A Big Thank You to St Finian’s Catholic Primary School

Last week, I was delighted to receive a package of brilliant letters from Mrs Hicks’ Year 5 class at St Finian’s School. I thoroughly enjoyed my visit to the school at the end of last year, and I’m delighted that they remembered our conversations about the importance of our environment.

Every single pupil’s writing was fantastic: they asked key questions, used powerful facts, and you spoke passionately about protecting our planet. I was very impressed.

The students are absolutely right that single-use plastics are one of the big issues we currently face. Over 12 million tonnes of plastic are dumped into the ocean every year, harming turtles, whales, seabirds, and millions of other animals.

I agree with them – we must do better.

In Parliament, my party, the Liberal Democrats, is pushing for the elimination of non-recyclable single-use plastics and replacing them with affordable alternatives. We are also urging the Government to help restart talks on a strong Global Plastics Treaty, so countries around the world can work together to tackle this problem.

Lots of you also made an important point about litter in our local area, empty sweet wrappers and crisp packets should not be scattered across our parks and playground. It doesn’t just look messy, but if they’re not cleaned up, the tiny microplastics can end up in our food and water. 

If we are to protect our Earth for future generations, we need better recycling facilities and a more ‘circular economy’ – which means reducing waste and recycling products instead of throwing them away.

As many of the pupils reminded me, we must reduce, re-use, and recycle!

I want our children to grow up in a world with clean rivers, healthy oceans, thriving wildlife, and beautiful green spaces. A world where we protect the animals and plants who share this planet with us.

Thank you again to Mrs Hicks and to all of the students for their thoughtful and persuasive letters. Please keep speaking up about the environment and I will keep working to push for the changes you are all calling for.