Newport Council goes ‘paper-lite’

Newport Town Council has resolved to drastically cut its use of paper, by distributing council documents electronically, with the aim of reducing its environmental impact.

Lib Dem Councillor Thomas Janke (South Ward) put forward the proposal, after newly-elected Lib Dem Councillor Sarah Syrda (East Ward) raised the issue in discussion, due to her surprise at the amount of paper she was receiving from the Council.

Cllr Syrda said "It baffles me that I regularly receive paperwork for committees that I don't even attend. In my opinion this represents a huge waste of resources over the years. We should be reducing costs on paper and printing materials by simply reviewing our agendas by electronic means."

Under the new policy, all committee agendas and associated paperwork will be distributed electronically unless a councillor explicitly requests paper copies.

"I'm delighted that the majority of members support this proposal, meaning NTC is taking real steps to tackle its own carbon footprint," said Cllr Thomas Janke. "All members have access to emails and we've recently had our own NTC-specific email accounts setup by our officers. There's no reason that we should be printing off documents that have been written electronically. I feel this is a step in the right direction and I hope it motivates other organisations to do the same."

Newport Town Council recently declared a "Climate Emergency", in common with many other councils nationwide. This obliges the council to take steps within its own organisation to reduce its carbon footprint.