Calderdale leaders come under fire after council buys a petrol station

Liberal Democrat Group Leader Coun James Baker (Warley) accused Labour councillors of “hypocrisy” over the purchase, included in a list of ongoing works and investments by Calderdale Council’s Corporate Asset and Facilities Management (CAFM) Service.

Coun Baker said the acquisition was totally at odds with the council’s declaration a year ago of a Climate Emergency.

He made his comments at the council’s Climate Change Working Party during a debate about investments made by West Yorkshire councils’ pension fund investments.

Coun Jenny Lynn (Lab, Park) had said pressure was being put on the fund’s administrators to invest away from the usual business model which took in companies which extracted fossil fuels from the ground.

To make the move away from those type of investments, she said, “we have to be able to generate a similar income stream from different investments.”

But Coun Baker said the council, which is controlled by the Labour Group, should set its own house in order as since declaring a climate emergency it had invested in a petrol station.

“The administration is investing in fossil fuels in Calderdale.

“It’s fact. It’s in a council report. It’s total hypocrisy,” he said.

Panel Chair Coun Scott Patient (Lab, Luddenden Foot) acknowledged the situation and said it would not be repeated.

“I agree it can’t happen again and we have made it perfectly clear we can’t make those mistakes again.

“In the future errors like that will not happen,” he said.

The purchase of the petrol filling station amounted to a clash between two council policies, to tackle climate change, with last week’s Budget Council approving an extra £1 million to help meet challenges, and its Commercialisation policy, which urges directorates across the council to think in more commercial terms.

Acquisitions which can make money are one way in which the local authority can help fund services.

All councils are being urged by Government to think in commercial terms to raise money to fill funding gaps in cash-strapped times.

Calderdale has seen its budget cut by more than £110 million over the last ten years.