Chesterfield Borough Council urged to do more to help environment – as it reveals pledge to cut single-use plastics

A motion put forward by Councillor Amanda Serjeant, the council’s deputy leader, states the authority will remove single-use plastics from its operations where possible – by engaging with suppliers and switching to alternative products.

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The motion was passed during a meeting of the full council this week.

Liberal Democrat councillors Ed Fordham, Kelly Thornton and Shirley Niblock said they support the authority’s plan to cut the use of single-use plastics – but they want the council to go further.

Coun Fordham said: “At the moment thousands of plant pots across the borough go into landfill each year, crisp packets can be recycled at Chesterfield Samaritans but not by the council, and plastic bags should be phased out in all local supermarkets now.

“Yet on these simple domestic issues the council has shown itself to be lacking.

“We are keen to support becoming plastic free as a borough – but it is important for the council to provide opportunities for re-use, to help cut our excessive plastic use and to lead the dialogue with, for example, local branches of supermarkets.”

Coun Amanda Serjeant said: “Our proposal to reduce single-use plastics in our operations and services will be a significant step in limiting the council’s environmental impact, and we welcome support for this move.

“It also commits us to working more closely with campaigns like Plastic Free Chesterfield which will further ensure we can encourage as many local residents and businesses to reduce their use of single-use plastic.

“Of course there is always more that can be done – the environmental challenges facing society are enormous.

“But it’s important to focus our efforts and as part of our climate change action plan, and working with local partners, we will continue to support people to make changes to limit their environmental impact which includes facilitating ways which people can recycle their waste.”

Greg Hewitt, community lead of the Plastic Free Chesterfield group, added: "We are delighted that the council proposed this motion, which a significant moment on our journey to make Chesterfield an accredited plastic-free community.”

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