Glastonbury & Street Green Party

Global climate strike photo copyright © Garry Knight CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication

Glastonbury and Street Green Party is delighted to report that Glastonbury declared an Ecological Emergency at the September meeting of Glastonbury Town Council.

The Ecological Emergency Declaration Motion – proposed by Green Cllr. Serena Roney-Dougal and seconded by Glastonbury’s Green Mayor, Cllr. Jon Cousins – received cross-party support and was passed unanimously.  It reads:

This Council resolves to declare an Ecological Emergency – recognising that the planet is experiencing an Ecological as well as a Climate Emergency – and will take this into account in any decisions made.

Glastonbury Councillors vote in favour of the Ecological Emergency Declaration Motion.

Background Information for the Motion:

In addition to:

1. adopting our ‘Glastonbury Charter for the Environment’ in April 2012,
2. becoming a ‘Frack Free Council’ in February 2013,
3. banning the use of chemical herbicides and pesticides on all council owned land and public spaces in August 2015,
4. committing to be ‘single use plastic free’ in November 2017,
5. declaring a ‘Climate Emergency’ in February 2019 – pledging to make our operation carbon neutral by 2030 – and
6. becoming the second ‘Earth Protector Town’ in the world in September 2019 – calling for Ecocide to be recognised as an ‘atrocity crime’ at the International Criminal Court.

This Council acknowledges that:

• Our societies and economies are intimately linked with and depend on biodiversity and nature. The natural world is essential for the provision of nutritious food (with soil and pollinators having a vital role), clean water, clean air, medicines, protection from extreme weather, as well as being our source of energy and raw materials.
• The recent outbreaks of Ebola Virus Disease in the Republic of Guinea and Democratic Republic of the Congo have highlighted the relationship between people and nature. When we destroy and degrade habitats, we increase the risk of disease spill-over from wildlife to people.
• The State of Nature 2019 report highlighted the critical decline in biodiversity in the UK. Changes in farming practices have had the biggest effect in recent decades and the impact of climate change is now increasing. 15% of UK species are classified as threatened with extinction and 2% are already extinct.
• The State of the World’s Plants and Fungi 2020 report from Royal Botanic Gardens Kew estimated that 39.4% of plants are now threatened with extinction. This is a jump from one in five plants thought to be at risk in Kew’s 2016 report.
• The Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs’ Environment Bill will require the introduction of a Local Nature Recovery Strategy and Nature Recovery Networks.
• Actions to restore nature and biodiversity, as well as being vital for their own sake, often have an important co-benefit of storing carbon, so help address climate change.
• People’s access to ‘green spaces’ to understand and appreciate biodiversity and a rich, natural world, private or public, is unequal.

To support this declaration, this Council will:

1. Rename the ‘Climate Emergency Advisory Committee’ to the ‘Climate and Ecological Emergencies Advisory Committee’, to support councillors and council officers address these twin emergencies.
2. Add ecological impact implications alongside those for climate and sustainability in committee and council reports.
3. Ensure that addressing the climate and ecological emergencies and nature recovery are considered as strategic priorities – identifying appropriate areas for habitat restoration and biodiversity net gain, and ensuring that any potential development limits impact on existing habitats, whilst also working on the principle of increasing equality of access for people to natural, green spaces – for example: i) improving biodiversity by encouraging the rewilding of the natural flood plain areas of the Levels and Moors, ii) supporting the competent determination of planning applications by the Local Planning Authority and encouraging Habitats Regulations Assessments to reduce the high levels of phosphates in the Somerset Levels and Moors (designated as a Special Protection Area under the Habitat Regulations 2017 and listed as a Ramsar Site under the Ramsar Convention).
4. In keeping with the urgency of this declaration, work with other councils to support the development of ‘Nature Recovery Networks’ and a ‘Nature Recovery Strategy’ for Somerset, as and when required by The Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs.
5. Look for opportunities to work in partnership with other councils, local charities, and environmental organisations to deliver nature recovery in Somerset, and support local land management practices that protect and restore the natural world.
6. Support the development of a county-wide ‘Tree Planting Policy and Strategy’ to support nature protection and recovery and carbon sequestration.
7. Ensure the Council’s Property and Assets Committee considers opportunities for biodiversity enhancements and tree planting on Council landholdings, and formalising purchasing policies that are consistent with this declaration.
8. Write to all Somerset’s MPs urging them to support the Climate and Ecological Bill, a private member’s bill, in keeping with the declarations of this Council.
9. Listen to members of the community who report concerns or ideas relating to these issues.
   Have an ongoing approach to learn from best practice, as well as mistakes, and to share the ‘lessons learnt’.

Congratulations to the Conservative Party candidate Clive Bishop, who has won the Glastonbury Town Council by-election for the St Benedict’s Ward.  Clive Bishop took the seat with 278 votes, just ahead of Harry, who received 224 votes.

Glastonbury and Street Green Party would like to say a huge THANK YOU to everyone who voted for Harry on Thursday; the local press are describing the election as the Conservatives “in a close battle with the Green Party”.

The other results were: the Lib Dem candidate Maggie Dear came third with 123 votes followed by the Glastonbury Independent candidate Emma Jane King, who polled 88 votes.

