Green councillors have said they are astonished with the decision by Labour and Liberal Democrat councillors to vote against the installation of solar panels on the top level of the St Martins Gate car park. The installation would have made a significant contribution towards the city council’s goal of being carbon neutral by 2030.
Councillor Louis Stephen said, “Worcester City Council declared a climate emergency all the way back in 2019, but when it comes to taking action, instead of warm words, sadly we cannot rely on Labour or Lib Dem councillors to do the right thing. To put a tiny amount of income from parking that might never materialise ahead of genuine action on reducing emissions is just wrong.”
Despite having previously agreed to the scheme at a Planning Committee, Labour and Liberal Democrat councillors claimed that the lost car parking spaces would mean that there would not be enough capacity for cars in years to come. The scheme would only have reduced capacity by between 38 and 55 spaces, and the County Highways department raised no objections to the planning application. It had also been noted previously that the car park was only ever full during major city events such as the Victorian Christmas Fayre, with further parking and charging points available 2 minutes walk away at Tallow Hill. The electricity generated by the panels would have provided power for 12 electric vehicle charging points, as well as for lighting and lifts in the car park, with remaining energy being sold back to the grid.
Councillor Karen Lewing said “From this decision, it’s clear that councillors of other parties need to have training on Carbon Literacy as they do not understand the importance of generating our own renewable energy. This scheme would have been in line with the council’s own Environmental Sustainability strategy which aims to reduce consumption of resources, to grow the low carbon economy in the city and to ensure sustainability is embedded in business. In addition to this being a wasted opportunity, it has also now wasted a huge amount of officers’ time and resources.”
Labour councillors claimed that this project was redundant as the council already purchases “green” energy from its suppliers. “Green” energy includes energy from the Drax power station, which the BBC reported in 2024 [1] is still burning rare forest wood. Sustainability First also estimates that transmission losses from getting power from power stations to users adds £100 per annum to customer bills [2]. UK Power Networks estimate that transmission losses on the grid are responsible for 3.19 mega tonnes of CO2 per year [3]. The most efficient way to use generated electricity is to use it on site; officers estimated that all of the generated electricity for the St Martins Gate solar panels would be used on site.
Councillor Alex Mace said “The human driven climate emergency is affecting our city now. Just this winter the city has been flooded five times; here we have a proposal that would have reduced the city’s carbon footprint by five percent and given a positive rate of return from day 1. It would have produced income for years to come. Labour and their friends in the Liberal Democrats voted for declaring a climate emergency in 2019, but then voted against installing solar panels on St Martins Gate. Their words have no meaning when they won’t back them up with action. On the doorstep, residents say they are worried about how the changing climate will affect their children’s lives. By voting against this, Labour and the Liberal Democrats showed they aren’t on the side of their residents.”
Labour and Liberal Democrat councillors also voted to use £500,000 from selling off council assets to pay for the redundancy costs of staff cuts in 2025/26. This money could have been spent on solar panels to reduce the council’s carbon footprint and electricity costs; instead it is being spent on Labour and Liberal Democrat cuts.