Barnet Council will look at how to make the borough more environmentally friendly as part of its post-coronavirus recovery work.

Labour and Conservative councillors agreed to commission a report on Barnet’s environmental policies during a meeting of the environment committee on Tuesday (June 30).

They also pledged to look at the effectiveness of 20mph zones following concerns they are not being implemented quickly enough.

During the meeting, Cllr Alan Schneiderman (Labour, Woodside) called on the council “to review its green and environmental sustainability policies to see what more can be done to support a green recovery post-pandemic”.

He proposed looking at ways of making the borough more pro-cycling, introducing low-traffic neighbourhoods, reducing single-use plastics and bringing back separate food waste collections.

Committee chairman Cllr Dean Cohen (Conservative, Golders Green) said a lot of work had already been done to make Barnet greener – but he agreed more progress could be made.

Executive director of environment Geoff Mee said he would welcome the opportunity to set out Barnet’s response to the Government’s Environment Bill.

During the same meeting, Cllr Geof Cooke (Labour, Woodside) called for a report on “how it can be made easier and quicker to introduce 20mph zones in Barnet”.

He said there “continued to be a demand from residents” for traffic management and speed reduction measures but progress had been “painfully slow” when it came to implementing 20mph zones.

Cllr Cohen said there were no plans to change the overall policy, which is to introduce 20mph zones around schools and similar areas where they are requested by residents.

And Cllr Peter Zinkin (Conservative, Childs Hill) said a lack of enforcement of 20mph zones was a problem, and the council should look at the official data showing how effective the zones are.

Following a debate, councillors unanimously agreed a report on 20mph zones – which will include a reference to the timescales of their implementation – will be included in a paper at a meeting of the environment committee in September.