1:21pm Tuesday 11th November 2008
By Tim Quantrill
I don’t want to have to say ‘I told you so’ Bradford Council, but I did tell you.
Everyone could see the way energy prices were going earlier this year and bigger bills were on the horizon especially as your fixed-price deal was coming to an end. There was that multi-million pound pot of money from the sale of Leeds-Bradford Airport which was a once in a blue moon opportunity to put serious money into cutting that energy bill.
But what have you done with it? Most of the £58 million has seeped away in dribs and drabs in little projects here and there. With that amount of money a serious dent could have been made in cutting costs and saving tonnes of carbon dioxide.
The Council’s annual fuel bill rose by nearly £5 million last year and now it faces a 62 per cent increase in the electricity bill. That will work out an estimated £1 million more just for lighting the district’s streets. Then there is another £1.5 million a year extra needed for schools and £1.3 million for other departments - a whopping £3.8 million extra annually overall which could have been avoided to some degree by spending that windfall on energy saving measures.
If the Council had spent that big pot on schemes to save energy there would have been money in the day-to-day kitty for projects but now that cash has to go to paying those huge bills.
MPs recently passed the Government’s Climate Change Bill which placed an emphasis not only on the Government but also councils and all of us to do something to cut the nation’s carbon emissions but public bodies like Bradford Council can be directed to produce a report on how their organisation is assessing and acting on the risks and opportunities from a changing climate.
It will be interesting to see how the Council intends to do its bit and what targets it will set itself to cut its carbon emissions. For example, does it know how much CO2 it is responsible for emitting now and will it commit to cutting that figure by 80 per cent by 2050?
I am hoping our local Green and other concerned councillors will chivvy the Council to do all it can.
Green or Obscene - the mileage counter
Miles by car: -380
Miles being driven: -39
Miles by train: +1057
Miles on foot: +177
Miles by bike: +0
Miles by bus: +0
Miles by ferry: +0
Total: +815 (running total: -1962)
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