Local Greens are delighted that Maidstone Borough Council acknowledged that the River Medway has rights and that they need to consider these rights when they make decisions.
The motion to the full Council meeting was proposed by the Greens who were pleased with the outcome despite some amendments being made.
Cllr Stuart Jeffery, Green Party: “Recent events have exposed just what a mess our environment is in and how that it impacting on our lives, such as the failure of water supply and the pollution in the rivers. Despite this there remains a deep seated lack of understanding on the importance of the environment in the Council and business as usual thinking continues to drive decisions.
“I am therefore delighted that the Council has acknowledged that our river has intrinsic rights, such as the right to flow and be free of pollution, and that we need to consider these when we make decisions. This marks a real change in approach and one that I hope starts to impact on how councillors and officers think about what we do.
“While the council did not want to work on the detail of those rights with other councils along the Medway basin, the motion was still successful in shifting the Council’s position and more importantly, it’s thinking.”
Motion agreed by Council (19/7/23) and referred to Overview and Scrutiny for discussion:
1. This Council acknowledges the growing global movement of ‘rights of nature’ as a framework for rethinking its relationship with the environment.
2. This Council believes that there is a case to be made for considering our interactions with our local waterways in the context of ‘Rights of Rivers’ and through which the health and wellbeing of the River Medway and its tributaries can be addressed.
The third section was not agreed:
3. This Council will work with the other councils along the Medway catchment to explore with local communities and relevant stakeholders the implementation of Rights of Rivers along the River Medway and its tributaries. This will involve working towards the production of a ‘Declaration on the Rights of the River Medway and its tributaries’ by relevant stakeholders for possible endorsement by the Council within 2 years.
