The declaration of a Climate Emergency by our Councillors surely means there must be a new protocol underlying all decisions in every area of Council activity. The environment must be the first consideration in policy-making and planning as it permeates every aspect of our existence.Without a healthy environment none of the benefits the Council hopes to deliver within its responsibility can be achieved.

Nature is our life-support system, yet few seem ready to acknowledge this.Many think we can go on in the same old way, exploiting and extracting from the planet as has been the model since the start of the industrial revolution.

The "Bank of Nature" has appeared to offer free resources over the years, but now the crunch has come and the debt has been called in.

Can we expect politicians so dyed in the outdated wool as Councillor Price to put the health of air ,water, soil, earth and biodiversity before the long-cherished and glamorous accolades of glossy industrial projects and road schemes?

A test of this "new thinking" might be the decision on a current planning application for a mega- chicken broiler factory in Lyonshall. 360,000 birds on a piece of pleasant Herefordshire countryside and the associated intolerable extra traffic on the already heavily HGV used A480. CO2 emissions will be added to by the functioning of the plant and the probable transportation of feedstuffs etc. Other environmental issues look likely to be water and soil pollution, noise, smell, and the over-extraction of water (which is going to be a big problem everywhere).

Added to this, the project is not even going to create many well-paid jobs.

This is an industrial, NOT an agricultural, business and certainly not the way food production should be going. I wait with interest to see how deep the greenwash has penetrated Council Thinking.

Thane Meldrum

Almeley