Fouweather, Laurence – Liberal Democrat

Strongly agree

We have little alternative and need action by many parts of society.

Fox, John – Green

Strongly agree

The Climate change threat is existential and the need and time to deal with it is now. It overrides all other considerations of council and national issues. We must cut through the self-interest of individuals, parties and business interests to ensure that we (and everyone else) can stabilize climate change and its effects as soon as humanly possible.

Gant, Andrew – Liberal Democrat

Strongly agree

Shouldn’t need explaining to anyone in a decision making role- it is the key challenge facing us as a society and as a planet

Palumbo, Marco – Green

Strongly agree

Stockton, Jane – Labour

Strongly agree

Oxford City Council led by Labour declared a climate emergency in January 2019, and has been highly pro-active in acting on this, including holding a citizen’s assembly, and producing a strategy and action plan on its recommendations.

Fouweather, Laurence – Liberal Democrat

Strongly agree

I support this because without a proper legal framework in place many organisations just will not change.

Fox, John – Green

Strongly agree

Making fundamental decisions about a sustainable and more equal future for everyone, and the whole of nature cannot be left in the hands of the few who want to maintain business as usual and deny the reality of what is happening. Resolving the most massive crisis humanity has ever faced needs all of us to recognize the scale of the task and agree on what and how to reduce global temperatures whilst maintaining reasonable lifestyles for all.

Gant, Andrew – Liberal Democrat

Strongly agree

Palumbo, Marco – Green

Strongly agree

Stockton, Jane – Labour

Strongly agree

I am very pleased to support this cross party initiative, and have the backing of local Labour Party members who have passed a motion in support of the Bill.

Fouweather, Laurence – Liberal Democrat

Strongly agree

I want to see a plan for the whole of the city with the aim of reducing private car and commercial vehicle use. The current mess of the proposals from City and County Councils is to the detriment of everyone in Oxford.

Fox, John – Green

Strongly agree

Whilst electric transport might reduce air pollution, there will still be too many vehicles, requiring increased space for more roads and more parking. There just isn’t room whilst population densities continue to increase. We need smaller cities, and more green space within them that allow people of all ages and capacities the space to walk, cycle and/or travel on public transport. Cleaner air, more physical exercise and better social distancing will contribute to improved, health and mental well being.

Gant, Andrew – Liberal Democrat

Agree

I agree with the ambition behind the answer, but as so often with surveys the binary wording is a bit unhelpful: “in…Oxford” is not defined, and “motorised” could include zero-carbon. Certainly more priority for cyclists and pedestrianisation, and greening

Palumbo, Marco – Green

Strongly agree

Stockton, Jane – Labour

Strongly agree

As a City council candidate I will be putting as much pressure as possible to ensure collaboration between the County and City to reduce traffic through initiatives such as Connecting Oxford. Much more needs to be done to consult and discuss plans with residents to gain public support, but councils also need to be bold and take the lead.

Fouweather, Laurence – Liberal Democrat

Strongly agree

The planning process for new developments should include proper access for public transport and agreement with operators to provide services. They should also provide appropriate small retail units.

Fox, John – Green

Strongly agree

Neighbourhoods with two-plus cars to each house are suffer the congestion problems as town centres. they are unattractive but require the car to get to essential services. Designing and planning 15-minute neighbourhoods will be a considerable challenge and require participatory discussion between designers and users as to how to achieve this in the context of overall city/town design and zero-carbon house design.

Gant, Andrew – Liberal Democrat

Agree

Absolutely: but recognising that some residents can’t do this, and that requirements for “daily goods and services” vary

Palumbo, Marco – Green

Strongly agree

Stockton, Jane – Labour

Strongly agree

Labour’s Local Plan incorporates these ideas already. I will be pressing to ensure that the Diamond Place development has a car free community space at its heart.

Fouweather, Laurence – Liberal Democrat

Strongly agree

Unless this is planning policy builders and developers will continue to do the minimum as laid down in current building regulations.

Fox, John – Green

Strongly agree

Inefficient housing in terms of the need for heat and heat loss accounts for a large portion of our national carbon emissions. Building zero carbon homes would be a significant contribution to reducing those emissions. A major effort would require plenty of new jobs for people who need them post COVID. A major consideration is that homes should be built as affordable for both renters and owners. Oxford is well known as the most expensive place to live, outside London. Housing should reflect the needs of all the cities citizens.

Gant, Andrew – Liberal Democrat

Strongly agree

Or better!

