Leicestershire's council leader has defended the recruitment of a £48,000-a-year climate resilience role and said the country "can't affect" climate change.

Leicestershire County Council's Reform leader Dan Harrison said the new role is about "what we [the council] can do to help those in need" regarding flooding problems around the county.

The role, which remains advertised on the council's careers page, will see the applicant "play a leading role in delivering the council's commitments and strategic outcomes on climate change and the environment".

The role will see the individual working with "internal and external partners and stakeholders, while building and maintaining effective working relationships" and "produce technical and non-technical reports".

The Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) spoke to Cllr Harrison who said the role was to help the county build resilience against flooding, saying he took the "pragmatic view that we can not change what nature's doing.

He added: "I don't think whatever we're going to do will alter that.

"We are less than one per cent of the world's pollution. You've got China, America and other countries getting on with it. There will be effects, but who knows?

"The whole thing is on the table, but why impoverish nations or communities or people through some belief that we could change it, but we can't.

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"But I can try and fight whatever change is happening, and where people are being flooded. It's more complicated because you have flood plains. No one is looking at what the implications and complications are going to be, and that's where we are today.

"No we can't affect this as a nation or a country – but we can't just sit back and allow it to destroy people's lives. So let's be proactive. Let's help people".

Cllr Harrison hit out at "gesture politics", including the Labour government, saying that he believes that North Sea drilling would bring "trillions of pounds in taxes".

He added: "Eventually I think they will wake up [the Government]. This is nothing about fake ideologies. It's about what we can do; people are being flooded, and we ought to be taking action".

It follows Reform's decision to divert £2 million from carbon reduction initiatives into efforts to mitigate flooding and other severe weather events last year.

The previous Conservative administration had set aside the funding in 2022 with a goal of ending its contribution to global warming by 2045. This was later pushed back to 2050 in light of the authority's currently difficult financial situation.

In response, Leicestershire County Council also put out a separate statement saying the role was "not about net zero".

It said: "You might have seen some social media posts about us looking to recruit a climate resilience officer. We want to clarify that the role is not about net zero.

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"It is about working with partners to support our communities to be more resilient and to adapt our services in the face of changing weather patterns. This is in line with our strategy."

Conservative opposition leader Deborah Taylor told the LDRS: "They [Reform] all have this ethos around them that climate change is rubbish then to see a job advertised for £50k is a bit strange isn't it?

"They seem to want to separate 'Net Stupid Zero' from climate change. Well they are interlinked. It seems like a shift in position.

"From what I looked into further, it's about bringing partners together so I don't see why we need an officer to oversee partnership work.

"I would rather see that funding put towards clearing the drains and gulleys to prevent housing being flooded".

The LDRS contacted the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero for comment.