The latest raft of carbon-cutting measures teed up by County Hall have been dismissed as "greenwashing" by opposition councillors.

Norfolk County Council has set out its aims for further carbon-cutting ahead of a cabinet meeting on November 8.

The plans include ending purchases of fossil fuel-powered vehicles and switching all streetlights to LEDs.

However, County Hall opposition parties have criticised the plans, saying they do not go far enough.

A series of proposals have been put forward, including:

  • Ceasing to buy petrol and diesel vehicles, except where there is an operational requirement
  • Install EV charging points across the estate
  • Help purchase 10 emergency EVs for Norfolk Fire and Rescue Service, with the aim of turning the entire fleet electric if successful
  • Ceasing to buy gas boilers for the corporate estate, except in exceptional circumstances
  • Upgrading a further 15,000 streetlights to LED by July 2023 and developing plans to convert all the remainder
  • Saving energy from computer servers, by shifting more information technology systems into the cloud
  • Work with contractors to reduce carbon output
  • Retender Norwich park and ride

The council aims to deliver a county-wide walking and cycling infrastructure plan and tender for on-street electric vehicle charging points.

A project to deliver 1m trees across Norfolk, saw 24,884 trees planted in 2020/21with another 27,000 expected in 2021/22.

But Labour's council leader Steve Morphew said the plans were "really not good enough".

"We have to do a lot more, a lot quicker starting with not pretending this is anything like adequate.

"At this rate, the target of a million trees will take 40 years rather than the target of 10.

"The pace of progress is not measured against in ways we can judge if we're really making a difference and there are no milestones.

"Cop26 is telling us we don't have time for fluff and spin so this is embarrassing."

Similar concerns were raised by the Liberal Democrat Group.

Steffan Aquarone branded it "greenwashing at its worst," saying the number of EV charging points was growing at a snail's pace.

He said: "At the rate the Conservatives are going most of Norfolk will be underwater before anything substantial happens.

"They need to speed up now for our children’s future.”

And Green county councillor Jamie Osborn said: "At a time when the COP26 summit shows we need urgent action on climate change, these weak commitments from the county council are a damp squib.

"It’s been two years since the county council agreed a target to reach net zero carbon emissions within a decade, but in that time they haven’t even done the most basic work of setting out the baseline evidence or producing a plan for reducing emissions.

"Meanwhile, Norfolk’s carbon emissions from transport have continued to grow as a result of the council’s obsession with making Norfolk ‘car county’. The council’s leaders are failing to get a grip on the most important issue of our time.”

However, Andy Grant, cabinet member for environment and waste, said the report showed the council had achieved a great deal and was willing to push "further and faster to meet our target".

Andrew Jamieson, cabinet member for finance, added: “Cutting carbon emissions makes sense across the board – protecting the environment, levelling up by supporting green tech jobs – and, in the case of streetlights, saving money.”