Palumbo, Marco – Green

Strongly agree

Stockton, Jane – Labour

Agree

As an Oxford City council candidate, I have little influence outside Oxford, but it must be an aspirational target, probably achieved through national legislation. Labour’s manifesto for Oxford says ‘We will work with partners to make our city’s housing carbon neutral, to save residents’ costs on heating and to meet the city’s carbon targets.’

Fouweather, Laurence – Liberal Democrat

Agree

Of benefit to both environment and residents although for some individual historic buildings in Oxford this may not be possible. As a start the City Council should be planning to retrofit it’s own property portfolio.

Fox, John – Green

Strongly agree

Carefully constructed policy is the means by which desirable change takes place. However efforts to encourage retro-fitting have been poorly introduced so far. So we need to establish policies and measures that both encourage popular schemes and encourage good quality businesses with well trained workers. This might involve improved training capacity to create enough skilled workers competent to provide the necessary services at reasonable cost.

Gant, Andrew – Liberal Democrat

Agree

Absolutely has to be the aim. There are challenges around, e.g. older housing stock, but 2035 ought to be achievable

Palumbo, Marco – Green

Strongly agree

Stockton, Jane – Labour

Agree

Similar to the last answer, in that I will be pressing for Oxford City Council to do everything within its power to achieve this, but ultimately it will depend on having a committed national government. The present Conservative government is failing to meet any of its promises, most recently with the withdrawal of the Green Homes Grant.

Fouweather, Laurence – Liberal Democrat

Strongly agree

The Councils should be looking at any and every opportunity to encourage renewable energy sources whether from householders or developers. They should also look at possibilities such as using solar panels over their car parks to generate power for recharging vehicles or exporting to the grid.

Fox, John – Green

Strongly agree

The priority is to stop using fossil fuels as quickly as possible. We cannot do that unless we have alternative systems in place sufficient to replace current and future demand. Experience so far suggests that this is indeed feasible. Therefore, the production of renewable electricity by local producers and for local users is clearly achievable. What we need is to develop the appropriate policies and for the city the develop a realistic strategy and action plan to make this happen.

Gant, Andrew – Liberal Democrat

Strongly agree

A key element in reducing reliance on carbon, and in local generation

Palumbo, Marco – Green

Strongly agree

Stockton, Jane – Labour

Strongly agree

Oxford Labour’s manifesto commits to “improve council housing to meet our climate obligations and to reduce fuel bills for our tenants. We will work with partners like Low Carbon Oxford to encourage all housing in Oxford to meet the same targets.”

Fouweather, Laurence – Liberal Democrat

Strongly agree

LA’s need to use all the powers they have, Unfortunately this has not been the case in Oxford.

Fox, John – Green

Strongly agree

The overall objective is to stabilize global temperatures through reducing greenhouse gases. As per the previous question this will depend on sound policy, a good strategy and an action plan to replace fossil fuel with renewable energy. That strategy and plan needs to integrate replacement of domestic, business and industrial usage in a coordinated manner at the fastest feasible pace.

Gant, Andrew – Liberal Democrat

Strongly agree

A thorough review of planning policies, ideally across all PAs in the county, would be a robust start

Palumbo, Marco – Green

Strongly agree

Stockton, Jane – Labour

Strongly agree

This is central to Oxford Labour’s manifesto commitment to make Oxford City Council a Zero Carbon Council by 2030 at the latest and work with the Zero Carbon Oxford Partnership to get Oxford to Zero Carbon by 2040.

Fouweather, Laurence – Liberal Democrat

Strongly agree

LA’s have a major role in this through the planning process which the current regimes seem to have forgotten. Even when they apply planning conditions they frequently fail to follow them up to ensure compliance.

Fox, John – Green

Strongly agree

It is better understood today that the physical world is wrapped in a global biosphere which includes a web of life that keeps everything in a dynamic balance. The excessive use of fossil fuels has disrupted this balance and to ignore this means we are seriously risking the survival of the human race. We are learning that people who live in a built urban environment (50% of global population) and don’t have access to the services of that web live poorly and are finding it difficult to survive. Understanding the need for a Nature Recovery Network is the second highest priority to eliminating fossil fuel use.

Gant, Andrew – Liberal Democrat

Strongly agree

There is increasing scientific evidence of the benefit to mental health and wellbeing as well as physical health. Nature-based solutions to e.g. flooding should also be given much greater attention

Palumbo, Marco – Green

Strongly agree

Stockton, Jane – Labour

Strongly agree

I fully support the objectives of the NRN, which are in line with Oxford Labour’s policies. However, I do not trust our Conservative government to fulfil their promises on this, without strong pressure from organisations such as Communities for Zero Carbon

Fouweather, Laurence – Liberal Democrat

Strongly agree

Too many trees are allowed to be felled during development projects. Replacing one mature tree with one sapling does almost nothing to replace the environmental benefit provided by the original tree.

