Members Community Funding put to good use by Declan and David
As regularly reported in Spotlight, the Community Grant Budget allowed each city councillor to
20 Jun 2018
Wera Hobhouse MP urges government to incentivise solar power
29 Feb 2024
Complaints about local roads are on the increase
King George V Playing Fields are to be included in an Urban Greening Project
20 Jun 2018
Party Strategy Resolution
Following extensive discussions at the GLD 30th Anniversary Conference held in Nottingham in May, Conference organiser and GLD Exec member Keith Melton looked at policy resolutions to put before the Autumn Conference in Brighton. He has also considered a resolution which looks at how the Liberal Democrats should treat Green issues in a strategic electoral sense. The suggested resolution below has been passed by Newark and Sherwood Liberal Democrats in the name of Keith Melton, who was also responsible for organising the original Nottingham Conference back in 1988 from which the Green Liberal Democrats was created. Keith was Chair of the Liberal Ecology Group at the time and had been active in Liberal politics since 1964.
KM
20 Jun 2018
Second Homes tax loophole reaches the Lords
House of Lords June 19th 2019
19 Jun 2018
Blow to car park re-cycling
Yet another obstacle has been put in the way of Wirral residents who are keen to re-cycle. The special banks for collecting food...
AB
19 Jun 2018
Surrey Lib Dems call for lessons to be learned from Parsons Green bombing
On 18th June 2018, the Home Office issued a letter to the Chair of the Home Affairs Select Committee, regarding Ahmed Hassan's interaction with the police and Home Office, prior to the Parsons Green bombing incident in September 2017. Commenting on the letter, Cllr Hazel Watson (Liberal Democrat, Dorking Hills) said today:
19 Jun 2018
Wera Hobhouse, Liberal Democrat MP for Bath and spokesperson for Energy Security and Net Zero, called on the government to provide incentives for energy providers to develop solar power in the UK.
Mrs Hobhouse slammed the government for falling behind on meeting the UK’s renewable targets for solar energy capacity. The government plans to deploy 70 GW of solar power across the country by 2035. However, as of 2022, the UK had only installed 14.3 GW of solar pv.
Following a visit to a rooftop solar system installed by Bath & West Community Energy (BWCE) at Beechen Cliff School last year, Wera Hobhouse is keen to encourage the development of similar solar projects across Bath. The solar system is predicted to significantly cut the school’s fuel costs and reduce their carbon emissions by 52 tonnes a year.
In the House of Commons on the 27th February, the Bath MP noted that the UK is lagging behind the rest of the world in renewable energy investment, she urged the government to offer incentives to energy providers to improve solar capacity.
However, Andrew Bowie, Parliamentary Under Secretary for Energy Security and Net Zero, ignored Hobhouse’s proposals, failing to describe the ways in which the government could incentivise solar energy. Instead, Bowie said that the government’s Solar Taskforce would publish recommendations for solar power and reiterated the government’s target to deploy 70 GW by 2035.
Wera Hobhouse, Liberal Democrat MP for Bath and spokesperson for Energy Security and Net Zero, commented:
“The Conservatives are falling dangerously behind on meeting our targets for renewable energy production. It is no good the government setting an ambitious 70 GW solar target if they are nowhere near reaching it.
“It is clear that they have no plan to get us back on track to reach Net Zero. Evidently, they are more than happy to dismiss perfectly good proposals like incentivising solar power. That is why I am so proud that Bath is home to many community energy projects like the solar system at Beechen Cliff School, so that we can lead the way in renewables.”
“It is not just our climate targets harmed by the Conservatives’ delay. Families in Bath and across the country are struggling to pay soaring energy bills which investment in renewables could curb. That is why we Liberal Democrats would build significantly more renewable energy, aiming to generate 80% of our electricity from renewables by 2030.”
Peter Capener, Managing Director of Bath & West Community Energy said:
“Our work with schools is really demonstrating the value of community energy in both addressing the climate crisis and reducing fuel bills. Rooftop solar installed last year has already saved local schools a combined total of £134,209 and has reduced carbon emissions by 224.3 tonnes, which is equivalent to 12,173 journeys from Bath to Edinburgh by train!”
