Disappointment at Green Bill delay

Local Liberal Democrats have joined their national Party colleagues in expressing disappointment at the six-month delay in the Government's Environment Bill.

The bill will lay down how Britain outside the European Union will regulate the environment. It is not expected to be given the Royal Assent until the autumn as the Government has run out of time to pass it in Parliament now.

Local green campaigner Cllr Tim Martland says: This Bill is crucial if the Government is serious about tackling the climate emergency. The Prime Minister has described it as 'the lodestar by which we will guide our country towards a cleaner and greener future'.

It is even more disappointing that this delay has come in the year when we are hosting the international COP26 conference in Glasgow. I thought we were supposed to be showing the world the way forward in combating climate change. We cannot afford any delay in protecting the environment while bio-diversity is declining and people are breathing in dangerous polluted air. We need to turn around the ecological crisis now.

The Liberal Democrats have an extremely ambitious £150 billion plan for Green Economic Recovery. This will provide the jobs people need, the technology our economy needs and is a bold bid to fast-track the UK to 'net-zero carbon'.

Here in Lymm we are very fortunate to have a large number of groups and residents actively involved with green issues. As well as making our individual contributions, we all want to encourage everyone to play their part in tackling the emergency we face.

Tim Martland is a Lymm Parish Councillor and Liberal Democrat campaigner