At its Council Meeting on Monday 16th September 2019, Swanage Town Council voted unanimously in favour of declaring a climate crisis and resolved to establish a working party to use its best endeavours to make Swanage Town Council carbon neutral by 2030.
The Town Council has acknowledged that scientific evidence points to the serious acceleration of climate change caused by human activity which has led to the present world climate crisis.
To date the Town Council has undertaken a number of steps towards addressing this issue, including the acquisition of electric vehicles and battery-operated tools, the installation of public access electric car charging points, and has achieved “plastic free” status in its operations, but recognises there is much more to be done to limit its use of fossil carbon.
The meeting was held at The Swanage School and was attended by members of the public and the Purbeck Extinction Rebellion group. A presentation was also given by a representative from the Dorset Coast Forum, and funding was approved for the Forum to undertake project development work on sea defences to protect the town against future sea level rises.
The Council also made a number of other decisions, which included the trial of a winter market in Swanage from 1st November to Easter 2020, not to permit the use of single use plastic items at events held on Council owned land and would be consulting with event organisers about using single use plastics, and the replacement of a further Council vehicle with an electric van (which will mean that 33% of Council owned vehicles will be electric).