JEERS of excitement and relief filled the Ivor Potter Hall after Bude-Stratton Town Council voted in favour of declaring a climate emergency.

Forty-six members of the public attended the full council meeting on Thursday, September 5 where the main item on the agenda was to decide whether to declare a climate emergency. After a round of public participation and a fairly heated discussion between councillors, the motion was passed, which was met by thunderous applause from the attending crowd.

The evening’s proceedings started with a peaceful protest outside the Parkhouse Centre, where members of Climate Action Bude — made up of various local ‘green’ groups — congregated to show the town council their strength and commitment towards the environment. It was clear that they were all hopeful for a positive outcome.

At 6.30pm, the council Conference Room was crammed full with members of the public, and with a long evening ahead it was decided to move into the much larger Ivor Potter Hall.

To begin the meeting, the town clerk Keith Cornwell read out the correspondence the council received ahead of the meeting. Two were from the public in reference to climate change and the action needed to take, one of which was a petition with 351 signatures — urging the council to declare an emergency.

Chair of the meeting, Mayor Cllr Bob Willingham, then proceeded to the public participation section on the evening’s agenda.

Philippa Purchase stood up first to address the council on the matter of declaring a climate emergency. She said: “I sincerely hope the climate motion is passed, ask for assurance in the public participation, like the rest of the South West, to create Bude’s action plan for the future — for example Stoke Climsland’s plan.”

Charlotte Bury from the group, Good Companions, assured the council that they would be supported well if they chose to declare. She said: “I have been speaking with councils and community network panels about what they can do, if you pass this motion you’ll be in good company alongside the other 15 town councils and 20 to 25 parish councils.”

She said Bude was able to lead the way on the issue of climate change adding: “Something we believe you as a town council can do is lead the way, help communities devise ways to deal with the emergency. What the town council can do is identify the vulnerable in the community, make decisions, who needs help and what can be done. When town and parish councils do this and involve other members of the community, you gain skills and ideas that will be useful.”

However, one member of the public spoke of the good things the town is already doing, but they were concerned about what real impact would declaring would do for the world.

They said: “I’m concerned about Russia and China who are not interested, if other countries aren’t involved or interested in the climate emergency, not saying we shouldn’t do it, but what good is it? The other thing I want to say, I am concerned about predetermination amongst councillors.”

Other comments wanted Bude to become a green destination for the tourist season and some asking Bude to ‘take the bull by its horns’ and lead the way, with many wanting to work alongside the council to find a solution.

The meeting moved onto item number six on the agenda:— To consider the motion that Bude-Stratton Town Council declares a climate emergency and pledges to work towards making Bude-Stratton carbon neutral by 2030; as a first step BSTC will work with the local community to develop an action plan and report back to full council in six months’ time.

Cllr Willingham said: “I feel very strongly about green issues and feel this council has been responsible and a leading council across the country. We live in such a lovely place because of all the work we’ve done in the past. The problem I have is using the word ‘emergency’. I am all up for doing everything we can.

“But they are just empty words, following everyone else, what does it show? We have shown our metal with what we’ve done in the past.”

Cllr Simon Browning, whose motion it was to declare a climate emergency responded: “It’s the speed of change we need to make. You have issues with the word emergency, like it will land on our heads tomorrow. We’re not looking over geological timescales, it’s 11 years, we can sit around today and tomorrow. But we need to make changes really quick, like reduce carbon emissions. Plastics are important but the carbon is the main issues, council needs to address those as well and involving the community is key. Cornwall Council declared seven to eight months ago, and are only responsible for 0.8% of emissions across the county.

“We are doing a lot to reduce that, but what we can do is influence others to what they can do.”

Deputy mayor, Cllr Peter Moores, reminded the council that they should be neutral when making their decision. He said: “Council should be mindful it should be neutral, there are several people in the room but several thousand electorates. I am passionate that the council should be neutral.”

One of the most controversial parts of the meeting was when Cllr Rob Uhlig addressed Cllr Bob Willingham’s Facebook post, on the matter.

Cllr Uhlig said: “I will use the mayor’s post as a framework for each of my points.”

Cllr Uhlig then explained how the issue isn’t just an effect on the environment but how it is a social and economic issue as well.

