Sheffield councillors confused by their own climate change schemes

Labour councillors say their own authority is doing good work, but it is hard to find out what’s been done and the impact it is having.

Coun Mick Rooney, chairman of a scrutiny board, told a meeting: “The things we are doing with climate change feel a well kept secret and we should be saying it louder.

“On a number of occasions when I have heard what we are doing, it’s come as a surprise so the public may also feel the same way. We need to up the ante in getting the message out about what is happening.

“We recently heard from a member of the Youth Parliament who said he shouldn’t have to trawl through pages of minutes to find what was going off and I feel a bit like that with climate change.

“I like to have these things in one place rather than 20 documents to find out what is really going on.”

Other councillors agreed with Coun Jim Steinke adding: “It’s difficult to identify what the local authority is doing with climate change. We need a clearer message about this.”

Deputy Leader Terry Fox, who was being quizzed at the meeting, conceded the council’s messaging needed to be better.

He said: “It feels like a jigsaw with the pieces coming together and we need the full picture of the investment and what is happening.

“We may need to push hard on this because we need a full menu of all the initiatives, it’s not one silver bullet to solve everything.

“We need an overarching message that we can all get behind which gives a clear steer.”

It’s been a year since the council declared a climate emergency but critics say there has been no significant action.

Extinction Rebellion Sheffield recently held a protest outside Sheffield Town Hall at a lack of ‘meaningful action’ from the council on climate change.

A meeting of full council was temporarily halted earlier this month when campaigners peacefully took over.