Green Hero - Tim Farron

Working for the local community News

Former Leader of the Liberal Democrats and defending his seat of Westmorland and Lonsdale, Tim Farron is today`s Green Hero. He was first elected to the constituency in 2005 with a very narrow majority of only 257 votes; and is a dedicated local member of parliament with a strong sense of community - one of the pre-requisites for an environmentally oriented parliamentarian.

Helping to save rural bus services is an excellent way of helping the environment, as well as your constituents.

Climate Change - biggest issue...

Climate change is the biggest issue we face. I am determined that the Govt take the big strategic decisions to fight it.
That requires a revolution in renewables & a push for energy self-sufficiency, which would protect our environment,
boost our economy & give us energy security.

The Government have moved away from Renewable energy. - They have changed feed-in tariffs, so it is harder for
businesses to invest in solar energy. the Guardian recently reported "outing" the Government for providing some of
the biggest bursaries for large Oil and Gas businesses."

This is why the Party has put Climate Emergency so high on the Liberal Democrat Manifesto agenda for the forthcoming general election. Tim Farron has been at the forefront of pressing for more action on what he refers to as the "Climate Catastrophe" for a considerable time. The short clip below is taken from an appearance speaking to a Commons Select committee in March 2019...

Conflicting priorities

Sometimes it is the case that there are conflicting priorities in protecting the environment. An example of that was the need to chop down a number of trees in Tim`s constituency in order to get better flood protection in place.

Tim Farron met with the Environment Agency's Flood Risk Manager for Cumbria, Stewart Mounsey, almost exactly a year ago to encourage him to review plans to chop down over 700 trees as part of its flood defence plans for Kendal.

Tim made the case that while getting the long-overdue flood defences built was the number one priority, the Environment Agency needed to keep the character of the town.

The Environment Agency said that for every tree they would chop down, they would plant another four in the town. Although 779 trees were planned to come down to make way for vital flood defences, Tim welcomed news that 3,400 trees were to be planted to replace them. The Environment Agency had already agreed not to take the trees down at Abbot Hall as was originally planned. Tim welcomed this development too.

Tim said: "I had a really constructive meeting with Stewart Mounsey. I'm glad that the trees at Abbot Hall will be saved. It was clear that he understands people's concerns and I'm really grateful that
he has agreed to look at revising some of the proposals to protect more trees.

"However, in all this we must not lose sight of the main objective which is to get these flood
defences built as soon as possible for the peace of mind of every family whose home or
business was flooded back in 2015 and since."

Making Change Happen

Tim Farron is a key member of the Liberal Democrats team which can, together, make environmental change happen in Parliament, so we'll be doing all we can to help get him elected. Will you join us?

For more Green Heroes go to the Green Heroes front page here >>> https://greenlibdems.org.uk/en/page/green-heroes