Dear Prime Minister, COP26

Prime Minister Boris Johnson

10 Downing Street
London
SW1A

 

Dear Prime Minister,

 

Action on tackling the climate emergency has never been more urgent and we need joined-up government at all levels to achieve our ambitious net zero targets. People all around the country know this and that is why they urged their local Councils to take climate change seriously and act now.

9 in 10 Councils in the country have now declared a climate emergency but they need your help to put words into action at speed. COP 26, the global summit on climate change in Glasgow this November, is the opportunity for you to show the people of the UK and of the world, the climate leadership needed to stop climate breakdown. We call on you, Prime Minister, to announce at COP 26 that you are granting Councils the powers and resources they need to meet net zero targets and be resilient to climate impacts.

The science tells us that what the country has endured during the COVID-19 pandemic will pale in comparison to the economic and social impacts of climate breakdown if we do not take actionimmediately. The latest IPCC report told us that we have even less time left than we thought and the independent UK Climate Risk Assessment concluded that the UK is “woefully underprepared” for the impacts of climate change that will hit the country; that the gap between climate risks and preparedness has grown over last 5 years.

The UK’s net zero targets can only be achieved if Government and local authorities work seamlessly together. More than half of the emissions cuts needed rely on people and businesses taking up low-carbon solutions – solutions around buildings, energy and transport - decisions that are made at a local and individual level.

The National Audit Commission’s July report also recognises the importance of local government to net zero but concludes that “there are serious weaknesses in central government’s approach to working with local authorities on decarbonisation, stemming from a lack of clarity over local authorities’ overall roles, piecemeal funding, and diffuse accountabilities.

Internationally, the Local Governments and Municipal Authorities (LGMA) have called for COP26 to be recognised as the ‘Multilevel Action COP’ in acknowledgment of the fact that net zero can only be achieved by national and local governments working together at all levels. 

We call on you, Prime Minister, to answer the call of people up and down the breadth of our country and of all those councils that have declared a climate emergency; in fact, of local government and municipal authorities across the world.

We call on you to set a global example by devolving the powers and resources needed to those councils that have declared a climate emergency. This commitment to empowering local government should be reflected in the updated National Determined Contributions (NDCs) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) through a shared fiscal and policy framework between central and local government to meet net zero targets and climate adaptation priorities. 

Finally, we call on you to provide the global climate leadership needed to make this transformation possible for all countries by including a dedicated chapter for local government in the official Agreement reached at COP 26, recognising the importance of subnational actors in co-designing and delivering climate action and seeking to ensure that local government is politically and financially empowered to meet that ambition.

Signed by Liberal Democrat councillors on Derbyshire County Council

 

Cllr Ed Fordham

Cllr Sue Burfoot

Cllr Barry Bingham

​Cllr Paul Niblock

Support for Purple Poppies

Thank you for the huge support we are getting for my purple poppies campaign

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-derbyshire-58977830

And 

https://www.derbyshiretimes.co.uk/news/people/sacrifice-of-derbyshires-animals-during-conflict-to-be-formally-remembered-3425541

Animals and warfare

 AN

APPEAL FOR HUNDREDS OF PURPLE POPPIES TO BE KNITTED 

The Leader of the Liberal Democrats on Derbyshire County Council, Cllr Ed Fordham, will this year lay a purple poppy wreath at the formal Armistice service on 11th November at County Hall, Matlock.  Purple poppies emerged as the symbol for animals in 2006. Throughout history animals have both served in armed conflicts – this is especially true of horses – but also as victims of war and aggression.  This will be the first time this has occurred in the formal setting of the County County Council Civic Service.

 

Ed Fordham said “I take remembrance and armistice very seriously – my own family has been heavily scarred through soldiers who served and never returned, soldiers who returned scarred and injured beyond comprehension.  But I am very aware that war is not just between the generals and soldiers - for animals pressed into service there was no choice.  The love and bond between anyone and their pet is appreciated by millions the world over. But the bond between military animals and their handlers, carers and trainers in theatres of conflict is legendary.  When I lay my wreath I shall be accompanied by my rescue Husky, Sparky who will walk alongside me in tribute to her many furry friends and cousins.

 

“For example, thousands of horses were conscripted from the farms of Derbyshire and from the Chatsworth Estate.  It is thought that in World War One this was as high as 28,000 horses from Derbyshire alone – and not one of them came back. My wreath will be adorned by 28 hand crocheted and knitted purple poppies made by animal lovers from Derbyshire.  But my wreath and all of the wreaths we will lay across the county will stand as a tribute to the horses, mules, elephants, dogs, pigeons and canaries who worked in wars but also to the monkeys, bears, lions and more besides who served as regimental mascots.”

