5 things I have done today to help the planet - The Local Council Edition [Day 016 – 30 May ’19]

Today I went to a meeting of my local town council.

Recently they made a Climate Emergency Declaration.

The declaration commits the council to make a plan to make the community carbon neutral by 2030.

This is a bold and challenging plan.

They are appealing for ideas from the community to help achieve the goal.

The powers of a local town council are limited. Their remit covers for example allotments, public clocks, bus shelters, play areas and play equipment, grants to help local organisations and consultation on neighbourhood planning.

As I mentioned a few days back, within the context of these limited powers, I submitted some suggestions...

1. Ask for a 'Climate Action Statement' from any organisations that the Town Council gives funds to.
2. Ask for a 'Climate Impact Statement' from any events that the Town Council gives funds to - and tie the amount donated to the amount of 'climate amelioration and healing' the event organisers are including in their event planning.
3. Move all, or at least a significant part, of the Town Council funds to the Triodos Bank that supports planet positive organisations.
4. Invest in subscriptions to a range of 'planet positive' magazines such as Ethical Consumer, Permaculture Magazine, Resurgence etc and donate one set to the public library and one set to the local school library.
5. Require that all refreshments (tea, coffee, milk, juice, biscuits, cake etc) at all Town Council events and meetings are organic and where possible locally sourced.
6. Ask all councillors to volunteer to produce 'Climate Action Statements' for what they and their families are doing to reduce their environmental impact. Publish and publicise these on the Town Council website, and maybe also the official notice boards.

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Alas despite the urgency of the emergency the council didn't discuss the ideas.

Instead they spent 16 minutes debating whether they should reduce the frequency of summer grass cutting in the town's three small parks from once every 10 days to once every 14 days to increase biodiversity and reduce petrol consumption.

In the end it was decided that this might make the parks look unsightly as daisies might appear. The cutting frequency will therefore remain the same, although in one of the parks they will leave the grass a bit longer around the edges.

It was then realised by one of the councillors that the Environmental Group established to discuss these issues had not been formally set up as an official sub-committee of the council.

However before the group could be ordained as a sub-committee the terms of reference would have to be formally debated.

The formal establishment of the Environment sub-committee, and its terms of reference, was therefore deferred for discussion at the next council meeting in a month's time.

Local democracy in action !!!

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2030 is now only 3865 days away.

I am not quite sure the councillors have realised the urgency of the emergency, and the magnitude of their commitment.

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Maybe I should just go it alone and do my own thing...

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[ header image from pixabay.com ]