Uttlesford District Council voted to adopt the next phase of R4U’s eco-agenda at a cross-party meeting of all councillors on 16th December. This followed R4U’s early December announcement that detailed how it intended to take its next steps to deal with climate change locally.
Louise Pepper (R4U)R4U’s Cllr Pepper added “The UDC administration would like to thank the Green Party councillors for coordinating the original motion to raise awareness at Full Council because it was well intentioned, but it failed to hit the mark. Words are not enough; Climate change is keenly debated, but this is not the same as delivering results. We needed to amend their original motion to make it actionable by UDC’s cross-party Climate Change Working group, which was set up in July. The revised motion has been approved by the council with support from all parties. Thank you to all councillors and the residents that attended the council meeting where it was adopted.”
Cllr Pepper concluded “Being a progressive custodian of our rural environment is one of our key commitments to residents. Since July we’ve been delivering our ‘ABC for Life’ policy programme, which commits UDC to tackling the three biggest environmental issues: Air Quality, Biodiversity and Carbon Reduction. R4U has committed to planting more than 80,000 trees and hedges over the next decade, one for every resident of the district, as well as a raft of other measures to reduce pollution, create habitat and reduce carbon in the atmosphere. UDC’s Climate Change Working Group will now make sure that this is delivered. They will review, prioritise and recommend specific initiatives to all councillors for implementation approval. If any residents are interested in getting involved in the working group, please contact me at cllrpepper@uttlesford.gov.uk”