A constituent enquiry to Labour Councillor Hannah Banfield inspired her to submit her first motion to Cherwell District Council on the subject of sustainable alternatives in the design and planting of bedding schemes across the district. Reducing peat use in compost seeks to help safeguard peatland, promoting habitat diversity and protecting a key absorber of carbon emissions.

The motion, which was recently passed unanimously and unamended by a Full Council meeting of CDC, commits the council to ensuring that suppliers of bedding plants avoid using compost with more that 50% peat composition, “as soon as practicable and most definitely by 2030”.

The full text of the passed motion was as follows:

“Peatlands located within the UK and The Republic Of Ireland, play a vital role in absorbing and storing large amounts of carbon dioxide and thus help to mitigate climate change. This council agrees that any supplier of our bedding plants at this time and in the future will from this juncture use no more than 50% peat compost within the cultivation of our plants and that the suppliers of our bedding plants now and in the future must make the commitment to be peat-free as soon as practicable and most definitely by 2030. In making this commitment we will conserve this diminishing natural resource and help to safeguard our peatlands.

This Council agrees that officers will investigate sustainable alternatives in relation to the design and planting of our bedding schemes which will include perennial plants that are cost-effective, insect-friendly, and attractive to pollinators.”

The Banbury Guardian has also published an article discussing the motion here.