Council leaders have reiterated a pledge to prioritise care services over net zero projects.
The comments came as the Reform UK-led Durham County Council responded to concerns from opposition members over the party’s choice not to install solar panels on council buildings.
Liberal Democrat opposition councillors say the decarbonisation scheme, initially proposed for eight buildings, would have saved £77,000 per year.
Reform UK has instead pledged to divert the funding into cash-strapped social care departments.
The new administration voted to scrap the council’s climate emergency pledge in July and replaced it with a new ‘County Durham care emergency’.
Image: LDRS
Speaking at a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, deputy leader Darren Grimes said: “We are choosing wheelchairs over windmills, care over carbon, and SEND children over solar.”
Liberal Democrat councillor Mark Wilkes had urged the council to rethink its solar panels decision, and pointed to the £13 million saved by the local authority through climate-saving efficiencies in the last year.
He said: “Would the relevant cabinet member pause this decision, refer it to scrutiny for a transparent discussion on this costly reversal, and take the opportunity, right now, to explain how cancelling this project financially benefits the council?”
But, branding the scheme a “Lib Dem-labelled debt pile”, Cllr Grimes warned it would have still cost the council significant amounts of money and extend council borrowing.
He added: “No savings for the first eight years, only more liabilities loaded on our residents as taxpayers. And all of this without the certainty that the buildings would even remain in council hands for the 17-year repayment.
“We want to reduce the council’s debt and put the authority in a better financial position. We passed a democratic verdict on undeclared climate alarmism and prioritising our council’s care emergency.”
Asked about the level of compensation the council will have to pay for pulling out of the scheme, Cllr Grimes told a cabinet meeting that negotiations are ongoing with the contractor involved.
“It would be inappropriate to speculate while those negotiations are underway, but it is worth stressing that the opposition’s claim of £13m in savings from past green schemes are a case of yellow smoke and mirrors,” the member for Annfield Plain and Tanfield added.
He continued: “This administration was elected on a very clear mandate to bring honesty to the books and we will bring back projects that deliver savings for County Durham.”
