Warwickshire County Council's climate emergency declaration remains in place after Reform UK's bid to repeal it was thwarted by the Conservatives.

The ruling Reform group moved to row back on the declaration made six years ago, one that was reaffirmed near the start of their time in office last year, but amendments to their motion put in by the Tories gained backing from Liberal Democrat, Green and Labour councillors.

They still recognised Reform's argument that net zero commitments are "no longer economically sustainable in the short term", wording that saw climate issues slip down the agenda of the new council plan earlier this year, but the Conservatives weaved into this latest motion the "real and ongoing long-term challenge" of climate change, stating "the council should consider the impact of its activities in the light of that challenge".

In terms of actual commitments, Reform's bid to revoke the climate emergency and commitments to try to make new county council buildings carbon neutral were entirely scratched.

The Tories softened the language to reaffirming a commitment to "protecting residents from the impacts of climate change" with policies and targets reviewed "periodically" to ensure they are "evidence-based, affordable, deliverable and focused on practical outcomes".

Heat resilience was added to Reform's focus on flooding.

The new cross-party working group suggested by Reform was kept in but the terms of reference will now go to full council for debate, not just Reform cabinet members.

On new buildings, the commitment is to make them "energy efficient and resilient to extreme weather" by focusing on "good building fabric" as opposed to "costly mechanical solutions".

On the back of an 80-strong protest against Reform's motion, the debate was unsurprisingly political.

Cllr Will Roberts described himself as "surprised" that Reform's motion had not come earlier.

"The fact is this is happening across many Reform councils, which must mean it is a command coming down from Reform HQ," he said.

"We know it isn't the first time Reform HQ has meddled in local politics."

He referenced multi-million pound donations to Reform from Christopher Harborne, "who is closely connected to the oil industry through his company AML Global", accusing Reform of "turning your back" on national and food security, Warwickshire farmers and the county's residents as a whole.

Leader Cllr George Finch accused the Tories of "going far, far to the left" by bringing the amendment and tried to reignite a clash with old adversary Cllr Keith Kondakor by insisting flooding in his ward from the River Anker was not down to climate change but "an act of God".

"It's life," said Cllr Finch, amid howls of derision.

Undeterred, Cllr Finch then turned on councillors who joined protestors on Tuesday morning.

"You can paint posters in your spare time, you can cry with 70 protestors outside who should be doing other things," he said.

"You genuinely stand there and tell the residents of Warwickshire who have huge concerns with the cost-of-living crisis, that can't afford food or heating their homes, you're telling those residents that they should care more about what countries like China, Brazil, America, Russia are doing with their climate, which we have no power to deal with.

"You think this small island can change what the climate emissions are across the world? It's delusional."

He added: "This is not a priority for our residents and it shouldn't be a priority for this council."

Cllr Chris Kettle laughed off the prospect of being considered "a closet hard-lefty" and called on all councillors to consider proper evidence.

"It is difficult to reconcile comments that climate change is not happening when there are record temperature rises across the world, long-established glaciers are melting and at higher altitudes, ice caps are shrinking and sea levels have risen by six inches since 1901," he said.

He referenced evidence from NASA on the impact humans are having on climate change and asked: "Where is the body of evidence to suggest international experts are wrong? And since when is burying one's head in the sand a good place to find that evidence?"

He advocated a "rational, informed approach" to cost-of-living pressures in the short term and the "very serious long-term consequences" of climate change "that could wipe out any short-term savings we could make".

With the writing on the wall, portfolio holder for environment, heritage and culture Cllr Darren Cheshire, who had presented Reform's original motion, was handed a speech.

It decried the watering down of his group's aims while recognising the new motion "still contains worthwhile and important work", going on to say "we will support the amended motion".

"We want the work to begin and genuine progress to be made," he said.

"Nobody should pretend that this chamber has delivered the reset originally proposed. The amendment removed the central decision to repeal the climate emergency declaration."

He added: "Yes, this (amended) motion will achieve something, it will move the council in the right direction, but it is a job half done."

Council chair Cllr Dale Keeling sought to clarify whether that meant the amendment had been accepted. Cllr Cheshire confirmed it had not so the original vote was on whether to accept the Tory version over Reform's.

The 21 Reform and Restore Britain councillors and Reform-supporting independents voted against but were outgunned by 31 Tories, Lib Dems, Greens and Labour councillors.

That moved things on to a vote on the Tory version which was supported by 49 out of 52 councillors present.

Cabinet member Cllr Robert Gisbourne, Cllr Neil Garland and Cllr Ed Harris all abstained – opted against voting either way.