By Cllr Mary Temperton, Leader of Bracknell Forest Council

Hello again to residents across the borough.

I am of course delighted with the outcome of the General Election on 4 July and am looking forward to working with both our new MPs.

Peter Swallow, Labour, represents all residents in Bracknell, Crowthorne and Sandhurst, and Joshua Reynolds, Liberal Democrat, represents the residents in Bracknell Forest who now come under the Maidenhead constituency.  I am sure we will have regular meetings and I have already written to both.

Last week was also a busy week for activities against climate change. On Monday, 8 July we welcomed over 150 local representatives from our businesses, schools, community groups and local organisations to attend the second Bracknell Forest Council climate change summit.

3M kindly hosted the event in their wonderful building, and we began to develop the community climate emergency strategy. This will be co-produced by working groups representing different sectors and interests and its targets will be monitored so we know the progress we are making.

It was inspiring to see so many people engaged in creating action plans for themselves or their organisation and collaborating to help one another.

As well as the summit, we also hosted two school climate change conferences last week for both primary and secondary school students across Bracknell Forest.

Secondary school students had the opportunity to work with local charities, organisations and an environmental group on how they can enact change in their schools. They were then able to create goal statements to take back to school and take forward.

Primary school students had the opportunity to take part in several indoor and outdoor activities to help them understand sustainability within energy, food and biodiversity. At the end of the day, each primary school made a pledge committing to actions they intended on taking back into school.

The children were fantastic and incredibly enthusiastic, setting a great example for generations to come.

As a result of the recent collaboration, we are looking to update our own climate change strategy which will be published later in the year.

The council has agreed the ‘Caring for Carers’ strategy. This is an all-age integrated carers strategy to ensure all carers in Bracknell Forest are enabled to get the support, information and advice so they can live fulfilled, independent lives.

We recognise that many residents who also care for a loved one 24hours a day, seven days a week are still unknown to the council. This strategy will help us reach out to them too.

On 20 July we have our second Bracknell Forest Pride event in The Lexicon. This was a triumphant occasion last year and I am sure we are all looking forward to the celebrations again. Search ‘Pride’ on the council’s website to find all the details. (www.bracknell-forest.gov.uk) See you there!