Reform-led council rescinds climate declaration

A Reform-led council is thought to have become the first in the UK to rescind its climate emergency declaration, a move condemned as "a very dark day" for the authority.

- Mark Brown

Durham county council, which has had an overwhelming Reform majority since the May local elections, passed a motion to rescind the 2019 declaration. More than 300 local authorities have declared a climate emergency.

It voted instead to declare a County Durham care emergency, a move described as "cynical and insulting" by the Liberal Democrat councillor Mark Wilkes.

Wilkes said the council's climate action had helped save more than £13m in the last year alone. He added that stopping work on tackling the climate crisis would risk the loss of external funding, meaning less money for care.

During a sometimes fractious and bad-tempered debate yesterday, the Reform council leader, Andrew Husband, said the authority was now driven by data and common sense.