Would-be councillors have been quizzed about how they would help tackle the climate emergency if they are elected to Falkirk Council on May 5.
Environmental campaigners Friends of the Earth Falkirk hosted a special hustings on Wednesday evening in Falkirk Trinity Church to dig deeper into the candidates' attitudes and commitment to the cause.
At the event - which was also livestreamed - were representative from the four main political parties standing in the local elections: SNP, Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat. The Scottish Green Party was unable to provide a speaker after a last-minute cancellation.
READ MORE: All the candidates standing in the election for Falkirk Council on May 5
Perhaps the biggest surprise of the night was how much agreement there was from all four politician as they discussed a range of topics including active travel and climate justice. After a recent bruising report from the Audit Commission, which strongly criticised Falkirk councillors for not working together, members of the audience were pleased to see respect and civility among the council hopefuls.
Among those taking part was first-time candidate Siobhan Paterson, who lives in Brightons and is standing for the Labour Party in the Upper Braes, and has previously organised tree planting and litter picks locally as part of her commitment to the environment.Another newcomer, Liberal Democrat Sean McCay, who is standing in Carse, Kinnaird and Tryst, told the meeting that he had recently moved to Kinnaird Village to take a job in renewables.
They were joined by a previous Conservative candidate, James Bundy, who is standing in Falkirk North. He was praised for turning up and he said that there were some national Conservative policies he did not fully agree with. In particular, he joined the other candidates in saying he is not personally supportive of fracking and that "local people must have their voices heard".
The panel was also quizzed on how they felt about the fact that Falkirk Council's pension fund still has some investments in fossil fuel companies.
Current SNP councillor, Laura Murtagh, who was elected in 2017, said that her party had actively tried to change this - bringing a motion to council just before COP26 was held in Glasgow - but this had been defeated by Labour and Conservative opposition.
She also said that as a councillor she had argued successfully for every single council report to have its environmental impact assessed by experts on climate change.
Questions from the floor included candidates being asked if they would support public ownership of buses in order to improve services, particularly in rural areas. While the Conservative and Liberal Democrat candidates did not commit to support public ownership, they all agreed that the current system is "not working".
Labour's Siobhan Paterson said she agreed "100 per cent" that the powers, brought in by the Scottish Government in 2019, should be used to improve the buses which at the moment and get an interlinked transport system that people would want to use.
Friends of the Earth member Stuart Forbes said: "It's very clear that all the major parties share the vision of climate justice, There are differences about how we will reach the destination but we all want to see climate justice and a shift to a more sustainable future."
