CALDERDALE Council has set a target date of 2038 for the council to become carbon neutral.

Cabinet agreed the council should have a net zero carbon footprint itself by that date, with substantial progress to be made by 2030.

The target date aligns with targets set for the borough as a whole.

They also agreed a cross-departmental working group should be established by the council’s corporate leadership team to develop and implement actions the council can take to meet the goals.

The need for a date to be set was already placed on the meeting agenda a year after the council first declared a climate emergency.

In the aftermath of flooding caused by Storm Ciara the day prior to the meeting, the challenges were also raised in the meeting’s public question time.

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Cabinet member for Climate Change and Environment, Coun Scott Patient (Lab, Luddenden Foot) said how the council acted on the huge challenge it faced to get to where it needed to be was half the battle.

The challenge involved looking at how we used energy, transport, consumed food, including what was grown here, air miles and much more.

“There is a lot to be done – there is work to be done in terms of how we get there,” said Coun Patient, who is also a member of the council’s Climate Change Working Party.

Bringing the target date down was something the council would need help in achieving.

“We want to pull that down as much as we can but we need outside help for that,” said Coun Patient.

Coun Jane scullion (Lab, Luddenden Foot) said a wider regional and national dialogue needed to take place about the environmental issue.

Leader of the council Coun Tim Swift (Lab, Town) aid it would be interesting to see whether the Government’s Budget in March would see any significant resources devolved, given the UK was hosting a carbon summit later in the year.

“We recognise some big interventions need to be t national level – not just in resources but also policy change,” he said.

Coun Jenny Lynn (Lab, Park) said one of the issues closer to home which needed to be looked at was provision of electric car charging points.

Coun Scullion said it was an apposite point: “By and large we put up street lamps at the back of the pavement rather than the pavement edge. It’s an issue we have got to overcome,” she said, after Coun Lynn had said cables trailing across the pavement to charging points which might be placed there would be dangerous.

In the public question time, Richard Ramsden said he was disappointed the date in the report was still 2038.

Coun Patient said he shared the frustration but the target date was lower than the Government’s date of 2050 and was in line with targets West Yorkshire and neighbours in Manchester had set.

The council wanted to see substantial progress made by 2030, he said.