A PACKED meeting held at Hereford's Shirehall last Friday demonstrated the strength of feeling that exists in the county about the need for legislation to tackle the urgent problems of climate change.

Both of Herefordshire's MPs, Paul Keetch and Bill Wiggin, attended the historic meeting which was organised to ask them to lobby both the Prime Minister, Tony Blair, and the environment secretary, David Miliband, for a legislative framework to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

The fact David Miliband had indicated that there was every possibility of a climate change bill being included in the Queen's Speech on November 15, reinforced the urgency for the dozens of representatives attending Friday's meeting.

"There was a strong feeling among participants that we had already passed the climate-tipping point," said Paige Mitchell, campaigns co-ordinator for Herefordshire Friends of the Earth.

The meeting was organised as part of a national campaign by the Stop Climate Chaos Coalition to lobby for legislation.

"We wanted to bring together as many organisations as possible to show our MPs that we are really, really serious," said Paige. "We want to demonstrate that government will have ready partners locally. We believe Herefordshire is in a position to lead, but we are concerned that it may already be too late."

Representatives from organisations as diverse as Hereford Quaker Meeting, Herefordshire Federation of Women's Institutes, NFU West Midlands and Oxfam, were vocal about the action that could be taken in the county, raising issues such as the role of Herefordshire Council in areas like building regulations and recycling.

The possibility of making the Edgar Street Grid a carbon neutral development was discussed, as was the county's potential for leading the way in bio-fuels.

Mr Wiggin stressed the need for an independent carbon audit to hold the government to account and also emphasised the leading role the UK was taking in aiming to lower greenhouse gas emissions, developing both the technology and vision, a view reinforced by Mr Keetch, who observed that the UK was already leading the way in world terms.

Mr Keetch focused on what could be achieved in the county, revealing that he had had a meeting with the Treasury about tax breaks on bio-fuels, and reinforcing the message from Geoff Perrott, environmental co-ordinator for the Herefordshire Partnership, that personal responsibility was key.

It fell to a representative of the younger generation to sum up the consequences of failing to take action. Expressing her organisation's support for legislation, Cat Stace, vice-chair of Hereforshire Youth Council, ended by observing: "We are the generation that will have to deal with the consequences of global warming."