Vegan campaigners were swiftly removed from a council meeting last night after a year of asking council members to serve only vegan food at their events.
Louisa Hillwood, spokesperson for the Plant Based Councils campaign, asked Mete Coban (Cllr Stoke Newington) if the Council will pledge to switching to fully vegan catering for internal meetings and events.
Activists in the viewing gallery sprung out of their seats with bright green banner that read: “Plant Based Councils”.
While acknowledging the importance of the climate crisis, Coban responded: “It’s really important we don’t fall into the trap of telling residents how to live their lives.
“The diversity of the community in our borough is important to us and we can’t cater to them with only all-vegan options.
“We won’t tell people what to do.”
The council Speaker immediately demanded the banners be removed. Security guards then removed Ms Hillwood’s colleagues from the viewing gallery and confiscated their banners.
The group calls for councils across the UK to become more environmentally conscious and address food-based CO2 emissions by switching to plant-based catering for their internal meetings and events to plant based options.
