WEST DORSET'S newly elected council is being urged to do more on renewable energy.

An open letter signed by 11 community groups has been sent out, urging the recently elected members to take action and help tackle climate change.

The letter states: "The United Nations Development Programme estimates that over 70 per cent of climate reduction measures are undertaken by local government.

"Climate change is the issue of our times. Indecisiveness now will result in huge costs later."

Groups who have signed the letter include Transition Town Dorchester, Dorset Community Energy, Dorchester Churches Together's ecology group and West Dorset Friends of the Earth.

Other signatories are Dorset Energised, the Charminster Clean Energy Group, the Dorchester Quaker Meeting, West Dorset Pro Wind, the Bridport Renewable Energy Group, Weymouth Environmental Action Centre and Transition Town Bridport.

They claim renewable energy will bring economic benefits to Dorset, with 10,000 jobs already believed to have been created in the South West renewable sector and that figure expected to rise to 34,000 by 2020.

The letter adds: "Currently about £30 million enters the local economy in the form of feed-in tariffs earned by households and there is potential for more."

The groups claim that it is only a matter of time before The letter goes on to highlight some of the success stories in West Dorset and the wider Dorset area, with the Piddle Valley community of 2,500 homes supplied with 100 per cent renewable energy from solar power and biogas and Corbin Industries in Bridport employing 70 people to make frames for solar panels.

However, it states the challenge of meeting renewable targets is getting more challenging and the latest figures indicate Dorset has reached only 3.4 per cent of its 7.5 per cent renewable energy target by 2020.

The letter also states that tackling climate change is key to protecting the local landscape, wildlife and heritage assets with local government decisions key to showing leadership and setting an example for businesses and the local community to follow.

It states: "The next five years offer an exciting opportunity for councillors to make a real difference to our social, environmental and economic future by ensuring that initiatives and planning decisions are firmly focused on the achievement by 2020 of the targets we have set ourselves in Dorset for all the reasons we have outlined above."