A Powys County Councillor and town Mayor has hit back at 'online critics' following the county council's decision not to declare an 'ecological emergency' at their meeting last month.

Liberal Democrat councillors Jake Berriman and Jackie Charlton submitted the motion at a full council meeting of Powys County Council on Thursday, September 23, which would have seen the county council seek to further protect biodiversity and wildlife in the county.

However Llanfyllin Mayor Cllr Peter Lewis said that while Llanfyllin Town Council had decided to support the motion, he could not back it in his role as a county councillor due to the bill's 'close ties' with environmental campaign group Extinction Rebellion.

"At last month's meeting in correspondence we received a letter, last minute, from the Chair of (Llanfyllin environmental group)BRACE regarding a CEE Bill and asking the Town Council to support it," he said.

"We as a town council agreed to support BRACE and the CEE Bill on a local level.

"At the Powys County Council full council meeting which I attended as your County Councillor, the motion was put forward by the Lib Dem Group and during the debate it became clear the motion had close ties with the Extinction Rebellion or XR movement."

Cllr Lewis said XR's civil disobedience tactics meant that he could not support the bill - and he told last night's Llanfyllin Town Council meeting that he felt compelled to speak out following online criticism on town facebook pages.

"Part of the non-violent disobedience includes protests that cost government and taxpayers money that amounts to thousands of pounds and they are known to condone such activity as smashing windows and action to prevent traffic, such as the recent protests on motorways that are both life threatening and cause mass disruption.

"Therefore I or any public body such as PCC could not support this motion, by doing so would support an activist group that chooses a destructive path rather than a constructive one to achieve their goal.

He added that the county council's pension fund, of which he's chair, had moved its assets into low carbon investments as part of measures to make council policy more sustainable.

"A recent BBC report supported us by saying that Powys Pension Fund was one of the leading authorities in Wales, with only 2% of their fund invested in companies with ties to Fossil Fuels,

"We take High Level Exposure Analysis of any investments we use. We have taken the decision to move approx 20% of assets into low Carbon investments and will be investing in a Paris Aligned Fund in November."

At the meeting last month, Cllr Gibson-Watt, the leader of the Liberal Democrat and Green group on the council had voted in favour of the motion.

"There is a very serious situation developing and an ecological emergency is not an exaggeration," he said.

He added that farming unions in Wales had already recognised the need to do more work “hand in hand with nature”.

The motion was defeated with 31 voting against it and 24 in favour.