A municipality has been criticized for printing ‘thousands of unnecessary pages’ in a report on making transport more environmentally friendly.
The Oxfordshire County Council on Tuesday distributed a copy of the 491-page document to all councilors who attended a full meeting, as well as officials.
The Local Transport and Connectivity Plan (LTCP) aims, among other things, for a net zero transport system by 2040.
Conservative councilor David Bartholomew wondered why the council gave everyone a nearly 500-page document, rather than just giving a printed version to people who wanted or needed one.
“When I look around the room, I see a lot of councilors looking tired and tired,” he said.
“It’s not just the heat, it’s having to carry this and bring this in.
‘I would have thought at some point, since this government must have green beauty at the heart of everything it does and is sensitive to the climate, why did they print out 500 pages of the transport plan for all councilors to have?
‘We may have spent £1,000 on unnecessary printing.
“For reasons of inclusivity, I accept that for some people it should be a paper version, but many of us don’t need that.
‘We are very happy, and indeed we prefer the digital version.
“There are all kinds of things in there where we can search the document and find all the interesting stuff.
‘Why did we print thousands of unnecessary pages?
‘Has someone calculated the CO2 costs of all the delivery guys who deliver them everywhere and the costs of the poor trees that have been broken down?’
Part of the transport plan is ‘to make Oxfordshire greener, fairer and healthier through the relationship between transport, quality of life, health and the environment’.
Independent county councilor Stefan Gawrysiak told the meeting he preferred the paper version of the report to an electronic one.
“Normally I agree with Councilor Bartholomew because it makes my life easier,” he said.
‘On this occasion I want this – this was my Sunday morning reading with a cup of coffee in the backyard, I continued with a highlighter and it was an absolute joy to read.
“We have the electronic ones, but I want these too.”
A report on the document said: ‘The LTCP will help make Oxfordshire greener, fairer and healthier through the relationship between transport, quality of life, health and the environment.
‘The LTCP is directly aimed at reducing CO2 emissions and aims for a net-zero transport system by 2040.’
Another major change to the new LTCP was the added “Vision Zero” road safety policy, which is the elimination of deaths and serious injuries from road accidents in the province.
The Council has adopted the content of the LTCP as policy.
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