Labour Leader will today (Thursday
4th July) visit Cheshire East, where the local council
recently declared a climate emergency, to urge people and
communities to follow suit and “come together to demand change
and climate justice”.
In a call to action ahead of the visit, the Labour Leader warned
that the climate emergency will not be dealt with “from above by
people sitting in offices in Whitehall and Westminster alone”.
The climate crisis demands a collective response because
“individual action is not enough and the invisible hand of the
market will not save us”.
This call for collective action comes after Labour forced
Parliament to declare a climate emergency in May, with the Labour
leadership determined to set off a wave of action from
parliaments and government across the world, as well as local
authorities across the United Kingdom.
The Conservatives lost 19 seats on Cheshire East Council in the
local elections in May, losing control of the flagship council
for the first time. Following Labour's successful motion in
Parliament to declare a climate emergency on 1st May,
Cheshire East Council’s new Labour Leader, Councillor Sam
Corcoran, declared an environment and climate emergency and
committed the council to a target of being carbon neutral by
2025 at the Council’s first meeting since coming under
Labour control.
During his visit to Cheshire, the Labour Leader will also meet
councillors and members of the local community at a community
garden, where he will discuss the environmental and health
benefits of gardening and people growing their own food.
Speaking ahead of the visit, Labour Leader MP said:
“I congratulate the newly-elected Labour leadership of Cheshire
East Council for declaring a climate emergency and setting an
example for other communities and councils to follow.
“We have no time to waste. The scale and severity of the climate
emergency requires urgent action in every community across our
country and across the world. We are living in a climate crisis
that will spiral dangerously out of control unless we take rapid
and dramatic action.
“Climate justice is about social justice. It is working class
communities in inner-city areas that suffer the worst effects of
air pollution. Around the world, it is the poorest people who are
already paying a heavy price of this crisis while the super-rich
and the big corporations, who are most responsible for emissions,
can afford to look after themselves.
“Local government and local communities are absolutely essential
to confronting the climate emergency. Action from above by people
sitting in offices in Whitehall and Westminster alone will never
deliver the change we need.
“But individual action is also not enough, and the invisible hand
of the market will not save us. We need a collective response
that empowers people. An emergency of this magnitude requires
concerted and urgent action at every level to take on the
polluters and secure our planet's future."
Ends
Notes to editors
- · Cheshire
East Council motion declaring an environment and climate
emergency
Full text of the motion
This Council notes that on 1 May Parliament declared an
environment and climate emergency and
a) requests that a Cheshire East Environmental Strategy is
brought forward as a matter of urgency
b) commits to the target of Cheshire East Council being carbon
neutral by 2025 and asks that details of how to meet this
commitment are included in the Environmental Strategy
c) will work to encourage all businesses, residents and
organisations in Cheshire East to reduce their carbon footprint
by reducing energy consumption and promoting healthy lifestyles
https://moderngov.cheshireeast.gov.uk/documents/s69816/Notices%20of%20Motion%2022%20May%202019.pdf
- · Cheshire
East Manifesto
- o Promote Cheshire East as a GREEN
borough and encourage green technology businesses to come to
Cheshire East.
- o Lobby Government to give more power to
local communities over fracking applications.
- o Improve recycling rates (which have
stalled).
- o Remove charges at recycling centres,
which deter residents from recycling responsibly.
- o Promote a “spend local” policy to
encourage local business.
- o Give new entrepreneurial businesses
two years without paying business rates.
- o Promote regeneration as a means to
improving the Borough wide community.
- o Insist on high environmental standards
in all new housing developments with emphasis on preserving
and enhancing nature.
- o Encourage sustainable means of travel.
- o Protect wildlife in Cheshire East and
preserve green spaces for the benefit of all.
- o Reduce energy consumption across the
Council.
