Council has done nothing to go plastic free

Last month I wrote to encourage residents to respond to the council’s public consultation on the proposed Environment and Climate Strategy.

On behalf of all environmental groups in the Borough, I’d like to thank everybody who did so for making the time and effort.

Almost two years ago now, at the Full Council meeting on December 11, 2018, Councillor Coppinger put forward a motion for RBWM to become a single use plastic free council.

It was approved by 44 votes to one.

The story is a long one, but despite the attentions of Councillor Coppinger, Councillor Clark and Councillor Stimson, all of whom have held the corresponding cabinet lead member position in the two years since, very little progress has been made.

With the agreement of the officers concerned, three volunteers from Plastic Free Windsor took the opportunity of the COVID-19 lockdown to write a first draft of a comprehensive RBWM single use plastic strategy for the council to review, amend and approve.

Our goal was to have a comprehensive strategy in place before the second anniversary of the original motion, on December 11, 2020.

The draft was issued almost four months ago, during the first week in July, and was the first deliverable under the proposed Environment and Climate Strategy. No further progress has been made.

The council won’t always have a shortage of funds and officers. We’d therefore like an ambitious strategy, ready for when the necessary resources are available.

As a result, we recently proposed a couple of simple amendments to the draft to retain the ambitious scope, but to reduce the short term pressure on those required to deliver it.

At the time of writing, we’d had no response. It’s difficult to see how much more helpful we can be. If the council can’t make an impression on its single use plastic usage over a two-year period, what hope for the Climate Emergency?

PAUL HINTON Plastic Free Windsor