Letter 26 — To Councillor Jane Scullion
From measurable delivery to democratic legitimacy
Date: 8 November 2025
Recipient: Councillor Jane Scullion, Chair, Climate, Energy & Environment Committee — West Yorkshire Combined Authority
Context
Week 4 of One Letter a Day follows the thread from civic action to institutional delivery.
After conversations with Noel Collings on regional infrastructure and measurement, today’s letter turns to Councillor Jane Scullion, who chairs WYCA’s Climate, Energy & Environment Committee and serves as a senior leader in Calderdale.
Her work represents the political leadership layer that links technical progress with public trust and legitimacy.
This letter also reconnects with themes from Week 3, when community organisations such as Leeds Community Energy or Rainbow Junktion described the everyday work of engagement, and with Letter 12 to Dr Louise Atkinson, which explored co-creation and participation as foundations of civic hope.
Letter
Dear Councillor Scullion,
Thank you for your leadership across Calderdale and West Yorkshire in keeping climate action connected to local priorities. From community-scale retrofit to regional flood resilience and green-skills programmes, your work sits where politics meets delivery, translating technical ambition into civic direction.
I am writing as part of One Letter a Day: a year-long public correspondence to reopen grounded conversations about the climate emergency, beginning here in Leeds. Each day I write to someone whose work shapes how we think and act on this crisis, and publish both letters and replies online to sustain a visible, respectful dialogue between citizens and decision-makers.
Yesterday’s letter was to Noel Collings, about how regional progress can be tracked and made visible. Yours turns to the question of legitimacy: how political leadership can sustain momentum and ensure that the transition feels shared and fair.
At the Yorkshire & Humber Climate Commission gathering in Bradford this September, Julie Thorpe spoke about Calderdale’s retrofit challenge – 75 000 homes to reach EPC C – and mentioned co-creation and community learning as essential to overcoming the “soft barriers” that slow take-up. That insight echoed what Dr Louise Atkinson highlighted earlier in One Letter a Day: that creative, participatory approaches help citizens imagine their role in change, turning policy into something lived and shared. It also resonates with the role that community organisations play, which we covered in Week 3: organisations like Rainbow Junktion and Leeds Community Energy, whose work shows that ownership and trust are built from the ground up.
May I ask how you see that balance evolving? How can regional political leadership turn these technical programmes into civic movements that people recognise as their own — something done with them rather than to them? What kinds of partnerships, communication or local decision-making can make that possible?
When citizens see that change is happening with them, trust deepens and hope becomes tangible. Visible participation strengthens belief that the region’s transition is real, fair and within reach.
With appreciation,
Vivien Badaut
Founder, One Letter a Day
📨 Reply from Councillor Jane Scullion
No reply has yet been received.
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Tomorrow’s letter continues Week 4’s exploration of civic institutions, turning to Ed Whiting, Chief Executive of Leeds City Council — asking how organisational culture and leadership within public institutions can sustain focus, empower delivery teams and keep the climate transition embedded in everyday governance.