A PLAN on how West Berkshire can be carbon neutral by 2030 has been delayed until January. 

It was supposed to be published in the middle of November, but has been postponed because of the snap general election.

After declaring a climate emergency on July 2, West Berkshire Council began putting together a plan on how to reduce carbon emissions across the district. 

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The draft environment strategy will now go out to public consultation in January, when local people will have six weeks to tell the council what they think about it. 

When declaring a climate emergency, councillors agreed to set a target of 2030 to get the whole district to carbon neutral. The strategy will lay out how that can happen. 

Martin Dunscombe, council spokesman said: “The environment strategy is due to go out to consultation in January.”

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A public conference was held on October 28 in Newbury, so local people could get involved in designing the strategy, and learn more about climate science. 

In the weeks before elections, councils must follow strict purdah rules. These prevent any new consultations on policies, such as the environment strategy.

Mr Dunscombe said: “We’ve been collating the feedback from the climate conference, and this will inform the strategy so we wanted to make sure we had the time to reflect on the feedback we received.

“We need to wait until we are out of purdah, and we are mindful also we are then into the Christmas period when residents will be busy and away, so it will go out in January.”

After the six-week public consultation, the environment strategy will be debated by councillors during a meeting of the full council, who will then vote whether to approve it. 

On a national level, the main parties differ on their targets for getting the UK to carbon neutral. The Tories are aiming for 2050, Liberal Democrats 2045, Labour and the Greens 2030.