A ROUND of public climate change meetings across South Lakeland have been well attended with lots of ideas coming forward, councillors have reported.

South Lakeland District Council has been holding public meetings in Kendal, Ulverston, Grange, Windermere and Kirkby Lonsdale, among others. 

The aim is to continue last year’s ‘climate change conversation’ with the public. It gives residents a say on measures the council can take to help in the campaign to reduce global warming.

Cllr Dyan Jones, the cabinet member for the climate emergency at SLDC, said some ‘wild and wonderful’ suggestions had been put forward.

“The meetings have been really well attended and very well received,” she said. “The response has been positive and comments about the green team at SLDC, and the work they have been doing has been good.” She continued: “There is a load of suggestions from challenging supermarkets about the amount of plastic they generate to how public transport in Cumbria can be improved.

“And there are a lot of ideas in between those which are wild and wonderful.”

Ideas floated included using dog poo to power street lights, having more oxygenated plants in Kendal’s planters and creating safe cycle routes. 

“The important message from attendees was the sense of a lack of urgency from Government,” added Cllr Jones.

Barrow Borough Council recently voted to declare a climate emergency and plans to draw up a report in the autumn.

At a recent meeting of the county council, Barrow councillor Sol Wielkopolski raised the prospect that council pensions could suffer if they are locked into  firms reliant on fossil fuels, which face new carbon reduction targets.

“Companies like General Electric have lost 66 per cent of their value over the last three or four years because they have been reliant on fossil fuel products,” he said.

Walney councillor Mel Worth, chairman of Cumbria County Council’s pensions committee, which administers the county’s Local Government Pension Scheme, said its money was invested by fund managers who were ‘fully aware’ of the position. “As regards climate change, I hear on the news that the fashion trade is causing more carbon than airlines and shipping combined,” said Cllr Worth.