Alison Bennett's Monday Mail - Council, Climate and Active Travel
Welcome to my Monday Mail for 12 February 2024. As Mid Sussex’s Lib Dem general election candidate, every Monday, I send a short email sharing a few of the things that I have been doing and thinking about in the last week.
Council budgets
On Monday, I was at Mid Sussex District Council for our Cabinet meeting. The key item on the agenda was to advance the 2024-25 budget and recommend it to full council for approval, which we did. The budget so far has been shaped through an all-party working group, it was approved at scrutiny last month and will be voted on by full council on February 28th.
Setting a budget in these trying times is not easy. You may have read that many District Councils and County Councils are struggling to make ends meet, as most recently reported in The Guardian here.
In Mid Sussex, our situation isn’t anything like as bad as some of the councils around us, who are having to cut jobs and trim back their services. I spoke on Monday about MSDC becoming a real living wage employer; about our plans for new apprenticeships and about how this will help us to recruit and retain staff in the long term.
Climate Inequality
I am halfway through a carbon literacy training programme for councillors at Mid Sussex District Council.
The news on Thursday - that 2023 was the first year global temperatures were more than 1.5c above the pre-industrial average, was a sobering moment. Stepping back from this (and the decision by Labour to row back from its £28bn green investment commitment), our trainer pointed us to this report from Oxfam which shines a light on climate inequality which exists both globally and within Britain.
How investing in "active travel" has economic as well as health benefits
As well as deepening our understanding of the causes of climate change, the carbon literacy training is pushing us to take steps in our roles as local councillors to mitigate climate change. To this end, this New Statesman policy review on the benefits of active travel was very much in line the discussions the group have been having.
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Best wishes,
Cllr Alison Bennett
Prospective Parlimentary Candidate
Mid Sussex Liberal Democrats