Disappointed Derbyshire Green Party councillor is removed from Climate Change Committee

Green Party Cllr Gez Kinsella, for Duffield and Belper South, has told how the leading Conservative Group at Derbyshire County Council has removed him from the Climate Change Improvement and Scrutiny Committee.

Cllr Kinsella asked Derbyshire County Council Leader Barry Lewis at a Full Council meeting on May 24 for an explanation and claimed he was told there is now a need to provide seats for the newly-created Reform Group.

Cllr Kinsella said: “When I was elected two years ago as the first Green Party county councillor, Councillor Lewis, the Leader of the Conseravtive Group, offered me a place on the Climate Change Committee seeing the benefits of my expertise.

“I was disappointed to hear this week that I’d been removed from the committee. Cllr Lewis said at Full Council today (May 24) the reason for this is because of the need to give seats to the newly-created Reform Group.

“However, the Head of Democratic Services said these changes happened back in March and this was not the reason for my removal from the committee. Cllr Lewis then refused to answer my question to clear this issue up.”

Cllr Kinsella, who feels there may be another explanantion for his removal, told how he has been ‘politely, but firmly’ highlighting what he believes has been a lack of progress in delivering the council’s Climate Change Strategy and he claims that the public would struggle to see what progress the council is making in this area.

He added: “Although I’m no longer on the committee I shall continue to hold the council to account from the public gallery. I will now be asking Derbyshire’s Director of Legal Services to look into this further.”

Cllr Kinsella accepted his position on the committee had originally been at the behest of Cllr Lewis, and that as a sole councillor he did not form a group and he had no official constitutional right.

But he has been serving on this committee for two years and says he has taken his scrutiny responsibilities seriously and is disappointed with the explanation for his removal.

Cllr Kinsella stated: “To prevent the only Green Councillor from undertaking genuine scrutiny in this way undermines accountability and transparency in delivery of the council’s Climate Change Strategy and net zero ambitions.”

He has written to the Labour and Lib-Dem Group leaders after them to support him in voting against the committee paper and to request his reinstatement.

Cllr Kinsella attended his last Climate Change Committee meeting on May 22 where he played an active role.

He hightlighted potential concerns about how many single use plastics are actually being reduced across Derbyshire and his request for Surfers Against Sewage to be included in further council discussions on this subject was refused.

Derbyshire County Council Leader, Cllr Barry Lewis, said: “In appointing Cllr Kinsella previously he occupied a Conservative seat on that committee but with the formation of the Reform Group in March it means we as a Group have less committee allocations, which shift to Labour. This change simply reflects that.”