficit to provide services for the next five years.

‘When you are looking down the barrel at a half a million pound deficit, is it not our responsibility to sort out the budget then deal with climate change or deal with the climate first and aggravate the budget problem?’ he asked.

‘The vast majority of the proposals in the action plan are going to require more resources to implement. At the moment we haven’t got the money and it has got to come from somewhere.’

Others, though, felt it shouldn’t be a choice between the budget and the climate.Cllr Robin Musgrave said: ‘Clearly there is going to be an issue of funding but I would hate to give the message from this council that we are not doing anything to tackle climate change. ‘We should identify the size of the problem and then having done that, we should decide what to do about it.’Cllr Andy Coulson agreed, saying: ‘It should not be about balancing the budget or tackling climate change. The answer is to do both and I believe both are achieveable. The action plan is there to ensure we work out the cost and when we are in a position to do so, we will address this. It is the responsible thing to do.’The plan, which has been drafted by the council’s climate change and biodiversity working group over six months, includes proposals such as setting up an in-house green energy company and making the council fleet of vehicles electric.There is also a proposal to switch rubbish collections across the borough to every three weeks and charge higher emission vehicles more to park in council car parks.The plan was put before councillors on Tuesday afternoon by Cllr Mike Davies, chair of the working group.He said: ‘The action plan is designed to be a “live plan” which means it can be altered as we progress. The plan includes 150 proposed actions.‘There is, of course, a cost for each proposal and before any action were to be undertaken there would be a cost/benefit analysis undertaken.’As well as becoming carbon neutral by 2030, the council has a target of improving habitats (increasing wildlife) in the borough’s green open spaces by 10% by 2025.The group has worked out the council’s existing carbon footprint with help from climate scientists at Exeter University, who calculated the total footprint at 5,200 metric tonnes of CO2 each year (when, for comparison, the average home contributes 2.2 metric tonnes of CO2 each year).The working group looked at reducing the council’s own carbon footprint as well as how it can support the measures in the Carbon Plan being led by the county council. Others, such as introducing an electrified railway line and requiring housing developers to adopt stricter eco building standards, require Government action.WDBC is asking the public to give its views on how climate change should be tackled. This can be accessed online at https://plymouth-consult.objective.co.uk/public/shwd/climate_emergency_public_consultation• Share your views on how you think climate change should be tackled and the council’s plans by writing a letter to: [email protected]