Notes from Meeting 10/2/20

By Carol Aitken -

​This was a very positive meeting on Monday with nine SNP Councillors. Myself, Len, (Blairgowrie & Rattray CC), Liz, (Dunkeld & Birnam CC) represented the local climate cafes and we had been invited to the meeting by Councillor Fiona Sarwar. We found the atmosphere amongst them very positive and we all agreed we need to keep the dialogue ongoing and open. 

Len emailed a thank you back to Fiona and we thought we should reiterate a few points that were discussed. Here is our list of points that Len emailed back to them:

• we applaud the good work already being done by PKC and would encourage you to make this more widely known. In being seen to lead by example you will give encouragement to people in the area to take the climate emergency seriously and take their own action. Your policy on travel was a good example of little known measures you have taken.
• we were also pleased that as a group you stated the importance of applying a "climate emergency test" to all decisions. This test could be applied to current practices.
• the climate cafe movement started in the PKC area and it looks like soon there will be virtually complete coverage across the whole area. We can work with the Council both as 2-way conduits for information/ideas etc and as an external "watchdog" giving feedback on progress towards meeting essential targets. The possibility of support for CCs was mentioned. I would be interested in exploring this as we currently use up valuable time on fund raising activities.
• we asked whether Councillors could help officers to find ways to effect changes more quickly. We understand that there are legal and other constraints but also see the need for emergency measures. Time is not on our side.
• we also asked Councillors to find ways to reallocate finance significantly towards meeting the climate emergency effectively. Reducing the Landfill Tax was an example given by one of your group.
• there were examples of good practice given by various Councillors and I think we agreed that a forum for sharing these would be helpful. We didn't, however, come up with a concrete idea on how this could be achieved.

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