Council leader hopes to see some ‘positive changes’ for the environment following lockdown

The borough council has committed to becoming carbon neutral by 2030, and Councillor Nunn believes that the lifestyle changes people have had to adapt to during the pandemic could actually provide some positive future green benefits.

He said: “I think we might see some lasting changes. We’ve all got used to not using our cars and perhaps we’ve been enjoying the slightly cleaner air. I think there might be an opportunity, for those who have tried to go for an hour’s walk each day, to realise that walking isn’t so bad and they might do it more regularly. So we might see some positive changes.”

Asked what the council may have potentially learned from the situation, he told the Local Democracy Reporting Service he also hoped to see more people cycling into the town.

He said: “We can all be urged to change our behaviours, and I include myself in that. But when it comes to something like this that forces a behaviour change you perhaps realise it was not quite as bad as you first feared.

“There’s so many horrible aspects to what is happening, the economy, peoples’ health, and obviously the sad loss of people who have lost their lives.

“But we have somehow learned a different sort of lifestyle and I think we can get some of that to stick. We’ve had a couple of meetings in terms of making sure that if people do want to cycle into the town centre, have we got plenty of space for them and for places to safely leave them?

“Then of course the town centre is one thing, but we would also need to make sure that the routes into the town centre are safe. I would hope though that we can capture some long term benefit towards the 2030 target.”