Friends successfully lobby for nuclear ban

'The overall aim is to engage with all councils and to raise public consciousness.'

North Wales Friends have said they are ‘overjoyed’ that Bangor City Council has become the first Welsh council to support the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), after Quaker lobbying.

The council passed the motion on 26 April – the thirty-fifth anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster – following pressure from the Nuclear Weapons Group, formed by North Wales Quakers and other campaigners.

David Mellor, from Colwyn Bay Meeting, told the Friend the group’s main focus is ‘to have discussions with local councillors and to identify “TPNW Champions” to take the campaign forward, to build alliances among local groups, and to support Quaker local meetings to campaign. The overall aim is to engage with all councils and to raise public consciousness’.

The UK & Ireland Nuclear Free Local Authorities praised Bangor City Council and encouraged other Welsh councils to follow its ‘positive lead’.

It called on the government to ‘reconsider its recent announcement to increase the level of Trident warheads and listen to public opinion that wants to see reductions, rather than increases, in our nuclear weapons arsenal’.

Phillip Austin, from the Northern Friends Peace Board (NFPB), said ‘Friends have been involved with a number of these successful efforts, such as in Bangor, Leeds and Lancaster.’ It hopes to arrange some online workshops about the process.

David Mellor said that the Nuclear Weapons Group is planning actions in other councils, working closely with the United Nations Association Menai group, which plans to write to all councils in Wales.

He said: ‘Friends have been asking local councils to join the “Cities Appeal”, launched by International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons.’

Other initiatives they advocated for are ‘Mayors for Peace’ and ‘Nuclear Free Local Authorities’.

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