 

“As part of this commitment to ensure that the animals are remembered I am appealing to the good folks of Derbyshire to knit and crochet additional pureple poppies for all of the wreaths I am preparing. I am also asking people to volunteer to adopt a specified war memorial and ask for permission to lay a purple wreath in honour of the animals who served for us.”

 

Any queries to ed.fordham@gmail.com and 07974950512

The most Derbyshire debate possible

I have today submitted the following motion for debate at the County Council on Wednesday 1st December 

Enhancing the Peak District National Park

Proposed Ed Fordham, seconded Sue Burfoot

This Council notes:

1.    The 90th anniversary of the mass trespass of Kinder Scout on 24^th April 1932

2.    That the Peak District National Park – itself 70 this year - was the first created in the UK following the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act in 1949

3.    That the Peak District National Park Authority is a valued partner to the County Council and provides focus and function to the work of preserving and enhancing our environment

4.    The publication of The Glover Report entitled Landscapes Review: National Parks and AONBs, and its significance for Derbyshire and our economy

This Council resolves:

1.        To set up a cross party working group comprising the Leaders of all political groups or their nominated representative, Cabinet Member for Infrastructure & Environment and the Chairs of the Improvement and Scrutiny Committees – Places, and Climate Change, Biodiversity and Carbon Reduction:

2.        To engage with the Landscapes Review with the following principles:

a.     Honestly reflecting our opinion in respect of the service the National Park Authority has provided

b.    To consider carefully the new and enhanced powers being proposed

c.     That this is a good time to seek views within Derbyshire on the Park Authority and its role and powers

d.     To reflect positively on what will work best for the future for the Peak District, the people who live and work there, and the assorted local government authorities.

 

Community health engagement

I today managed to find time to swing past the outdoor Covid-19 testing centre that is in Loundsley Green mist Mondays.

After a good chat with the staff there they agreed to give me a couple of boxes of lateral flow test kits and I have agreed to go round houses of older folks and such like in my division to try and ensure that they get direct to those who need them most.

Should you need some and are in my division please do get in touch and I’ll come round ASAP.

A time to be honest

To the Mayor of Chesterfield

Cllr Glenys Falconer

Copied to: Chief Executive, Dr Huw Bowen, Cllr Simmons and Cllr Brittain

Dear Glenys,

As you know I sent my apologies to the formal mayor making, procession and service at St Mary and All Saints Church. As you know I stand in the open market on a Thursday and a Saturday and this usually conflicts with the procession and service.  Accordingly it has been easy for me to send my apologies and absent myself as a councillor.

However, as a friend and out of a desire to be honest I feel I should write explaining my true reason.

In 2013 the law of the land was finally changed to enable two people of the same sex who love each other to marry each other (this took effect on March 2014)..  My life partner and I took advantage of that and duly married that year - indeed we had a religious wedding in a Unitarian Chapel. 

I was closely involved in the passage of the bill and am more than a little aware of the resistance of the Church of England to the bill and indeed to the debate.  This was not universal to the Church and there are many good friends of mine who fight for acceptance and reform of the Church of England from within. However, the position of the Church and indeed the Bishops remains that it is opposed to LGBT+ marriage equality.  Indeed, several gay friends who are clergy within the Church who have married their same sex partner have had their license to lead worship withdrawn.  This has only been enabled because the Church of England is, astonishingly, exempt from aspects of the nation’s employment law as it affects equality.

I’m afraid that whilst Chesterfield Borough Council holds its act of worship and blessing for the Mayor of the Borough in an institution who does not accept nor recognise my marriage then I cannot attend. It would be hypocritical of me, appear to be attendance for the sake of it and that would not sit easy with my conscience. I am not prepared to sideline the LGBT+ communities of the Borough, my own inclusive faith, nor my marriage in this way.

Accordingly I am writing this by way of explanation and as an apology to you. I am copying in former Mayor’s Cllr Gordon Simmons and Cllr Stuart Brittain so they too hear this apology and understand why I have on each occasion been absent.

I would suggest that the time has perhaps come for Chesterfield to consider alternative venues and indeed even other faiths - that each Mayor might choose.  I even suggest that a secular venue might work, or that the ceremony be solely ceremonial.  But whilst it remains a service, led, rooted and hosted by a Church that rejects me, my marriage and actively removes members of my community from within its communion I will not be able to attend.

Yours sincerely

Ed Fordham
Liberal Democrat councillor for Brockwell