Leading councillors join climate protesters before they ‘die’ in Town Hall

Coun Lewis Dagnall, cabinet member for climate change, made a speech and joined in with Coun Olivia Blake, deputy leader and cabinet for finance, and campaigners in singing protest songs.

The lyrics included lines such as: “We need to open our eyes and do it now, now, now. We need to build a better future and we need to start right now. We are on a planet that has a problem, we need to solve it, get involved and do it now, now, now.”

People also held up banners and placards which read ‘don’t talk, act’ and ‘bike, bus, walk’.

Coun Lewis Dagnall also welcomed campaigners to meet with him to discuss what they could do locally to tackle the issue.

He said: “We need to urgently act if we are to avoid irreversible damage to planet. The Labour party has welcomed action by Extinction Rebellion to put this agenda at the heart of our public debate. We have pressed the government to call a national environment emergency and urgent action and we as a council have responded to concerns by putting climate change at the heart of our debate for this year.”

Nathan Strathdee, of Extinction Rebellion who led the protest, said: “The council have now shown vocal leadership on this issue and declared a climate emergency and they have said all the right words but what we are doing here today is pushing for more action sooner and following up those words and promises with actions.

“The climate crisis won’t be solved through pretty words. We are showing solidarity with those animals, people and plants that are suffering hourly because of the ecological breakdown.”

He added that there had been a series of proposals from Sheffield Climate Alliance which they agree with such as investing in public transport and divesting in fossil fuel companies.