IN 2011, I installed solar panels on my roof. Since then I have earned around £2,000 a year by selling electricity into the grid and the panels have additionally given me free electricity during the day.

In 2012, Cllr Roebuck, Lib Dem Briefholder for Environment, ran a Notice of Motion asking that Weymouth and Portland Borough Council look seriously at solar energy as an income stream.

Additionally it would have helped Weymouth and Portland Borough Council to reduce its carbon emissions and help the environment. He specifically requested that consideration should be given to installing solar panels on the council-owned offices at Crook Hill in Chickerell.

At that time, panels were planned, and subsequently installed, on the new council offices at South Walks House in Dorchester. Had panels been put onto the Crook Hill offices when Cllr Roebuck suggested it, the council could have had a good income from them by now and could have been using the free electricity to power the offices.

Sadly the council has prevaricated since, and the potential income stream is now much reduced, compromising the viability of the suggested project.

This week the United Nations Conference on Climate Change is taking place, debating global warming and the steps that need to be undertaken by us all to combat the serious threats to ours and future generations.

When it comes to Weymouth and Portland Borough Council; it is a case of where there is a will, there may be a way, but where there is no will there is no way!

Cllr Gill Taylor

Lib Dem Group Leader, W&PBC