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Protest 13 August: Reverse the Moreland Council climate mitigation budget cut

August 8, 2014 at 1:57 pm John Englart 1 comment

Update: 
Thank you every one for coming along to the Council meeting tonight and for writing and emailing Councillors. We had about 26 people there. I thought the protest was a worthwhile statement to Council. Did we achieve what we wanted? In practice yes – the 3 solar PV projects the money was allocated for will all proceed through the tender process, where as that wasn’t guaranteed before tonight. But we didn’t get a reversal of the original decision. So Council is committed to these projects and will do any necessary budget adjustment at midyear budget review after the tender process is finished. A face-saving compromise, but one that ensures in practice Council’s continuing commitment to climate mitigation.
See photos at the bottom of this page.
John Englart

The Council motion, moved by Cr Lenka Thompson seconded by Samantha Ratnam, passed unanimously, stated:

Council resolves:

1. To support the Carbon Management Strategy and reaffirms its commitment to taking action on climate change

2. To proceed with all the projects as proposed in the original draft council budget for 2014/15 as detailed in the council agenda for July 2014 budget for the Carbon Management Strategy (originally valued at $525,000 budget allocation)

3. Officers to report back by the November meeting outlining how all these projects will be funded to completion without compromising other environmental projects and initiatives

This is a substantial win on maintaining Moreland Council’s commitment and leadership on climate mitigation.

Protest at Moreland Council meeting
When: 6.30pm 13 August 2014
Where: Moreland Council Meeting 7 pm, Senior Citizens Centre, 11 Cromwell Street, Glenroy
RSVP: Facebook event page

The Empowering Moreland Forum on 7th August passed a motion without dissent for a protest at the next Moreland Council meeting to persuade Councillors to fully restore funding to the Carbon management Strategy. See Climate Action Moreland Statement in reply to the decision made at the 9th July Council meeting.

Details of the cuts to Carbon Management Budget
Moreland City Council began its Carbon Management Strategy in 2011. This involves energy efficiency works at Coburg Civic Centre, Coburg Leisure Centre, Fawkner Leisure Centre, Bob Hawke Centre and Walter Street Depot. The Strategy has resulted in savings of 802 tonnes CO2-e per year and $102,083 per year.
Many more activities were planned for 2014–15, including:

• Review / update of Council’s Carbon Management Strategy and the Carbon Offsets policy utilising internal resources
• Ongoing monitoring and measurement of cost and carbon savings delivered by completed projects
• Ongoing energy efficiency measures across key Council sites
• Solar PV system (about 85 kW) installed at Coburg Civic Centre
• Solar Hybrid PV system (about 57 kW) at Coburg Leisure Centre
• Solar PV system (about 9 kW) at Oxygen Youth Centre

The draft Moreland City Council budget for 2014/15 allocated $525,000 for these activities. In July 2014, Cr Michael Teti moved to cut these funds by $100,000. This motion passed with the support of Crs L Tapinos, O Yildiz, M Hopper, & L Gillies. The motion was opposed by Crs R Thompson, L Thompson, S Bolton, S Ratnam, & H Davidson.

The funding cut would result in the planned solar power system for Coburg Leisure Centre NOT proceeding.

DON’T LET THIS HAPPEN. TAKE ACTION NOW.

Photos from outside the Council Meeting at the Glenroy Senior citizen’s Centre:

Entry filed under: Event, Moreland Council, rallies & protests. Tags: Moreland Council, Protest.