He praised the work of the council saying: “The town council has been very active in its green credentials in the number of years. But we should extend what Bude Town Council are already doing, continue the commitment to the environment.”

He referred to Cllr Willingham mentioning tourist issues due to the declaration, but Cllr Uhlig went against this, explaining that green and sustainable tourism is one of the biggest growing sectors in the industry, adding: “It’s not a threat, it’s an opportunity to be proud of and benefit us.”

He also mentioned that penalising people for not being ‘green’ is a ‘backwards step’ and that the council should ‘encourage and incentivise’.

When talking about cost, Cllr Uhlig said: “It would cost a lot more not to be environmentally minded, a prevention rather than cure, and it’s far cheaper to prevent.”

He finished by rewording the last sentence in Cllr Willingham’s post, concluding: “Actions speak louder than words, they do and we need to stop talking about it and declare.”

However, this was not well received by Bude’s mayor, who said: “I am very disappointed, instead of coming up with your own original ideas, you choose my ideas and criticise them. You have just come at me and criticised them, it was very shallow.”

Cllr Uhlig said: “I’m very sorry, that was not my intention, I’m really sorry if that was the way it came across. It was a frame to address my points, not a criticism towards you, it’s a wider issue than that.”

Cllr Julia Bryson added: “Or an opportunity to shoot someone down.”

Cllr Willingham disagreed with the response given. He said: “I disagree, it was a play on my words. Let’s move on.”

Cllr La Broy put forward his amendment to the motion. He said: “My amendment is that Bude and Stratton Town Council declares a climate emergency and makes Bude carbon neutral by 2030, through the establishment of a climate change committee that will report back to the council in six months’ time.”

However, Cllr Browning stated he would prefer to leave it as it is. He said: “There are many models out there, 200 or more models and different ways to do this. Because of the openness, we should leave it to the committee [...] and also that the community is involved in the best way.”

Cllr La Broy was keen to reassure Cllr Browning with the reasons behind his amendment. He added: “My focus is not to derail but to add focus to how it would be delivered, the motion as it stands is too open ended, this amendment creates a committee that has one focus, and that is climate change.”

Cllr Moores was in agreeance with the reasoning, adding: “Cllr La Broy is trying to regularise the situation, by doing it this way, there is method, rather than just a talking shot.”

This amendment was then voted for by the town council with 13 in favour, one against and two abstaining.

However, before voting on passing the motion, Cllr Willingham proposed his own amendment. He said: “Hollow words as using the words declaring a climate emergency. I would propose the same motion but to remove the words climate emergency.”

Cllr Paul Tilzey disagreed. He said: “In the bigger picture, it means a vast majority to a lot of people out there, it’s just the wording.”

Cllr Uhlig added: “By taking out the words, we wouldn’t be declaring a climate emergency. How are we presenting ourselves to the community, what are our actions intended to be? And I think they are important to keep them in there.”

Cllr Willingham responded: “For me I think the word pledge is the important word and is something real.”

Cllr La Broy said: “It’s important that we keep the wording, I appreciate the sentiment, but it’s being part of a jigsaw, the movement that encourages the rest of the UK to be aware and to take action.”

Cllr Bryson addded: “I’m going to disagree, to my mind it’s a blank jigsaw, no one has explained what declaring means, all the green action taken is a given, but none of these actions come under anything to do with declaring a climate emergency — no idea what that means still. To reflect the chair, it’s the pledge and the date that’s in there.”

Cllr Gibbs was opposed to this. He said: “I feel quite strongly about the declaration, its about the wider jigsaw about creating a wider community and that we are agreeing that we need to take action, to take action it needs to have a word for it. Why wouldn’t we? Cornwall Council have, the UK have, what makes us different? It’s not sending out the right message.

“If they are just words why not use them? There is more weight to the actions so why not be under the banner? To me climate emergency is the right term and it’s evident that it’s the thing we should do.”

Cllr Willingham’s proposal was voted for by the council, but wasn’t passed.

Cllr Browning proposed the original motion that Bude and Stratton declare a climate emergency and be carbon neutral by 2030; through the establishment of a climate change committee that will report back to the council in six months’ time.

The motion was carried with 11 for, four against and one abstention — declaring a climate emergency. The attending crowd then rose to their feet to clap and cheer the decision, leaving the Parkhouse Centre content with the outcome.