Action plan launched for Warwick district ahead of referendum on tax hike to tackle climate change

This week, Warwick District Council members voted unanimously for a referendum to be held into whether residents are willing to pay about an extra £1 a week on top of their council tax to fund the authority's Climate Action Now plan.The aim of the plan is for the council to be carbon neutral by 2025 and for the entire district to be the same by 2030.

The referendum will take place on May 7 and in the run-up to that the council will set about promoting the plan to residents in the hope they will vote to pay for it.

The action plan, which is a cross-party initiative, was launched at the Glasshouse facility at Jephson Gardens today (Friday, February 28).

Council leader Andrew Day said: "We have been working on this since June when the unanimous vote in favour of the motion took place and it's now great to take the wraps off and present this [the plan] to the public.

"One of the things I am really keen on with this is seeing a mix of electric vehicles in our waste management contracts. There is technology being developed locally which might figure as part of that.

"We have trees to plant and we need land to do that. I promised 168,000 trees in four years and we need to crack on with that.

"There is also things like, for example, the building we're in today has one of the worst carbon emission ratings of all our buildings and yet there is an opportunity with the weir being just there with the river leam which we could use for generating electricity through to a district heating scheme which could be used for buildings like the Spa Centre, the Pump Rooms and the Town Hall to make them carbon zero.

"But that takes investment.

"There are many many other plans and we will be sharing those with residents over the coming ten weeks.

"The strength of what is happening here, which may seem somewhat unusual, is that all the parties are working together and we want to show our residents that by holding public meetings and answering their questions."

Cllr Day said the referendum will cost about £300,000 but that this will be paid for from the council's new homes bonus scheme which is the money it receives for building new houses which 'degrades the environment'.

This pot of money will also be used to fund the new council job role of programme director for climate change for which the successful applicant could earn up to £91,000 per year.

Cllr Day said: "We're not messing about, we're getting on with it.

"We need a high-level expert to help us achieve carbon neutrality by 2025."

For more information about the council's plans to tackle climate change click here.