A COUNCILLOR has urged people to look past party politics and address climate change.

Labour city councillor Nancy Platts, who represents the East Brighton ward, is leading the party’s latest pledge.

The council’s lead member for economic development and social value said: “The idea is to set up a climate change commission to create a ten-year action plan by June 2020 and commit to making the city carbon neutral by 2030.

“It will be free of party politics and will mean we have made a commitment in writing to achieve this.

“It is good not just to have individual ideas. We will start on this date and finish on this date. And we can set milestones along the way to ensure we will hit certain targets by certain times.”

Cllr Platts said the commission would be open to input from councillors from all parties as well as residents.

She said: “It would be owned by everybody who takes part in it.

“We need a majority council to take this forward, but we want all politicians and people in the city to be involved.”

The announcement follows several weeks of environmental protests in London by campaign group Extinction Rebellion.

Cllr Platts said: “This pledge was put together by hundreds of Labour Party members with a mix of different backgrounds.

“It will have been influenced by activities going on in the city at the moment.

In the run-up to an election when climate change is in the news is the perfect time to announce this.”

Ms Platts said it was a pledge she was particularly passionate about and the more people and experts became involved with the campaign, the more progress could be made.

She said: “I think you can already see the impact of the way we have been leading Brighton and Hove.

“Looking at the tidy up team which is led by such enthusiastic leaders and volunteers.

“People see their friends and family going out and keep the city clean and they are encouraged not to drop litter and cigarette butts themselves.”

Nancy said the Labour Party had a large number of ideas to improve the climate in Brighton and Hove.

These included installing drinking water fountains along the seafront to reduce the use of single-use plastics as well as hundreds of on-street electric vehicle charging points across the city.

It also pledged to introduce a citywide food waste collection and composting service, work with bus companies to encourage public transport use and oppose all fracking in the area.

Nancy said: “We have looked at the possibility of putting solar panels on council owned assets.”

“I’m really hoping this commission is something the Greens, Conservatives and everybody in the city can get behind.

“It’s something people living here have let us know that they really want.”