Reform UK councillor disputes value of climate change inspired energy savings
Twm Owen, local democracy reporter
The amount of money saved by schools due to climate change inspired energy savings has been disputed by a Reform UK councillor.
David Thomas, who leads the party’s group on Torfaen Borough Council, said savings weren’t enough to pay for a teacher as the council’s cabinet member for climate change had claimed.
Labour’s Sue Morgan stood by the figures when challenged by Cllr Thomas at the council’s December meeting as she said energy costs for schools had been reduced resulting in the saving in the delegated budgets which are managed by schools themselves.
Cllr Thomas had asked how the council tracks and verifies the financial impacts of its climate change emergency programme which has inspired an energy saving drive across the council and investment in technology such as solar panels.
The Llantarnam councillor also asked whether energy savings attributed to schools are recorded as “actual budget adjustments within those schools’ delegated budgets” and how the council verifies the savings before they are publicly reported.
School energy consumption is based on utility meter and billing information and installations such as solar panels are considered in forecast costs, provided to council finance officers, said Cllr Morgan who said there is no budget adjustment required as schools manage their own budgets independently.
She also said as energy use and savings are based on meter readings, owned by energy firms rather than the council, “no third-party verification is required” and savings calculated on a 12 month period post implementation as is standard across local authorities.
Schools that have taken government-backed loans to pay for equipment such as solar panels also retain the ongoing benefits once repayments have been made, said Cllr Morgan.
She was reminded by Cllr Thomas at the council’s March meeting, in response to his question on climate change targets told, she had said money saved was “giving schools the choice to retain staff”.
Council data
Torfaen has spent £8.3 million on the climate emergency, said Cllr Thomas who said council data for 2023/24 showed total savings across 40 schools amounted £343,456 which he said worked out at £8,587 a school, with five having recorded an increase in energy use.
“Savings of £8,587 is nowhere near enough to fund a part time support post,” said Cllr Thomas who asked what evidence supported Clllr Morgan’s claim schools were given the chance to retain staff.
But Cllr Morgan, who represents Pontnewydd, said Cllr Thomas was “comparing apples and pears” and reduced energy bills had given schools freedom to make decisions within the budgets which they manage themselves.
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reform are not the brightest when it comes to science.
Lets face it, they are owned by people that want to corner the fossil fuels, same people that don’t like using that great big flaming ball of energy in the sky for far less and safer.
It’s a common theme among certain climate deniers, to claim that solar panels only last about five to ten years and then need to be replaced. That they are expensive to purchase, to install, to maintain and to dispose of. They also further allege that the savings of energy costs are tiny, however, this is typically based on flawed data. To begin with solar panels will last about 15-20 years without any apparent production loss. Might need a window cleaner to give them a wipe over once every five years though. After that they don’t just die a death and… Read more »
There’s a solar farm near me and I did notice a stack of gallon bottles of commercial fungicide just inside the entrance gate. The kind of stuff that removes algae from patios. Suggest the panels are cleaned with this. Not “window cleaner” as you suggest. Perhaps moss and algae contamination is the result of wet climate we have in Wales and such chemicals do considerable damage to our eco-system. They also appear to use glyphosate to keep the undergrowth in check between the rows. Am all in favour of solar panels on roofs, and this should be a new-build mandate,… Read more »
People talk as though solar panels and other green tech is acutely finite yet forget that gas boiler manufacturers suggest in the UK that domestic boilers only last 10-15 years (although go on their German websites and the same boilers they suggest 15-20 years). The industry is still desperately pushing boilers and lobbies for them; even now new homes get built with combi boilers and no hot water cylinder, making them incompatible with solar hot water and heat pumps in future without internal modification. Also the biggest single cause of unexpected time off school when I was a child was… Read more »
“Savings of £8,587 is nowhere near enough to fund a part time support post”
Could a teacher explain to him how averages work.
These clowns are so far up the backsides of the oil and gas barons, I will be very surprised if they still retain the ability to smell or have any of their other senses still intact.
Is there a single reform representative out there with even a basic grasp of reality?
Utterly bonkers, every one of them.