Student Voice on Climate & Politics
Jason Sparkhall writes as a final year student at the University of Northampton studying BA Politics and International Relations. He has an interest in encouraging youth voices in social, climate, and environmental affairs and one day hopes to stand to become a Member of Parliament.
West Northamptonshire Council received a political shock in last May's local elections, when Reform UK achieved a majority after nearly 20 years of Conservative Party rule. An upset some may say was inevitable, especially with the Conservatives being in power when the old Northamptonshire County Council became insolvent and being deemed unrecoverable. Typically a shift in power brings with it an air of revitalisation, regardless of proposed policy, and a sense that something is finally going to change. However, this sense of revitalisation has already died out, and has been replaced by a feeling of uncertainty and, in some cases, shame.
As of November 4th, it has been 6 months since the new West Northamptonshire Council, led by Reform UK's Mark Arnull, has taken power and in those 6 months there have been many unsavoury headlines in local and even national newspapers: “Over Budget” (BBC), “[SEND bus to school assistant] ‘I feel like a slave’” (Northampton Chronicle and Echo), “Council debt rises by £90m” (BBC), “£9.6m overspend” (BBC), “Council tax ‘highly likely’ to go up” (Northampton Chronicle and Echo), “diversity U-turn” (BBC), “Reform UK to give [...] Musk-Style Audit” (BBC), but most importantly, in July 2025 “West Northants Council scraps ‘unaffordable’ net zero targets” (BBC). The rationale to scrap the net zero targets for West Northamptonshire Council was publicly stated as a decision to focus “limited public resources on initiatives with tangible benefits” and that make a “real difference to people's lives”. This rationale holds little weight when only a few months prior to this announcement a “major incident” was declared across Northamptonshire due to heavy levels of flooding, displacing thousands of residents, causing millions in structural damage, and severely impacting both road and rail traffic for weeks. It is clear that, based on past events, investing in net zero and climate preservation projects would produce ‘tangible benefits’ and make a ‘real difference to people’s lives’, so this begs the question if not for economic and social benefit what is the reason for scrapping these targets? The only remaining answer seems to be the presence of underlying political motivations, a presence which has only become clearer through recent council meetings.
A severe example of these political motivations comes from the Place and Resources Overview and Scrutiny Committee Meeting which occurred on the 19th August 2025, where Reform UK Cllr Kamala Guliyeva stated at 2:41:19
“This is all based on this net zero um, based on the premises that um the climate change is a man-made. So, if you believe in that and this is exactly sort of between believing and not believing it, it’s like a religion Um then of course it's not fact. It's not fact”.
This becomes more alarming knowing that Kamala Guliyeva sits as the Vice-Chair for the Democracy and Standards Committee, a committee concerned with having overall responsibility for decisions in relations to elections, community governance, developing the council’s code of conduct, and setting the overall standards of conduct for council members. Returning to the original statement which you can listen to on YouTube, it is concerning and disappointing to hear such a senior councillor making comments based on personal beliefs rather than factual evidence, bringing into question how we can, as a democracy, hope to succeed in creating policies and legislation to combat the climate and nature crisis when we have climate deniers as elected councillors?
However, not all is doom and gloom. There is an ongoing collective movement in West Northamptonshire to oppose self-destructive politics, and lobby those in power to trust the facts and act accordingly. Groups such as 1000 Voices, Climate Action West Northamptonshire, West Northants Green Party, Northamptonshire PSC (Palestine Solidarity Campaign), the University of Northampton Environment and Sustainability Team along with all the local residents who are raising their voices independent of an organisation. There are spaces out there to make change, if you are feeling hopeless or pessimistic about the future, reach out and start a conversation, as a voice is always stronger when in unison with others.