EHDC Local Plan must respond to climate crisis

Energy Alton has submitted its response and recommendations on East Hampshire District Council’s draft Local Plan – a very important document which sets out the challenges facing the area, including Alton and our villages, the Council’s vision for the future and policies for sustainable and viable development, green infrastructure, planning for climate change and renewable and low-carbon energy.

Whilst there are some aims and statements in the Plan that we support, overall we find draft Plan a wholly inadequate response to the challenge that the climate crisis brings to us all. The world’s leading climate scientists have warned that the impacts beyond 1.5 degrees centigrade of global warming could be catastrophic and that carbon emission need to drop by 45% by 2030.

John Hubbard, Energy Alton’s Chairman, presented our response to the Alton Town Council’s Planning and Transport Committee on 13 March.