Climate change and what we are doing to reduce harmful greenhouse gases is one of the most important issues of the day.

As leader of the council I receive questions from local residents about whether Swindon and the council is doing its bit to protect the environment and my answer is invariably long because over the past few years we have actually done quite a lot.

Environmentalists have in recent months asked why we have not declared a Climate Emergency here in Swindon, but the truth of the matter is that my cabinet colleagues and I believe actions speak louder than words.

Our vision and pledges set out quite clearly our ambitions for Swindon’s low-carbon economy. In fact our second pledge outlines how we intend to use our wholly-owned company Public Power Solutions (PPS) to enhance Swindon’s reputation as a sustainable energy exemplar.

PPS has played an important part over the last few years in setting up solar farms at Common Farm in Wroughton and the former landfill site at Chapel Farm in North Swindon. It has helped to create over 170 MW of new solar development overall, including the solar farm at Wroughton Airfield, which has a capacity of 62 MW making it one of the largest ground mount solar parks in the UK.

There is also a solar farm at Barnfield which is providing energy for our waste treatment site at Waterside so we are using renewable energy to power our solid recovered fuel plant.

PPS is also diversifying its green energy expertise into electric car charging points and solar car ports and has only fairly recently installed electric car charging points on the council’s civic campus.

Earlier this year the council reaffirmed its commitment to pledge two when councillors agreed a motion on climate change. We have set ourselves a target to be carbon neutral by 2030 and we are doing everything we can to hit that target.

We have installed solar panels on top of the civic offices and at some of our other sites across the town, we made the most of government funding to install solar panels on many homes within our council’s housing stock and are in the process of ordering more electric vehicles as we replace our fleet of vehicles

For some years we have been a key partner of the Swindon Hydrogen Hub, where organisations are working together to develop projects to deploy hydrogen and fuel cell technology, and our new parking standards will require housebuilders to provide a minimum of one electric vehicle charging point (EVCP) per home where there is a requirement for parking spaces.

We will also be requiring new retail and employment developments to provide charging points for customers and employees.

And when you factor in the investment in our cycle network, the improvements to our bus corridors, the provision of green open spaces in our new housing developments, and our plans to create urban meadows, with the Wiltshire Wildlife Trust and our use of wildflowers on our highway verges our green credentials will be there for all to see.