The Green Party of England & Wales was founded in 1973 by a group of people who were deeply concerned by the alarming rate of global environmental degradation resulting from human activity.

If you have time, I would like you to read the following words written by a Green Party member whose name, alas, eludes me but for whom I will give great credit for summarising who we are and where and why we stand.

I admire the effect the tufa cascades of the Slade Brook have on people and visitors. Local poet Sean Swallow has obviously been deeply moved by its beauty and vulnerability and his poem captures this perfectly.

Achieving carbon zero means reaching a balance between how much CO2 we emit and how much we remove from the atmosphere - in effect eliminating the rise in CO2 levels.

This is the turning point, the chance to step away from the precipice and begin the work of recovery. We desperately need to restore our respect for climate and each other.

During the 1970s and 1980s I planted hundreds of trees for the Forest of Avon.