Climate emergency network explores local food resilience and partnership working

Our climate emergency network met on 8 May 2026, bringing together councillors and sector partners to discuss local climate action, food resilience and the challenges facing parish and town councils.

The network heard the director and coordinator of the Shropshire Good Food Partnership, Dr Daphne du Cros, on local food resilience, highlighting the importance of strengthening local food systems and community partnerships, which led to a discussion on collaboration with farming and land networks, practical actions parish and town councils can take locally, and the cultural and political barriers affecting climate action.

The chair of The Great Collaboration, Andrew Maliphant, provided updates on the Place-Based Initiative, which makes sense out of the plethora of climate-related information and enables parish and town councils to be only three clicks away from targeted information to meet their needs, and the Local Area Action Partnership, which is an official-level forum and often features senior-level government officials who actively engage with climate and energy stakeholders.

The network also explored the potential impacts of local government reorganisation and the creation of new parish and town councils may have on local climate action. They also raised the challenges rural councils face in responding to the climate emergency.

The network elected Cllr David Newman of Blackbird Leys Parish Council in Oxfordshire and Cllr Jo Wright of Pateley Bridge Parish Council in Yorkshire as co-chairs. We also thank the network's previous chair, Cllr Sarah Barker, for her leadership and contributions. The network will next meet on 24 July 2026.