I welcomed the Sustainable Dundee report which was before us, it covered a
lot of important areas and brought together a lot of the work which the council
is doing. There was an excellent deputation from Mary Henderson of
Friends of the Earth Tayside. After listening to Mrs Henderson I felt
that she had made a strong case for an amendment about the
future direction of travel of the council with regard to low-carbon
activities.
My
amendment said ‘Where possible funds should be redirected from high-carbon activities
to low-carbon sustainable and renewable activities and where funds are spent
outside Dundee they should be redirected from high-carbon activities to
low-carbon and renewable activities.’ This is about promoting a direction
of travel for the council.
The
council is the custodian of the resources of the citizens of Dundee and it is
important that we are able to hand on the resources to our successors both in
terms of cash, facilities and the environment. I hope that this way of
thinking will influence council thinking in terms of future policies.
I
think that protecting our environment is important and I will work with anyone
to help protect it. It is crucial that we plan for a future low-carbon
economy which protects jobs and services. We need to invest in a
workforce which is ready for this next stage of economic development.
