Tomorrow (Wednesday) I will be proposing a motion at full council calling on the Government to reverse its decision to cut feed-in tariffs for solar pv panels.

Back in August 2010 due to the Lib Dems in government, Council’s wre granted permission to sell elecricity. This allowed them to start installing energy production such as Solar panels. Sixteen months on and Durham’s Labour-run council hasn’t installed any solar panels on its existing council house stock. A complete and utter catastrophic failure to act which means thousands of residents who could have had solar panels by now do not.

The money initially allocated for the scheme has been used up because elsewhere in the country people have been far more proactive than the Council here.

However, the Government has only given six weeks warning of the changes, which is clearly wrong. This means that almost 500 days since the announcement, with Durham Council not having started work, it is losing the chance to get the higher rate rebate, making it far more difficult if not financially unaffordable to start the program.

So I am furious with the Council for taking so long to take advantage of this excellent Lib Dem policy, but also very unhappy with the government for changing the rules with such short notice.

Hopefully if enough councils do the same around the county and pile on the pressure, we can get some changes in government policy.

In Durham we clearly need a change at the top – if our County is ever to progress from one of the poorest in England, we must get rid of decades of Labour control.