Climate campaigners who've marched thousands of miles to call on world leaders met with Northumberland's council leader last week as they neared the end of an environmental 'pilgrimage'.
With the UN's COP26 meeting in Glasgow starting at the end of this month, hundreds of people from around Europe and beyond have been making their way to Scotland in a bid to raise awareness of the dire plight of planet earth.
Among these travellers is a group of churchgoers from Poland and Sweden, who've walked the entire distance from their home countries to the UK, and who passed through Northumberland last week.
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Last Friday they met with Northumberland County Council leader Glen Sanderson, who said he'd shared ideas with the marchers and been "heartened" by their campaign.
Northumberland County Council declared a 'climate emergency' in 2019, and is striving to become a carbon-neutral county by 2030. Plans to reduce emissions in the county include electric vehicle charging point roll-outs, tree planting and funding for renewable energy schemes.
Coun Sanderson said: "We've got a really great team of officers to see us through this work and also make sure that everything we do as a county is climate change-proofed...
"A lot of [the campaigners] had read our climate change action plan and were very inspired by the progress we have made over the last three years."
Hoping for Northumberland's work to be an "exemplar" around the country, Coun Sanderson said he had had "conversations" with Conservative colleagues in Westminster about the UK's environment bill. And he called on government for "more financial support" for councils for green initiatives including increasing recycling capacity.
"We need to keep the environment at the top of the agenda," he said.
"It is a huge obligation we have to fulfill for the next generation and for the future."
Local organiser Chris Myers, from Seghill, joined the group of 'pilgrims', some of whom had been walking for more than 100 days, to guide them through their eight-day trek through Northumberland.
He said: "It was very powerful to talk about their story and their commitment to climate justice. What was great was that with each community we visited we would have a service and a conversation about the climate crisis, because it's all about engagement.
"We need the world leaders to do the right things but it's also about sharing that message with local communities, because we all have a part to play.
"It's all about engagement and trying to inspire people to do what they can, and probably to do a bit better than that, because it's not just about doing the easy things now, we need to seriously think about how we live our lives, what we consume, what we eat.
"We need to do it for our children and our grandchildren because if we don't the future is very bleak."
He thanked the council leader for joining the marchers, adding: "It was really good that [Coun Sanderson] came to meet us in Alnmouth, I'm very aware of what Northumberland is doing and I'm very supportive of it - it's not just talking about the climate emergency, they've got a plan for dealing with it and I think it's a good plan, although there's a lot of work to do."
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