DORSET Council is claiming success with the progress of their Climate and Ecological Emergency Strategy but admit more funding is likely to be required.

Opposition councillors, meanwhile, say the plan “lacks ambition” and focuses “too much” on Dorset Council and not the wider community.

It comes as the local authority estimated it would cost “about £130million” for Dorset Council to reach net zero by their target of 2040. The report “notes that urgent and sustained action is required to meet the challenging commitments” outlined within the emergency strategy.

Councillor Kelvin Clayton, Green Party councillor for Bridport, said: “My main concern is that there isn’t the same vision and ambition for Dorset, say, in 2040 as there is for how Dorset Council will look in 2040. The report focuses far too much on the Dorset Council estate and not on Dorset as a whole: in terms of the council it could well be interpreted as being successful but what they’re trying to achieve is sufficiently ambitious.”

Councillor Ray Bryan, Dorset Council’s Portfolio Holder for Highways, Travel and Environment, said he was “incredibly proud” of the progress being made.

He pointed to the appointment of, corporate director, Stephen Ford as bolstering the direction of the strategy and said: “We had to get our own house in order first: lead the way, learn from our experiences and then we can start trying to set up facilities advising the public how they can make small changes as part of the bigger picture.

"The difficulty we’ve had is that there are so many lobbying groups out there at the moment that are trying to help but, actually, tend to turn the public away from the matter at hand.

“The public know we need to get on with decarbonisation, people are generally onboard with that, and climate change is at the front of the queue for Dorset Council and it will stay that way for as long as I’m the portfolio holder.”

The council said their key successes include becoming the third best unitary council in England for recycling and composting; cutting their own carbon emissions by 17% year on year and; supporting over 130 homes to become energy efficient thanks to their creation of the Healthy Homes Dorset scheme.

The progress report admits that “additional funding” will need to be secured to meet some key targets including pledges to increase the use of renewable energy across the Dorset Council estate: Councillor Bryan said they would “explore every possible avenue” for funding.