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The purpose of the Community Briefing meeting, which
was to make local community leaders aware of the rapid depletion of the Arctic
ice cap and its affect on weather patterns around the world. This had an
indirect impact on people in Brent as many members of the local community have
friends and families in parts of the world being devastated by floods, droughts
and fires. It was also having a direct impact through its effect on the price
and quality of food.
Ken addressed two of the three proposals that came out of the briefing
meeting, which aimed to develop a community response. The first of these was
about reaching out to the local community to increase awareness of the
seriousness and urgency of the need to mitigate climate change. The aim was to
enhance and strengthen the work of the Sustainability Forum and the Brent
Climate Change Steering Group, especially its Residents’ Steering Group. This
meant sending speakers to meetings of tenants’ and residents’ associations,
faith groups, trade unions, etc, and on occasion booking rooms for meetings.
The first request to the Executive was therefore that those organisations like
Brent CaCC and Brent FoE who were identified as Green Champions under the Brent
Climate Change Strategy should have use of Council premises, including public
libraries, free of charge.
Monatgue went on to draw the Executive’s attention to a proposal in
the early stages of development by BCaCC and Brent FoE which would require
support from the Council, advice from council officers, and the involvement of
specific councillors. This was for a pilot scheme to establish a Low Carbon
Zone in an area of the borough still to be identified in consultation with the
Council. A Low Carbon Zone involved concentrating existing agencies on the area
identified in order to generate awareness of the advantages to tenants and
residents of implementing measures for energy conservation and the sourcing of
power from renewables, to provide advice and guidance and facilitate discount
buying, and to access funding to install insulation, double glazing and
combined heat and power boilers. The “existing agencies” could include the
Council, private companies, campaign groups including ourselves and Transition
Town, the College of North West London, and the Brent TUC.
Central
to the proposal was the possibility of accessing significant funds for these
purposes from the Department of Energy and Climate Change under the Green New
Deal. By way of an example he mentioned that a Community Interest Company in
Barnet, “Energise Barnet”,LINK was working with the Council in making a £200
million bid. A meeting of the Brent Residents’ Steering Group and council
officers was being held on 22nd January to prepare a bid to DEC but this could
only go ahead once the Council had decided whether to apply as a “Large Scale
Green Deal Provider”, as a Marketing Partner” or a “Small Scale Green Deal
Provider”. The second request to the executive was therefore that it make a
decision on the form of its application in order to facilitate an appropriate
bid to DEC being decided at the meeting on 22 January.
Responding, lead member for the environment Cllr James Powney promised to designate an officer to investigate the proposal.
Declaration of interest: I am Chair of Brent Campaign Against Climate Change
Declaration of interest: I am Chair of Brent Campaign Against Climate Change
