It's the moment you've been waiting for - @bathnes full council. Public speaking is over and now we're onto the main business, starting with a progress report on what the council's been doing to tackle the #ClimateEmergency
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@bathnes Cllr Sarah Warren, cabinet member for climate emergency, says: "I therefore appeal to colleagues, to support [the motion], so that we can continue to move rapidly towards a carbon-neutral future, as a community united around the science and the urgency of the need for transition"
@bathnes Conservative leader Paul Myers is "bitterly disappointed" in the lack of detail and leadership set out in the report.
@bathnes Cllr Karen Warrington urges the council to robustly oppose the expansion of Bristol Airport
@bathnes Cllr Lisa O'Brien says council should encourage residents not to light up their houses for Christmas.
@bathnes Council leader @CllrDineRomero disappointed at the Tory response. She said the report was high level and could not set out every initiative. She has a cabinet member for #ClimateEmergency and all decisions must take it into account
@bathnes @CllrDineRomero Cllr @RSamuel4Walcot said the Conservatives had shown a complete lack of understanding about the system change required to tackle the #ClimateEmergency
@bathnes @CllrDineRomero @RSamuel4Walcot Cllr @timothyball says Government is too busy playing Brexit games and is not taking the issue seriously. Council will be lobbying Gov for change.
@bathnes @CllrDineRomero @RSamuel4Walcot @timothyball Labour's Grant Johnson wants the council to acknowledge that "based on current knowledge we don't know exactly how to get to carbon neutrality", but there needs to be urgency to the #ClimateEmergency
@bathnes @CllrDineRomero @RSamuel4Walcot @timothyball Conservative Chris Watt says council could take immediate steps like saying all taxis should be electric, acknowledging there would be difficulties charging.
@bathnes @CllrDineRomero @RSamuel4Walcot @timothyball He says slim line double glazing could be installed without degrading the many listed buildings across Bath and North East Somerset
@bathnes @CllrDineRomero @RSamuel4Walcot @timothyball Cllr Vic Clarke says the population is growing and so will need for food, so it is "perverse" to consider losing agricultural land for solar panels. "I urge us all to meet the challenge of climate change without covering the land with concrete and plastic."
@bathnes @CllrDineRomero @RSamuel4Walcot @timothyball We're back from a recess and onto a motion on reopening the railway station at Saltford.
@bathnes @CllrDineRomero @RSamuel4Walcot @timothyball Cllr Lisa O'Brien says Saltford ward Cllr Duncan Hounsell has been pushing for the station to open for years but had been silent on the issue since June, when he met Lib Dem colleagues Din Romero, Richard Samuel and Neil Butters.
@bathnes @CllrDineRomero @RSamuel4Walcot @timothyball Saltford's Duncan Hounsell says the Lib Dems had allocated £250,000 in their last council budget to take it forward but the subsequent Tory administration never spent it, and dropped it from this year's budget.
@bathnes @CllrDineRomero @RSamuel4Walcot @timothyball The motion has been carried. The council will "consider how best to take the project forward" and how the station might be funded.
@bathnes @CllrDineRomero @RSamuel4Walcot @timothyball We've moved onto a motion on giving 16 and 17 year olds the vote. Cllr Dr Kumar is backing it with an acrostic. V is for validation.
@bathnes @CllrDineRomero @RSamuel4Walcot @timothyball Tory leader Paul Myers said it's not universal that 16/17yos are capable to exercise the judgement to vote. He asks why council is spending time discussing a national issue when there is lot else it should be covering.
@bathnes @CllrDineRomero @RSamuel4Walcot @timothyball The motion from Lib Dem Ryan Wills, one of the youngest councillors, passes unamended.
@bathnes @CllrDineRomero @RSamuel4Walcot @timothyball Labour is calling for the council to "consider the implications of signing up for accreditation as a Living Wage Employer" and use its influence as a major local employer.
@bathnes @CllrDineRomero @RSamuel4Walcot @timothyball Cabinet member for finances Richard Samuel said the council would be "signing a blank cheque" if it did
@bathnes @CllrDineRomero @RSamuel4Walcot @timothyball That's because it would commit the council to requiring third parties to pay the living wage, which could ramp up costs. Cllr Samuel wants the council to consider the full implications.
@bathnes @CllrDineRomero @RSamuel4Walcot @timothyball Cllrs Moss and Wood are debating a motion on trees!
@bathnes @CllrDineRomero @RSamuel4Walcot @timothyball That's been carried - the council welcomes the goal of planting 100,000 trees by May 2023