Posting on social media, Harry said: “Many congratulations to Clive Bishop on winning the by-election. I spoke to Clive at the count and he was gracious and generous in victory. I am confident he will work hard for the ward and the town, and I wish him all the best.” Adding, “Huge thanks to those who voted Green; I’m sorry I wasn’t able to get us over the line on this occasion.”

GSGP members were delighted to welcome the Green Party candidate for the Avon and Somerset Police and Crime Commissioner election – Cleo Lake – to Glastonbury today.

Cleo meets Harry and some of the GSGP team who have been canvassing over the Bank Holiday weekend.

Cleo met-up with Harry Wood, our Green candidate for the St. Ben's By-election and walked around town; meeting residents and listening to the issues that concern local people.

In a post from later that day, Cleo stated: “An inspiring visit to meet fellow Green Party friends and colleagues, residents and by-election candidate Harry Wood in Glastonbury today. Outstanding examples of Greens getting things done!”

We say: #VoteGreen #VoteCleo #VoteHarryWood on Thursday 6th May!

Find out more about Cleo's campaign HERE.

Download Harry's 1st Election Leaflet HERE

The St Benedict’s Ward by-election has been called following the tragic and untimely death of our well-loved friend and colleague, Green Councillor and twice Mayor of Glastonbury, Denise Michell.  Glastonbury’s Green by-election candidate, Harry Wood, is standing to make sure that Glastonbury Town Council remains Green, and that the social and environmental causes we champion in our town will continue.

About Harry:

I am standing as the Green Party Candidate for the St Benedict’s Ward by-election in May 2021. I have lived in Glastonbury since May 2018, having moved down from Bristol. I grew up in Leamington Spa, and lived and studied in Liverpool before moving to the South West. I feel very at home in Glastonbury, and know I am privileged to have become part of a diverse, unique community.

I work as a Rights of Way Modification and Commons Officer at Somerset County Council, and am interested in land management, rewilding, and public rights of way. I previously worked for Bristol-based reuse charity Children’s Scrapstore; my role concentrated on reducing waste, encouraging reuse, promoting recycling, and helping to develop a circular economy. I am a keen cyclist and walker, an enthusiastic but novice gardener, a bass player, and a long-suffering Coventry City fan. I am an active member of the Glastonbury and Street Green Party and have served as Local Party Coordinator and Membership Secretary since May 2019.

I have always been interested in politics and joined the Green Party in 2016. For me the Greens have always been on the right side of the key issues throughout my lifetime, from promoting investment in green energy through to the anti-austerity campaign, and from campaigning against foreign military interventions through to fighting for meaningful action on climate change. I also strongly believe in cooperation and dialogue, and feel that the adversarial nature of the current political climate is disastrous for democracy and political accountability. I feel that the climate and ecological emergencies should be the starting point for all political and policy decisions, and this shift in perspective is just as important at the local level as it is in Westminster.

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Green Councillor Ian Mutch points to some of the willow trees he planted on the Beckery two years ago.

There is a very promising development in the tree planting front here in Glastonbury as I discovered when I met up with Green Town Councillor Ian Mutch recently.

A number of flourishing Crack Willows (Salix fragilis) are to be found on the Sydenhams Timber yard side of the Mill Stream rivulet running alongside Beckery Road.

Cllr. Mutch planted the small seedlings over the past two years and they are growing magnificently in their new homes.

This is what is hoped to be the first of a large number of seedlings which will be planted in the Glastonbury and Street area over the next few years.

Cllr. Brian Outten

“We must never forget – and pledge never again to inflict such mass destruction. That should start with the UK scrapping plans to replace and upgrade Trident, and instead sign the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.”
Caroline Lucas MP.

On Sunday 9th August, Glastonbury’s Mayor, Cllr. Jon Cousins and Deputy Mayor, Cllr. Sue Barnet, observed The Silent Minute at 11:02 a.m. to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Nagasaki atomic bomb.

A member of the international movement Mayors For Peace, Cllr. Cousins read a message from Mayor Taue of Nagasaki:

“Exactly 75 years have passed since the day our city was assaulted by a nuclear bomb. Despite the passing of three quarters of a century, we are still living in world where nuclear weapons exist.
I appeal to the leaders of countries around the world.  Please aim to break down the growing climate of distrust and instead build trust through dialogue... At this very time, please choose solidarity over division. At the NPT Review Conference, which is scheduled for next year, I ask that you show a workable way towards nuclear disarmament.”

“ ‘Only 100 seconds remain.’ In order to symbolize this state of crisis, the ‘Doomsday Clock’, an indicator of the time left until the earth’s extinction, was set at its shortest time ever this year.”

The observation took place at Glastonbury’s Peace Pole which was planted on 26th January 2013 by the Pilgrim Reception Centre supported by Uma Uchima, from the World Peace Prayer Society and Tatomir Ion-Marius, a Romanian Peace Ambassador and international peace worker.

Glastonbury’s Peace Pole has “May Peace Prevail on Earth” written on it in eight languages and also a Braille plate. Located on the grass verge at the front of St Dunstan’s car park in the centre of the town, it ensures visitors and residents all have the opportunity to see and feel the message.