It takes a national campaign to pass new legislation, and that includes individuals, businesses – and councils! Read on to understand how your local council can help.
Almost 200 councils have already passed motions in support of the Climate & Ecology Bill. Technically, the Bill is the responsibility of MPs, not councils, but that doesn’t mean they can’t join in the calls for updated climate and nature law.
1) Check whether your council supports the Climate & Ecology Bill
Head to our allies page and check your council isn’t already supporting here. Remember: even if one level of local government (for example, your town or parish council) backs the Bill, another level (district, borough or county council) may not have passed a motion.
2) Find your local councillors
You can find out who your local councillors are using the website WriteToThem.com.
3) Contact your local council
Write to your local councillors using the resources listed below.
We’ve included a template letter that you might like to adapt for your purposes. And you can even include a draft notice of motion. Providing the wording in this way makes it clearer what we are asking of the council, and does some of their work for them, making it one less hurdle to get over. Finally, we’ve also provided a draft press release that you can send to local media outlets to publicise the passing of the motion.
- Draft motion and letter for councils to support the Bill
- Link to the Climate & Ecology Bill
- Draft press release announcing support for the Bill by a local council
- Share this video to your councillors:
Next steps
Once you’ve contacted your councillors, there are various things you can do to speed up the process. Take a look at the detailed advice listed in the resources below for more useful information.
Resources
- Here’s a summary of the situation to share with councils, completely with an explainer video and FAQs
- Here is some more in-depth advice on contacting your council about the Climate & Ecology Bill, lobbying other councillors and following up on the whole process.
- Here is a link to the minutes from Warrington Borough council’s meeting on the Climate & Ecology Bill in December 2020 – in case you want to take inspiration from this. Go to pages 5 and 6.
