East Suffolk Council have unanimously passed a motion to declare a biodiversity and ecological emergency.
The motion, which was proposed by Green councillor Rachel Smith-Lyte, was discussed by the council on Wednesday.
Ms Smith-Lyte said it was “a critical step in the right direction for our council and beyond”.
But the East Suffolk Conservatives (ESC) said: “The motion is just words with no new policies or initiatives.”
The council first declared a climate emergency in 2019, but Ms Smith-Lyte said: “We realised afterwards we had omitted to add the ecology and biodiversity emergency element, which is now rectified.”
This is the best summary I could come up with:
East Suffolk Council have unanimously passed a motion to declare a biodiversity and ecological emergency.
The Green, Liberal Democrat and Independent (GLI) led council intends to develop a biodiversity action plan informed by consultations with residents and community groups, as well as officers and councillors.
This is not acceptable and we need a much stronger focus to protect and champion not only our biodiversity, but to ensure every policy at East Suffolk."
During the ESC’s administration, former cabinet member for the environment James Mallinder introduced the ‘Pardon the Weeds, We are Feeding the Bees’ campaign and the use of hydrotreated vegetable oil as fuel for waste collection trucks.
“I worked hard to make sure that not only the environment departments focused on delivering policy, but the entire council considered the environmental impact of everything it did as an authority,” he said.
“The GLI group are failing the residents of East Suffolk by not providing the same level of engagement and are not prioritizing the environment.”
The original article contains 367 words, the summary contains 165 words. Saved 55%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
