Madam, Readers may be aware of the 10:10 campaign, a grass-roots movement which seeks to persuade individuals and organisations to tackle climate change by committing to reduce their carbon emissions by 10% during 2010.

At this week's Town Council meeting I proposed a resolution reading: Ross-on-Wye Town Council applauds the 10:10 campaign and resolves to support it by cutting the carbon emissions for which the Council is directly responsible by at least 10% during 2010. We further commit to encourage individuals and organisations within Ross to join the 10:10 campaign.

I write to express my disappointment that five Town Councillors (Bramer, Cutter, Hyde, Lucas and Ravenscroft) combined to argue against the immediate adoption of the resolution, on the grounds that they could not see how such savings could be made. They instead out-voted the others present to request that I research in detail how such savings could be made. Several examples of possible savings were suggested by the opponents of the resolution, all of which were depicted as difficult, expensive or inconvenient.

The Town Council is currently awaiting the results of an energy survey, but a quick look at the accounts shows that we spend about £1000 on heating the Corn Exchange and about £1000 on floodlighting St Mary's church each year. These energy bills represent almost all the Council's carbon footprint. I explained to the meeting that insulating the Corn Exchange and replacing the St Mary's bulbs with LED equivalents would yield much more than 10% carbon savings but to no avail.

The message this obstinacy sends out to the people of Ross is not helpful. It tells them that some of their Councillors believe saving energy is difficult, expensive, awkward and of low priority. This damaging message is exactly contrary to the empowering message of the 10:10 campaign. The 10:10 website explains how small changes in lifestyle, such as avoiding waste or buying locally produced food, can make a big difference to carbon emissions (http://www.1010uk.org">www.1010uk.org). Saving energy can also save you money of course.

The opponent's message also ignores the Town Council's own recent experience with the Christmas lights. All the feedback on the 2009 lights in Ross has been positive, with several people commenting that these were the best lights Ross had ever had. Yet they used 80% less electricity than the previous lights. This shows that saving energy can be an opportunity to do things better.

So far 53,776 people, 2,033 Businesses, 1,046 schools, universities and colleges plus 1,422 other organisations have signed up for 10:10. I am disappointed Ross Town Council cannot join up this month but hope that good sense and a 21st century attitude will prevail at the February meeting to vote the resolution through.

Cllr Jane Roberts