Issue - meetings

In accordance with Council Procedure Rule 9 (Public Participation), a deputation has been submitted by Ms C Hawkins, resident of Northcott, Hanworth on behalf of Extinction Rebellion Bracknell. The full text of the deputation is set out below:

Bracknell Extinction Rebellion calls on the Council to:

·       Declare a Climate and Ecological Emergency (CEE)

·       Pledge to make Bracknell Forest carbon neutral by 2025, taking into account both production and consumption emissions

·       Call on Westminster to provide the powers and resources to make the 2025 target possible

·       Work with other governments (both within the UK and internationally) to determine and implement best practice methods to limit Global Warming to less than 1.5°C

·       Make action on the CEE part of all of the Council’s strategies and plans, working with partners across the town and region to deliver this new goal

·       Report to Full Council within six months with the actions the Council will take to address this emergency

In accordance with Council Procedure Rule 9 (Public Participation), a deputation was submitted by Ms C Hawkins, resident of Northcott, Hanworth on behalf of Extinction Rebellion Bracknell. The full text of the deputation is set out below:

Bracknell Extinction Rebellion calls on the Council to:

·            Declare a Climate and Ecological Emergency (CEE)

·            Pledge to make Bracknell Forestcarbon neutral by 2025, taking into account both production and consumption emissions

·            Call on Westminster to provide the powers and resources to make the 2025 target possible

·            Work with other governments (both within the UK and internationally) to determine and implement best practice methods to limit Global Warming to less than 1.5°C

·            Make action on the CEE part of all of the Council’s strategies and plans, working with partners across the town and region to deliver this new goal

·            Report to Full Council within six months with the actions the Council will take to address this emergency

In speaking to the meeting Ms Hawkins referred to the Climate and Ecological emergency as the defining issue of our times and that Bracknell Extinction Rebellion called upon those present to declare a Climate and Ecological Emergency.

In response the Leader of the Council, Councillor Paul Bettison OBE thanked Extinction Rebellion, Bracknell, for raising the important issue. He stated that the Council had unanimously, by all three parties, committed itself to becoming carbon neutral by 2050. The Council was actively working on a new Climate Change strategy with Members and Officers, working together, to achieve this important objective. He added that addressing man-made climate change was not a new policy area for the Council, or the Council’s thinking and planning with formal commitment to this action since 2013. He reported that the Overview and Scrutiny Commission had embedded the review of the council’s actions in respect of these commitments throughout the four-year work programme. He cited a number of examples which demonstrated the Council’s commitment and actions taken. He stated that he believed the Council had set ambitious goals and the Council would achieve them.

He concluded that everyone in the Bracknell Forest Council area needed to embed climate changing actions into their day to day actions and behaviours.