Fox, John – Green

Strongly agree

I have been fighting a losing battle with climate change for 40 years in Eastern Africa. Working with rural communities to adapt their lifestyles and livelihoods to accommodate the droughts, the floods, the failed crops and the lack of water. Trees have always been a critical Allie in that fight. Trees breathe in CO2 and breath out O2. They are the lungs of the Earth. The destruction of tropical forest and of savannah to crow crops is catastrophic. We need to double tree cover in Oxfordshire but we also need to stop the destruction of forest everywhere. Can we make the Amazon and the Congo Global Protected Reserves so we can re-establish indigenous species?

Gant, Andrew – Liberal Democrat

Agree

Again, a slightly broad-brush statement covering an important ambition: not all trees are equally desirable, and “tree cover” is not always the most appropriate form of intervention (e.g. re-wilding). Tree planting should also be factored into e.g. carbon capture and flood prevention initiatives

Palumbo, Marco – Green

Strongly agree

Stockton, Jane – Labour

Strongly agree

Tree planting on a massive scale is fundamental to carbon capture and storage, and underpins any zero carbon target. It is part of Oxford Labour’s promise to voters, and I will do all I can to see it enacted.

Fouweather, Laurence – Liberal Democrat

Strongly agree

Oxford City Council should encourage local independent food shops by resisting change of use planning applications from large takeaway chains selling factory farmed food. Both Councils should ensure that their own food procurement is locally based and from environmentally sound sources.

Fox, John – Green

Strongly agree

At the heart of the current situation the global food industry is both destroying the bio-sphere by clearing land to establish plantations, produce crops that are shipped across the world by air and by sea so that we can eat mango’s in January. At the same time they are sucking the wealth out of Oxford and Oxfordshire providing everything we have never needed. We buy the food the fish which contains mercury and plastic, we buy meat treated with grain, grown with fertilizer and pesticides on land which used to be forest. Yes, we need policies that promote local sustainable agriculture as being suggested by Oxford Real Farming Conference.

Gant, Andrew – Liberal Democrat

Strongly agree

The UK govt 25-year plan and moves away from the EU subsidy model are an important opportunity to engage farmers and landowners with conserving natural capital as well as reducing food miles and making more efficient use of land.

Palumbo, Marco – Green

Strongly agree

Stockton, Jane – Labour

Strongly agree

I very much support this in principle, but Oxford City Council’s ability to influence this directly is probably limited, but will aim to achieve this wherever possible.

Fouweather, Laurence – Liberal Democrat

If elected to represent the Cutteslowe and Sunnymead ward I want to see council policies developed and implemented to help to fight climate change and protect the environment of the city and county for everyone who lives here.

Fox, John – Green

In Cutteslowe and Sunnymead ward I am aware that we have an extremely diverse group of communities (not one community). There are many young people, many older people there is a significant number of people of different faith and quite a number who are deprived. I hope to engage with the leaders of each of these different groups to learn of their priority problems, concerns and aspirations. As individual families they know what is happening across the world because they come from those places that are subject to the worst impacts of climate change and poverty. I want , over time , to bring together an integrated group that can contribute to building policy at council level as we address the issues of homes, of energy and transport. Of where the jobs of the future will come from and how there children can gain access to the education and training they want. I want to promote awareness of the CAGs, and other groups that can help them to build trust and make progress in building a better and more just future

Gant, Andrew – Liberal Democrat

A proper review of the Green Belt rather than allocating housing need to each LA then allowing each to decide which bit of its own Green Belt to allocate. Genuine baseline assessment of Natural Capital across Oxfordshire and beyond. Much more greening of the city centre to benefit physical and mental health and air quality. Nature-based solutions to e.g. flooding. Enhance sustainable transport to reduce car use, inc rail.

Palumbo, Marco – Green

Stockton, Jane – Labour

In my election literature I say “As a grandmother and retired teacher, I am concerned about the future for younger generations, and am passionate about tackling the climate crisis” This issue will be to the front and centre of every action I take as a Labour city councillor. I believe that Oxford Labour has the policies to tackle this emergency. If elected, I will represent a ward close to important green spaces and green belt, and where important developments are proposed. It will be my priority to speak out to ensure Labour’s green policies are implemented.