ILKLEY Town Council is asking the government to support its climate emergency declaration.

Town Mayor Cllr Mark Stidworthy is writing to the Secretary of State for the Environment Theresa Villiers asking for acknowledgement and support of the council’s goal of making the town carbon neutral by 2030.

Cllr Stidworthy is also writing and asking for support from newly-elected Ilkley and Keighley MP Robbie Moore as well as Bradford Council leader Susan Hinchcliffe and chief executive Kirsten England.

The town council declared a climate emergency at the beginning of December, pledging to do everything within its power to make Ilkley carbon neutral by 2030.

Cllr Stidworthy told the December meeting the target would not be easy but should be aspired to.

The council will now revise policy criteria to take carbon reduction into account in all decision making processes. Among other moves it will also set up a drop-in climate emergency ‘hub’.

In its declaration the town council says many Ilkley residents are demanding action on climate change.

Cllr Stidworthy’s letter will draw attention to points three and four of the climate change declaration and will ask for appropriate acknowledgement and support.

In point three the council resolves to “call on the UK Government to provide the powers and resources to make the 2030 target possible, noting the Climate Change Act 2008, the recommendations of the Independent Committee on Climate Change, the 1 May 2019 declaration of a Climate Emergency by the House of Commons and the 12 June 2019 amendment of the Climate Change Act that commits the UK to achieving ‘net zero greenhouse gases’ by 2050.”

Item four resolves to “produce a climate action plan with the local community and partners in the public, private and voluntary sectors, including Climate Action Ilkley (CAI) and Ilkley Business Improvement District (BID); with reference to/guidance from the Leeds City Region Climate Coalition (of which Bradford Metropolitan District Council is a member).”