One year after Dorset Council declared a Climate and Ecological Emergency communities and Councillors express disappointment at lack of action.
Today, 16th May marks one year since Dorset Council declared a climate and ecological emergency. However, 12 months on there is still no strategy and action plan.
For a brand new council, with many new councillors under a new leadership team, the first Full Council meeting on 16th May 2019 was charged with an atmosphere of energy and passion.
Outside the South Walks Council building in Dorchester, the new unitary authority Councillors were greeted on arrival by around 100 people from Extinction Rebellion (XR) and other concerned groups. They gathered to demand action on climate change and staged a “die-in” to demonstrate its seriousness.
Inside the meeting XR supporters urged the new Council to wake up to the environmental crisis. Caz Dennett representing XR made a statement to request the Council declare an emergency and pressed the Chair to allow the meeting to discuss the matter there and then. Looking back Caz says “The atmosphere in the room that day was of hope for a new Council culture. There was clear passion, urgency and support from most Councillors to tackle the climate and ecological crisis. Councillors acted like they were empowered to make decisions, to bring change and leadership.”
Cllr Maria Roe who spoke up at the meeting in favour of the request said “We are running out of time, we need to be addressing climate change and declare a climate emergency immediately, now, this minute. Then we can start working on an action plan, which is the work that needs to be done. I hope you will agree with me and declare an emergency”.
Cllr Clare Sutton also made an appeal to the Council Chair to treat the request as an Urgent Item and for the Council to embrace a new way of doing things.
Acknowledgement of the climate and ecological emergency became clear when a vote on the matter was eventually granted. 69 councillors voted for, 6 abstentions and only 2 against.
Soon after the Council set up a cross-party Climate and Ecological Emergency Executive Advisory Panel (Advisory Panel) to progress work on producing a strategy and action plan to deal with the emergency here in Dorset. Cllr Ray Bryan was appointed Chair of the Advisory Panel.
The Advisory Panel’s Leader showed considerable enthusiasm to “gather the facts” about the science behind the emergency. However, the fact-finding mission continued for months, with no sign of an action plan.
As late as February and March this year, the Advisory Panel continued with its information gathering phase. They held two Climate Inquiry days as part of their wider community consultation process. Many local individuals, community and voluntary organisations and children from local schools presented their ideas with passion and determination to bring action.
During the past 12 months XR Dorset has continuously reminded the Council of the need to tell the truth about the emergency we face, to publish an action plan and timetable to achieve a net zero carbon Dorset.
Protests, actions, community events remind Dorset Council of promises they made
Amy Smith from XR said, “A lot of people in the community share concern for our future and for the future of our children and children’s children. Since the declaration Dorset residents have come together and urged the Council to do what they promised to do last May, to have an action plan within a couple of months.”
Youth Strikes for Climate saw local school children and students take to the streets across the county. Protests over the poor rural bus services around Bridport. Mothers and Babies held a Nurse-In for the Climate Emergency outside County Hall. The Air We Grieve action focused Council’s attention on the levels of toxic air pollution on Boot Hill, Weymouth.
In addition, Public meetings in Puddletown at the Parish Council and the village hall brought people together to stop a planning application for an oil well in their area. Pensioners turned out at County Hall to demand the Council stop investing their Dorset Council Pension Fund in dirty fossil fuels. People’s Assemblies were organised in Dorchester, Weymouth and Portland providing local residents the opportunity to discuss and submit ideas to the Council’s Climate Ideas consultation.
But one year on and the Council has still not produced a strategy and action plan. Not even a draft plan has been seen by Councillors tasked with working on it.
Caz Dennett is disappointed that the commitment shown by so many Councillors a year ago has not been fulfilled. “Over the last year Dorset Council has outwardly expressed a political desire to treat this emergency with the absolute urgency needed. We have been asked repeatedly by Cllr Ray Bryan to trust them. He’s told me many times he’s a man of his word, but to date there has been no actual outcome shown in terms of their leadership to get things done.
“We appreciate that the last 8 weeks have been very challenging for local government and public services. We are truly grateful to all those working to maintain essential services and keep us safe. However, a strategy and action plan to tackle the ongoing and increasingly concerning environmental crisis should have been ready some considerable time before the Covid-19 pandemic ‘hit us like an express train’.”
Dr. Jon Orrell who is a GP in Weymouth and Dorset Councillor for Melcombe Regis also calls for action. “I would say the Council needs to take action on climate emergency with the same vigour as for coronavirus. We have proved that changes can be made fast and when there is a political will, there’s a way. It is vital that we consolidate the welcome cuts to unnecessary travel for work or flying abroad. Any recovery package should favour a new green deal, not prop up old bad polluters. I call upon the cabinet to act with the energy and focus it found for COVID-19.”
