IN FULL council on September 14 I proposed that £5.1 million of revenue surplus achieved in the current year be allocated to a reserve for projects to tackle climate change and biodiversity loss.

This would have transformed the council’s ability to take the kind of actions that are required, increasing current allocated resources by twenty times.

Unfortunately most councillors voted against it, so my amendment was lost.

Politicians are failing the population at national and local level.

Some of them prefer to ignore evidence of ecological harm so they can continue their harmful lifestyles.

Many though lack the confidence to support environmental interventions on the scale that the crisis demands, partly because they lack knowledge of what is a complicated area, but also because they worry about being re-elected.

Meanwhile, they are failing to recognise the sea change that is occurring within the wider population. Increasingly people are accepting that irresponsible consumption must end, and young people are demanding urgent action.

It is time for politicians to be brave and act responsibly for future generations, setting the boundaries that we know will be beneficial in the long run, but which we will struggle to say within as individuals, and encouraging behavioural change by adopting a laser like focus on sustainability and wellbeing.

CLLR MARK HOWELL

Leader of the Poole People Party