Wednesday, July 14, 2021

My apology to the people of Derbyshire

Today I felt I let down the people of Derbyshire. It was a meeting of the full council of Derbyshire County Council and I am a newly elected councillor and the Liberal Democrat Group Leader.

On the agenda paper was a motion to declare a climate emergency. 

It was all very straight forward - and yet as the opposition Labour Group proposed the motion it was clear that this was a repeat of a failed attempt by them two years ago.

As they finished speaking the Tory controlling and majority Group moved an amendment that removed the word ‘emergency’ from the entire motion (except the name of the motion) and drained it of meaningful actions and commitments.

Within seconds the debate had reduced itself to a farce and we were, as a council, trapped into a daft and circular row over the trivial wording of partisan amendments.

The only losers were the people of Derbyshire - to make matters worse the Labour Leader in a pre-planned stunt led a walk out of her councillors as they lost the vote to the Conservatives.

So my own Group having voted against the amendment voted in favour of a motion that was called ‘Declaring a Climate Emergency in Derbyshire’ which actually did no such thing.

It was all a demonstration of poor politics by both those parties and a shameful exhibition of how things should not be done. My own Group were unable to stop the sham from unfolding in front of us.

As an individual councillor and as a community activist I left feeling ashamed at the reality of what the Council had failed to achieve. The residents of Derbyshire and this planet itself both deserve better.

I am sorry and I want to assure my residents that I will work harder for a better politics - you deserve no less.

Ed Fordham 

This letter appeared in the Derbyshire Times https://www.derbyshiretimes.co.uk/news/opinion/letter-people-of-derbyshire-have-been-let-down-by-poor-politics-from-tories-and-labour-3320588

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