Sixty local residents aged twelve to 90 took part in the council’s new citizens’ assemblies initiative to help come up with new ideas, reports Simon Allin, Local Democracy Reporter

Retrofitting homes is one of the recommendations (credit Erik McLean Unsplash)

Barnet residents have come up with a set of proposals designed to slash carbon emissions and help the council reach ‘net zero’.

The 16 recommendations, covering a range of areas from transport and housing to education, were produced by citizens’ assemblies set up by the council with the aim of making Barnet “one of London’s most sustainable boroughs”.

Members of the Labour administration said holding the assemblies delivered on a key manifesto pledge following the council’s declaration of a climate emergency last year, but the Conservative opposition condemned the exercise as an “expensive PR stunt”.

The recommendations, which were produced by 60 residents between the ages of twelve and 90 following a series of meetings between February and May, were presented to the council’s cabinet on Monday (26th).

They include developing a strategy to make roads safe for active travel, with an emphasis on cycle lanes.

On housing, the assemblies recommend incorporating green and sustainable design processes in all new builds and retrofitting properties to make them net zero.

Nature and biodiversity proposals include encouraging local fruit farming, which “will help create support for veganism” and reduce carbon emissions from shipping.

Other proposals include educating residents on how to reduce food waste and using campaigns to raise awareness of sustainability across social media platforms.

The council has set a target to reach net zero as an organisation by 2030, meaning it will cut its greenhouse gas emissions as much as possible and ensure any that remain are balanced by carbon-absorbing measures. It wants the borough to reach net zero by 2042.

Alan Schneiderman, the council’s cabinet member for environment and climate change, said: “A year ago, after winning the election, we declared a climate emergency. Holding that citizens’ assembly and a young people’s one were our top manifesto pledges, so it’s great to see we have now delivered it.”

Cllr Schneiderman said the administration wanted to put sustainability and communities “at the heart of what the council does”, and the launch of a new tool would allow the authority to better gauge the environmental impact of its decisions.

During the meeting, Conservative councillors claimed several of the recommendations amounted to “a series of communication campaigns” while the rest related to initiatives the council had already started working on.

The Conservatives previously proposed scrapping the assemblies, claiming the move would save £133,000. Speaking after the cabinet meeting, Tory leader Dan Thomas said the money spent on assemblies “would have been better spent on fixing potholes”

He added: “I’m concerned there this no limit on the budget for implementing the recommendations and Labour cannot confirm if the assembly was net carbon zero. It amounts to an expensive PR stunt that will do nothing to reduce carbon emissions in Barnet.”

Cllr Schneiderman said the administration wanted to “properly engage with residents and the community across the council”, and the ideas that the assemblies had come up with would complement the actions already underway.

He said a full report would provide more detail on how the council would carry out the recommendations. Under questioning from the Conservatives, he added that the cost of implementing the recommendations would be assessed when the specific actions had been decided.

Town hall chiefs will now work on the list of actions and present it to a future cabinet meeting for approval.

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