16 July 2019
BCP Council has overwhelmingly passed the Climate & Ecological Emergency motion submitted by Green Party councillors Simon Bull and Chris Rigby in fulfilment of an election pledge.
Councillor Simon Bull said: "I'm delighted. There was a lot of interesting debate, but the main thing is it's passed. But now the real work starts. We've passed the motion, we've now got to do the work."
Councillor Chris Rigby said: "We're both really excited that this has passed, and we have got what we think are really really achievable targets to meet by 2030, which doesn't mean we're going to be putting this back. There's going to be action from this year going onwards in the future. We've got plans already in place with officers to put a timetable in, where we can manage and quantify what we're going to be doing each year, and we're going to be monitoring this and showing the achievements we make and how much carbon we're actually saving until we do hit zero carbon.
"And not just this - as well, as part of the motion we have managed to get a Citizens' Assembly approved as well. So we will have public scrutiny throughout the entirety of this climate and ecological emergency, and we're just delighted to have managed to get this through so quickly and deliver on one of our major campaign promises."
Councillor Simon Bull added: "Over 100 councils up and down the country have declared a climate emergency, and it is brilliant that BCP Council has joined that list. And we will be taking action, and we will be taking this seriously, as we all need to do."
Councillor Chris Rigby added: "And we're also going to be taking the opportunity to show leadership as well, throughout Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole, and as the council moves towards zero carbon we want to take the local businesses and residents with us as well, until we can achieve complete carbon neutrality throughout Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole."
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The Bournemouth Echo previously ran a story about the motion, and you can read the final submitted text on the BCP Council website.
As well as this issue, Councillor Simon Bull is taking an interest in the growing calls from figures including senior Green Party politicians for drugs policy reform, which might start with removing possession of cannabis from the realm of the police.
Conveniently, the Green Party of England & Wales is currently consulting on a new party policy on drugs. Simon will therefore be grateful if you would like to respond to the national member survey - deadline thus Wednesday at 12 noon.
We will continue to publish further updates about the work of our councillors.
