Norfolk's cash-strapped county council is planning to spend more than £80m to make its own properties more energy efficient, as part of its drive to cut carbon emissions.
The authority - which is already having to make £60m worth of cuts and savings - intends to borrow millions of pounds to fund the so-called 'retrofitting' programme.
The project involves almost 200 council buildings, including libraries, fire stations and museums and will see them fitted with heat pumps, to replace gas and oil boilers, while solar panels and better insulation will be installed on many.
But critics have questioned how deliverable the plan - and the funding for it - will be.
The bill is a further sign of the huge cost facing local taxpayers to achieve council ambitions to reach 'net zero' status by the end of the decade.
It comes weeks after the council - which is creating a new £200,000 chief executive role - revealed it was planning to buy land in south Norfolk to help hit the target the authority set itself of planting one million trees by 2025.
In 2019, the Conservative-controlled council set a goal to reach net zero carbon emissions on its estate by 2030 and the retrofitting project is part of how it intends to do so.
After carrying out surveys on 160 council buildings, the total cost of retrofitting them, including replacing old heating systems with heat pumps and making buildings more energy efficient, is estimated at £82.5m.
But the price tag has sparked concern, with opposition councillors questioning the funding approach.
And pressure group the Taxpayers' Alliance said Norfolk people should not have to shoulder the bill for net zero.
John O'Connell, chief executive of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: "Hard-pressed households don't want to fork out for these works.
"Having just been hit with a huge council tax rise, locals will worry that they will be asked to dig even deeper to meet the costs of net zero.
"The net zero target must not see residents landed with the bill."
The council's cabinet will be asked at a meeting today to agree to the first tranche of work, costing £22.5m.
The council would need to borrow £16.7m to add to nearly £6m already available, which includes £1.8m obtained from a government decarbonisation scheme.
But even greater borrowing and applications for more government money would be needed to complete the programme, which would also see solar panels installed to cut reliance on the electricity grid and reduce bills.
The list of council properties earmarked for retrofitting includes 20 fire stations, from King's Lynn to Diss, more than 30 libraries, children's homes, highways depots, the Gressenhall Farm and Workhouse museum and community hubs. Schools are not part of the programme.
Jane James, the county council's cabinet member for corporate services and innovation, said: "There’s no denying that retrofitting all the buildings held by Norfolk County Council is a big job.
"We’ll be looking at how we secure external funding to complete the work over the next seven years, but right now we’re asking the cabinet to approve an initial spend of £22.5m.
"This will allow our decarbonising programme to continue and make vital headway towards our net zero goal."
READ MORE: Norfolk net zero plan launched but road building continues
But Steve Morphew, leader of the opposition Labour group at County Hall, said: "This is very laudable, but where’s the detail that turns this from a political gimmick into a deliverable plan?
"Show me a costed, funded deliverable business plan that switches resources from climate-damaging schemes into retrofitting to save carbon and cash rather than Conservative seats in elections and I’ll lead the applause."
READ MORE: New Norfolk country park to hit tree targets criticised
Brian Watkins, leader of the Liberal Democrat group, said the council was right to "start to get its own house in order", but added: "This is a substantial piece of work both financially and physically, why is has it only now become an integral feature of achieving the council’s 2030 net zero targets?
"There is now a risk we have to find a large sum of money through borrowing in a short space of time without any guarantee of balancing the books through external funding."
Green Party county councillor Jamie Osborn said: "It is encouraging the county council is leading by example in installing renewable-powered heat pumps and solar panels, and their commitment to ending the use of fossil fuel boilers is to be welcomed.
"There will now have to be scrutiny to ensure that the promised upgrades are done on time and within budget."
Nationally, there have been dissenters within the Conservative Party over the push for net zero, with some concerned it is triggering higher taxes and more state intervention.
While former prime minister Boris Johnson criticised net zero "naysayers", a group of Tory backbenchers formed the Net Zero Scrutiny Group to highlight their concerns that the policies will hit people in the pocket.
But scientists say getting to net zero - so no more greenhouse gases are added into the atmosphere - is essential to stop rising global temperatures.
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