New climate change group meets for the first time in Stafford

The twelve strong group has a dozen representatives from across the area and give environmentally friendly ideas to Stafford Borough Council to

The panel is part of the council’s climate change strategy and met virtually for the first time on Monday.

The council asked for residents to join a stakeholder panel and members of groups There is No Planet B and Sustainability Matters signed up.

Cabinet member for environment Councillor Jonathan Price said: "One of the things our panel members have in common is they are passionate about the environment and have the energy to drive forward with initiatives aimed at tackling climate change as well as promoting green recovery.

"And working alongside our officers, who also have an enormous passion to take forward our green strategy, I expect this panel to be a creative force for generating great ideas and promoting initiatives that will benefit our community and beyond."

Last year the council added Climate Change and Green Recovery as one of four priorities in its new business plan. A recent Sustainability West Midlands survey marked Stafford 9th overall in the region and emphasised progress made in a variety of areas including generating energy from renewable sources.

Councillor Price added: "We are heading in the right direction to being a ‘zero carbon’ authority. We have already demonstrated that we are not just talking the talk when it comes to tackling climate change.

"We made it a priority and we will work as quick as we can to make us carbon-free from our own activities."

He added: “We are, though, a very tiny cog in a global wheel and locally we need our community, businesses and organisations to do their bit to contribute to this agenda.”

The authority partnered with Keele University, the Centre for Alternative Technology and other Staffordshire councils to find out to achieve the zero carbon targets.

Proposals to remove carbon from the atmosphere have already been agreed with a new Local Nature Reserve in the centre of Stafford, including hundreds of trees.

Previous measures included replacing cremators which more than halved gas consumption at the crematorium on the town’s Tixall Road and installing solar panels to the roof of the Civic Centre in Stafford.