Protesters send open letter to Ashfield Council urging it to declare 'climate emergency'

Climate change activists Ashfield Green New Deal UK have written to Ashfield’s District Council’s leader Jason Zadrozny after launching a petition.

It says after Covid 19 it is “important” to acknowledge the “looming crisis” of a climate emergency.

The groups writes: “In Ashfield, we are underfunded from central government and still feel the effects of deindustrialisation with many areas in Sutton and Kirkby falling into the worst 10% when it comes to deprivation. At the same time locally we have made little progress in the fight against climate change.”

Campaigners say recent flooding in Sutton-in-Ashfield will “only be made worse with climate change.”

Arran Rangi of the group said: "Ashfield Council's current plans to tackle the climate crisis do not go far enough. The motion tabled last July, to recognise the scale and emergency of this challenge, lacks detail and is not radical enough in its vision.

“We have launched an open letter reaching out to the council to discuss this issue and urge them to declare a climate emergency in Ashfield with a detailed plan.”

Councillor Jason Zadrozny, Leader of Ashfield District Council said: “The council takes environmental responsibilities extremely seriously. We are setting up an environmental commission to look at every aspect of Council Policy and become more environmentally friendly.

“We have invited Arran Rangi from the Green Party to join this commission and a number of environmental experts.

“Rather than signing any pledge on climate emergency we prefer to combat climate change including planting over 1,000 trees including the Moorhouse Community Orchard, others are planned for Brierley Forest Park and Hucknall and Kirkby.

“We’ve invested in photovoltaic (PV) cells on many of buildings, an energy harvesting technology, that converts solar energy into electricity through a process called the photovoltaic effect.

“We are in the process of ensuring energy efficiency across our buildings including improved insulation and working hard towards reducing fleet emissions. Our moves to reduce this Council’s carbon footprint is a no brainer. Not only are we doing our bit for the environment but it will save money.”

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