A LIB DEM motion for Dorset Council to declare a nature emergency has been approved – but criticised by Tory councillors.

They complained that the policy is short of detail and has been pushed through with no idea of the costs involved, or what it might mean in practical terms.

Preston and Littlemoor councillor, Louie O’Leary, likened the move to little more than ‘a virtue signalling gesture’ from soy bean latte drinkers from the “chattering classes”. He complained that none of the custodians of the countryside, the farmers, had been consulted.

“It’s a political stunt to grab a cheap headline,” he said to cheers from his Tory colleagues.

Other Conservatives, including the former council leader, Spencer Flower, complained about the lack of information on costs with the new Conservative group leader Cllr Andrew Parry from West Parley, saying no thought had been given to contentious issues under the new policy such as deer and badger culling or tackling issues like litter. He warned that agreeing the nature emergency was likely to expose the council to unforeseen, unintended, consequences which could eventually lead to increases in council tax, or cuts to services.

Several others on the Conservative side of the chamber said they liked the idea but could not support the policy without the detail, some of which will be discussed at a seminar for councillors next week.

Cranborne and Alderholt councillor David Tooke( Lib Dem) remind the Conservative group that it was them which, five years ago, put in place the council’s climate emergency with no costings whatsoever.

Weymouth Green councillor Clare Sutton said whatever the objections a nature emergency existed, with one in six species now threatened with extinction.

“We’ve just got to crack on with it. We start with the intention and then we flesh the policy out,” she said.

At the start of the debate council leader Nick Ireland told councillors: “We must take affirmative action to reverse biodiversity loss and restore abundance.”

Part of the policy includes a commitment to phasing out harmful weedkillers on council-owned land, rather than an immediate, outright ban, which campaigners, including TV wildlife presenter Chris Packham, had called for.

Cllr Ireland said as much as he would like an immediate ban the advice was that it was impractical at the moment, until something else, less harmful, had been developed to deal with weeds which are capable of destroying road and pavement surfaces.

The vote for the nature emergency was 54-20, suggesting most of the Conservative group voted against it. There were four abstentions. Because of electronic voting use by the council it is impossible to see which way individual councillors voted.