Green concerns ignored at peril

The Green Party’s strong performance in last Thursday’s elections cannot be dismissed as simply a protest vote. It reflects widespread concern at the damage being done to the natural environment and the inadequacy of the response of the main parties.

Council leader, Councillor Fitter-harding, will soon have to make a decision over the cutting of the Wincheap meadows by the river. Last year they were cut back right to the riverbank and in places scraped to leave bare earth. This destruction of a habitat important to fauna and flora along the Stour was part of the plan to tarmac over the riverside for a car park.

With a snap of his finger, Mr Fitter-harding can order the area to be left to recover or he can order a new scraping. The decision he makes will tell us whether he plans a reversion to previous policies of unrestrained growth regardless of the cost to those who live in the city in terms of pollution and the danger of losing, for instance, pollinators. The abolition of the climate change committee was not an encouraging sign. Even if Mr Fitter-harding regards environmental concerns as green nonsense, he would be foolish to ignore the widespread concern in the cathedral city at environmental degradation.

If Mr Fitter-harding authorises a renewed act of environmental vandalism on the Wincheap meadows, some will draw the conclusion that only direct action will achieve anything – and many more will sympathise with them. If Mr Fitter-harding now chooses to act as a tyrant then he will risk undermining the legitimacy of the government of this city. The consequences of that could be unpleasant. To paraphrase the ending of a famous speech, “Like the ancient Roman I see the river Stour foaming red with much blood”. Joe Egerton Palace Street, Canterbury