Town councillors in Dorchester have defended the installation of low-carbon energy systems in buildings it owns.

In response to comments from a Poundbury resident that they might do better for their money by simply planting more trees, councillors defended their solar panels, biomass boiler and other systems as leading by example over climate change.

Cllr Fiona Kent-Ledger said the issue was not about saving money for the council, although that might also happen, but was primarily about reducing the authority's carbon footprint and showing others what could be done.

She said that thousands of trees had already been planted by the council to create a new 'woodland walk' at the Kings Road playing field and that energy saving methods installed at the Weymouth Avenue cricket pavilion were on track to recover the council's initial investment.

The authority has also invest in its own water boreholes at Weymouth Avenue and in the Borough Gardens and has been using electric vehicles and electric power tools for some time.

Consultant Henry Dodds, who said he had lived off-grid prior moving to Poundbury, told the town council that even if the whole of the UK became carbon neutral it would only make two-one-hundredths of 1Celsius difference to the planet and that the changes the town council was likely to bring about were so small, and relatively inefficient, that other steps should be considered instead.

He suggested that planting more trees, training people to install heat pumps, or even learning Chinese to influence that nation which creates much of the climate problems, might be more productive.

He also urged the council to also install batteries if it were to go ahead with installing a solar system at the Borough Gardens, as without them any 'spare' energy not used immediately would be lost.

Town councillor Gareth Jones had earlier called on the meeting to ensure that the authority closely monitors the difference its low-carbon investments were making to ensure the council is getting a good return on its investments.