Cambridgeshire’s Tory-run county council has abandoned its commitment to tackling climate change.

Its three main priorities for next year make no mention of the strategic objective set last year to “meet the challenges of climate change”.

Despite the omission, councillors had been told that the commitment to tackle climate change still stood.

In an email yesterday, however, to members of the council’s Enterprise, Growth and Community Infrastructure Overview and Scrutiny Committee, Chief Executive Mark Lloyd confirmed that “former strategic objectives no longer apply and have been replaced”.

The new priorities make no mention of sustainability or tackling the council’s huge carbon footprint.

This decision follows a string of moves to limit the activity of the council on environmental issues including:

• removing climate change sections from all cabinet papers;
• cutting £500,000 from the environment team at Shire Hall;
• removing the word “environment” from any of the cabinet positions
• changing the relevant scrutiny committee name from “environment and sustainability” to “enterprise, growth and community infrastructure”

Sarah Whitebread, Lib Dem climate change spokesperson and your local County Councillor, said: “This is the final nail in the coffin for hopes of serious action on climate change from the Conservatives at Shire Hall.

“The grim reality is that these councillors do not care about the environment or protecting this area for future generations. Cambridgeshire is a low lying county vulnerable to changes in temperature.  We need to take serious action on CO2 now, before it’s too late.”