Herefordshire Council Climate Emergency; an update from XR Hereford

1. The Motion itself

Councillors from It’s Our County and the Green Party are developing the wording of the motion having had input from XR Herefordshire members in the past few weeks.  The intention is to have it debated at the next full Council meeting on 8^th March.

I will circulate the text of the Motion once it’s available.

2. Lobbying for support – general public

We want councillors across the political spectrum to know that there is public support for declaring a climate emergency in Herefordshire.  We are generating letters to councillors and sending them in prior to the council meeting on 8^th March.

At a stall in Hereford last Saturday, we got 66 letters signed by members of the public. More will be done at the stall this weekend in Hightown, and several other local XR groups are instigating letter signing at their forthcoming functions.

Letters need to be sent to the correct councillor. A look up facility on Hfds Council website converts postcode/address to councillor name.

The postal address for sending letters is:

Herefordshire County Council
Shire Hall
St Peter’s Square
Hereford
HR1 2HX

It’s important we get as many letters of support in to councillors before 8^th March. Please send a letter yourself, and share this action as widely as possible. Couples can send one each!

And, if you can ring your Councillor to ask for their support for declaring a climate emergency, even better!

3. Lobbying by students and young people

Some of the Hereford 6^th form college students involved in the street action last Friday have drawn up a revised version of the letter for young people to use. They are circulating it across their networks. You can download it here if you want to use their wording, or can enlist young people yourself.

4. Public Questions to Council for the 8^th March meeting

To increase pressure on councillors to support the climate emergency motion, we also want to have a good number of public questions tabled that refer to climate change, carbon management, energy etc.

Public questions for this meeting have to be submitted in advance and before 5pm on Monday 4^th March.

There are specific rules on how to submit questions – here on the Council website

You can submit a question even if you can’t attend the meeting. If you do attend the meeting you can ask what is called a ‘supplementary question’ and you’ll get a verbal answer.

If you are interested in submitting a question, please reply to this email. We need to co-ordinate the subject matter across multiple questions to have the greatest effect.

The students organizing the lobbying letters are also planning to submit questions.

5. Attending the meeting on 8^th March

Council rules forbid demonstrations inside the meeting room or being noisy. But a large silent presence in the public gallery will help get our message across.

Students are planning a repeat of their street action from last Friday, converging on Shire Hall in good time for the meeting. They expect to continue demonstrating outside the meeting room, with music and chanting loud enough to be heard inside.

The meeting starts at 10am, and public questions will be the first real agenda item. We can’t say exactly when the debate on the climate emergency motion will happen, but it’s been suggested not before 11am.

Because of security checks on arrival, please arrive at 9.30am

Space limitations mean only 70 members of the public will be allowed in.”

Get in touch with XR Hereford, if you would like to attend!