On 20th July, Somerset County Council backed a motion to declare an Ecological Emergency, proposed by Executive Lead Member for the Environment and Climate Change Cllr Sarah Dyke. This comes on the back of the Climate Emergency the council had previously declared in 2019.

What we find astonishing is how Somerset’s decision to sell Packsaddle fields (an historic ecological space) for development, is at total odds with their own ecological and climate pledges.

In Somerset’s official press release, Cllr Sarah Dyke said: “As a Council we are putting sustainability at the forefront of all our decision-making. By declaring an Ecological Emergency, we are pledging to preserve the County’s natural environment and tackling negative impacts on biodiversity in Somerset”.

What is particularly concerning in light of this pledge, is that in Somerset Council’s official Decision Report for the sale of the land, they specified that there were no Climate Emergency & Sustainability Implications (see screenshot above).

We’re looking to meet with Cllr Sarah Dyke as soon as possible to discuss the Packsaddle sale decision and its implications for Somerset’s Ecological Emergency pledge.

You can read the details of Somerset Council’s ecological emergency pledge here.