28 Jan 2026
The leader of St Albans district council has hit back at allegations by local Greens and Conservatives that the administration is failing to make progress towards its carbon emissions targets.
Greenhouse gas emissions in the St Albans district have increased by three per cent since SADC declared a climate emergency in 2019.
Despite pledging to reach net zero by 2030, the latest corporate emissions report shows the council produced 3,981 tonnes of CO2 in 2024/25 – up from 3,881 tonnes when the target was set.
The figures were revealed in the Corporate Greenhouse Gas Emissions Analysis 2024/25 report presented to a recent meeting of SADC’s planning policy and climate committee.
They prompted harsh words from Greens and Independents leader Cllr Simon Grover and Conservative group leader Cllr Matt Cowley, both of whom accused the Lib Dem administration of failing to take sufficient action to deal with the crisis.
But SADC leader Cllr Paul de Kort hit back, insisting the true picture reveals substantial progress in a number of areas.
He told the St Albans Times: “If the Green Party and the Conservatives are going to engage in virtue signalling, they should at least get their facts straight first.
“The Green Party makes a false claim that the Liberal Democrats haven’t published any plan to decarbonise the council’s leisure centres. This is simply not the case.”
He highlighted recently announced plans for the installation of 174 new solar panels on Harpenden Leisure Centre, which would reduce leisure centre operational emissions by around 18 tonnes per yea, and cut electricity bills by approximately £24,000 by creating 93,000kWh of green energy.
Additionally, budget proposals for 2026/27 include further investment in solar energy across four sites – Westminster Lodge, Cotlandswick Leisure Centre, Jubilee Square, and Sandridge Gate Business Centre.
Cllr de Kort continued: “The Green Party’s attack is disingenuous as they and the Conservatives should acknowledge that the council’s major and ongoing investment in social housing decarbonisation and the Warm Homes (private housing initiative) is making a very large impact on reducing carbon emissions. These improvements, however, do not count towards the council’s emissions figures.
“The council’s need to house increasing numbers in temporary accommodation is a significant factor in rising emissions recorded for this account. We Liberal Democrats are doing everything in our power to tackle this plague of rising homelessness, and keep families out of hotels, so it is disappointing that the Green Party and the Conservatives see this to be an area that is fair game for political opportunism.
“It’s also disappointing that the Green Party evidently missed our recent exciting news on a joint project with Hertfordshire County Council to trial cross-pavement electrical vehicle charging, a fantastic development that is of particular benefit in areas with higher numbers of households without driveways, such as St Peter’s for example.
“We held our very successful Tree Giveaway in early December, again in partnership with the county council, giving thousands of trees out to local residents. And we recently reported the brilliant news that our rewilding work has resulted in a 350% increase in the local butterfly population in parts of the district.
“It is disappointing that the Green Party feels the need to present a false narrative. I think residents do, rightly, expect councillors or those seeking election and who are going to make comment to have read papers and/or listen to or attend meetings where these important topics are discussed in public.
“The Green Party made the same claim that we are not ambitious enough in our climate change actions at last year’s budget approval but failed to offer any alternative set of cuts or fee rises to fund additional actions to those we are already taking. I look forward to learning, soon, if they are going to make some progress on addressing the necessary financial choices and trade-offs this year.”
We asked Cllr de Kort to explain some of the major contributions to carbon emissions increasing.
Apart from the cost of placing more families in temporary accommodation which the council then lights and heats, and the large rise in use of council leisure centres, he identified two other significant factors.
“With more council officers working in a hybrid mode there has been the opportunity to bring in many NHS staff to occupy vacant space. These staff now consume energy which was not being emitted previously, and this increase is recorded against SADC’s targets. However, there will have been an offsetting reduction in local emissions elsewhere from the staff’s previous location.
“The reopening of the St Albans Museum + Gallery in 2018 would have increased emissions that fall to SADC’s account. We have highlighted, frequently, the poor state of the roofing on its recommissioning by the Conservatives and their astonishing failure to budget forward for any repair and maintenance in this knowledge. Once we had restored some financial sanity to their forward budgets, we have been able to commission projects to tackle this issue. These will bring down emissions from this source.”
In terms of hitting the council’s net zero target, he said SADC’s financial constraints made this challenging.
“To decarbonise our waste collection fleet would require a huge extra investment in an electric charging terminal as well as a substantially larger spend per vehicle.
“We would like to spend more on energy reduction investment in our buildings, but the continued extreme local government finance pressure prevents this at the current time.
“We will continue to drive forwards on carbon reduction in our social homes and to encourage private homeowners to do the same, we will keep progressing the facilitation of EV charging for residents, and we will further our rewilding and tree planting on a large scale, all aimed at tackling the climate emergency, bringing emissions down and boosting biodiversity.”