At the Dorset Council Cabinet meeting on 5th May Irene Statham, from XR, asked a public question, “When and through which channels will Dorset Council publish and implement its Climate and Ecological Emergency Strategy and action Plan?”
In his answer Cllr Ray Bryan said that the draft action plan is nearly ready, but was unclear on when it would be sent to, or discussed by, the Advisory Panel members in preparation for sending to Full Council.
In answer to another question Cllr Flower, Leader of the Council, informed the meeting that there would be no Full Council Meetings for the foreseeable future. He said “The Cabinet and most of our committees have a membership of 10. Whilst it is practical to hold a virtual meeting of that size there is a great deal of work to be done before we could contemplate running a virtual meeting involving all 82 councillors”.
As Full Council meetings scheduled for May, July and October have been cancelled this effectively means at least another 6 months before any proposed plan will be made public, unless a virtual solution is set up.
Julie-Ann Booker from XR commented, “It’s clearly possible to make decisions without face to face meetings. We don’t accept the ‘technical difficulties’ reason given. It’s concerning that the Advisory Panel have not met since January. We have been able to hold virtual meetings with large numbers of rebels from across the county and across the country. I also understand that other Councils using the same digital platform as Dorset Council are managing to hold full Council meetings effectively.”
Despite the lack of progress to date, many people who have campaigned for action continue in hope. 80-year-old Joe Burlington is a campaigner from Bridport and spent 9 days at XR’s Rebellion in London last October. “When we say Dorset Council ‘Where’s your plan?’ really we mean ‘Where is our plan?’. The declaration a year ago was itself a huge positive, but decisions made now will affect all of us, our planet and our future – especially that of our children. When elected members have done the right thing, it will be wonderful to celebrate. I look forward to the day when we can congratulate Dorset Council for doing what is necessary to lead us towards a safer future”
Councillors express disappointment at slow progress
XR supporters are not alone in their concerns for progress. Given that 90% of Councillors present at the meeting last year voted ‘yes’ to declare a climate and ecological emergency, it is not surprising that disappointment is felt by Council Members.
Cllr Nick Ireland, Dorset Councillor for Crossways Ward reflects on the events last year and progress since. “The first full meeting of the nascent Dorset Council was indeed exciting and in declaring a Climate Emergency, it seemed that the new Unitary could really make a difference by leading by example. Therefore, I’m extremely disappointed by the lack of progress in producing tangible outcomes, especially when you look at our peers and see positive steps being taken. On those few occasions when we could have been bold and made a statement as to our intent by committing to something meaningful, the Executive ducked the issue and went with the ‘safe’ option.
“I’ve always been worried that this prevarication is more to do with canning anything that will make a real difference once the action plan is decided on the basis that we can’t afford it; the council’s finances were likely to be precarious without central government policy changes even before covid-19.
“If I were to rate Dorset Council’s response so far since we declared a Climate (and Ecological) Emergency, I’d give it a D+.”
Cllr Maria Roe, (Colehill and Wimborne Minster East), is a member of the Climate & Ecological Emergency Executive Advisory Panel (CEEEAP), and is keen to review the draft plan which has not yet been shared with Panel members. The “behind doors” nature of the Advisory Panel has been a concern for Cllr Roe who believes more transparency and public engagement would have helped.
Cllr Roe says “From the beginning I felt that the meetings should have been opened up to the public and I never understood why this was not possible. I look forward to discovering how the wealth of innovative ideas from members of the public, at the two Inquiry Days, will be incorporated into the action plan. Those two days were the highlight for me. They demonstrated how engaged the public is to coming up with innovative and workable solutions to the very challenging issues of the climate and eco crisis.”
Cllr Daryl Turner who represents Lyme & Charmouth, is Chair of Place, Overview and Scrutiny Committee and sits on the Advisory Panel has also expressed concerns about the length of time it’s taken to produce an action plan. “I’ve always advocated that we need a robust time line with milestones along the route, which to date we still haven’t produced. I would say that a lot of good work has been done but the “closed” meetings have not contributed to sharing that information. The next meeting is on the 22nd May & we have been promised the Plan in advance of that. I hope this is shared ASAP after that.
“I’m also keen that some of the practices put in place because of C19 are not lost when we begin the reset & recovery phase, with home working seemingly the simplest lesson learned reducing the need for Travel.”
