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Climate change protestors outside Dudley Council House welcome green promises

Climate change "is back on the agenda" in Dudley borough after a protest outside the council house was backed by councillors.

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Climate change protestors outside Dudley Council House

On Monday environmental campaigners gathered outside Dudley Council House before a scrutiny meeting was held about the authority's climate change policy.

The demonstrators were joined by a handful of passers-by and received support from members of Dudley Labour Group including new Wollaston and Stourbridge town councillor Cat Eccles, Labour deputy leader Councillor Judy Foster and Councillor Parmjit Sahota, shadow member for regeneration and enterprise.

Local environmental campaigner, Andrew Tromans, who helped coordinate the demonstration, said “It seems like climate is back on the agenda in Dudley. This was an encouraging start and I hope to see a clear plan of action emerge soon.”

At the scrutiny meeting, the council's deputy chief executive, Balvinder Heran, explained the council's climate strategy includes an instruction for every department to review how it can work more environmentally friendly.

Protestor organiser Mark Binnsersely said: "Dudley Council has created a very encouraging climate strategy and it's clear the leadership understands the issues and knows what needs to be done.

"This is really promising. The key now will be to deliver and involve citizens in that process, as was promised during the meeting. To help the public arrive at an informed perspective, it is vital that those involved are given information on the latest data from experts with a variety of scientific backgrounds - as well as examples of schemes that have worked elsewhere in the world. "

Councillor Cat Eccles said: "Thank you to the campaigners who came to Dudley this evening to put extra pressure on the council to tackle the climate crisis. It was heartening to see members of the public stop to talk about the environment and what they care about.

"Community engagement will be key to driving forward the changes needed to address this pressing issue, so it's great to know so many are already on board. I was pleased to see the outline climate plan developed by officers which showed they are taking the matter seriously."

Following an intervention from Councillor Eccles at the meeting, Dudley Council agreed to push forward the scrutiny meeting on green care from January 2023 to September this year.