Helston's councillors have been asked to explain exactly what steps they have taken since declaring a climate emergency almost a year ago.

The town council made the declaration at its March 2019 meeting and vowed to "act as a voice for the community to lobby for action on climate change, raise the profile and share lessons with higher levels of government."

Jules Lewis, of Helston Climate Action Group, called members to task at their last meeting, saying: "The emergency has been declared by the council for nearly a year. Councillors are not frequently at the climate action group meetings.

"I wonder if the councillors do feel there is an emergency?

"We are working very hard to reduce our climate footprint, personally as a family and as a community, working on two things that are the biggest contributors - our transport and our food.

"We all have to do our bit and I would like to ask the councillors, please will you tell us what pledges you're undertaking and how you're getting on with them?"

Read more: Climate emergency declared by Helston Town Council

It followed a report from councillor Dave Potter, who is also chair of the climate action group, at the January meeting in which he encouraged all members to "engage actively" and carry out as many of the Climate Vision ten pledges as possible, which include turning down the thermostat to between 18 and 21°C, buying local seasonal produce and switching to green energy.

Town clerk Chris Dawson said he believed this was down to individual choice, but Mr Potter pointed out: "We are elected members of the community and we have an elected responsibility.

"We should never underestimate the importance of us taking the lead and giving people a push."

Nicola Roberts was the only councillor on the night to volunteer information, saying she had asked for only trees for Christmas as presents, had begun growing her own vegetables and had switched to a green energy tariff.

Mr Lewis also wanted to know how the council's amenities committee planned to reverse the CO2 generated by not choosing a green energy supplier for its gas, as it had done for its electricity.

Last July the committee chose Good Energy for electricity, to offset the town's carbon footprint, but chose E.On for gas and to offset it by investing in tree planting.

Town clerk Chris Dawson said councillors agreed to look at a tree planting scheme and acknowledged that this had not been taken forward yet, but could be brought back to the next agenda.

He said the agreed figure had been six trees each year and that two had been planted at King George V playing field and there were plans for three at Cades Parc, so that figure was almost reached this year.

However, Mr Lewis said that if these trees were already being counted as part of the Forest for Helston project, towards the Forest for Cornwall, they could not also be used to offset the CO2.