Monday 4pm Special DCSDC meeting on Lough Neagh dredging with environment and climate justice experts
A special meeting of Derry and Strabane Council to discuss the environmental and planning regulation implications of the Ministerial decision to continue industrial dredging of the protected Lough Neagh will be held Monday 4pm 29 March.
The meeting can be viewed live here: https://youtube.com/channel/UCbGxNiLfdgs_ZR2CBl0msvA
James Orr from Friends of the Earth will speak alongside representatives V’cenza Cirefice and Nuala Crilly from the climate justice network The Gathering.
The special meeting follows on from motion brought by People Before Profit Cllr Shaun Harkin to the Council in October 2020.
“Council notes with great disappointment the decision of Infrastructure Minister Nicola Mallon to grant continued commercial dredging of the European protected area Lough Neagh.
Environmental campaigners Friends of the Earth said, “The minister’s decision has made a mockery of our environmental designations and our protections.”
This decision amounts to an assault on our ecology that will, if unchecked, lead to an environmental wasteland.
Council will write to the Minister expressing our objection on the basis of our Climate Emergency Declaration and Pledge.
Council will support efforts to reverse the decision.
Council will invite representatives from Friends of the Earth and the Environmental Gathering for a presentation on the ramifications of this decision.”