I consider myself to be a reasonably intelligent person but I’m struggling to make sense of the contradictory statements in Gloucestershire County Council’s draft budget.

The budget reiterates the previously published commitment to making the county carbon neutral by 2050 and talks about “protecting and enhancing the green, built and historic environment of the county”. Yet just a few paragraphs later we read that that the council is planning to deliver road-building projects “on an unprecedented scale”.

The council appears to be arguing that the solution to carbon emissions is more road building: “...the scale of growth needs to be delivered in the context of reducing and mitigating the impacts of climate change.”

How on earth can the council reconcile these two opposing ambitions? Major road-building has no place in the strategy of a council that is genuinely committed to becoming carbon free.

Meanwhile, the council admits (in its Medium Term Financial Strategy) that: “Pollution poses a threat to the natural environment and the health of the population… little progress has been made towards reducing emissions here over the past decade.”

Can anyone explain these bafflingly contradictory statements to me?

Martin Brown

Bisley