A row has broken out between Green parliamentary candidate Zoe Hatch and former colleagues on Taplow Parish Council over her call for the authority to declare a 'climate emergency'.

Ms Hatch stood as a Green candidate at last month's parliamentary election and is a former parish council member.

She attended a meeting of the council on Tuesday last week expecting to speak in its public forum on the 'climate emergency' motion which she had asked to be included on the agenda. But after the meeting she accused council vice-chairman Claire Price of removing the item from the agenda without consultation.

She said: "Everybody knows we all need to work together to find solutions to this crisis but when the council will not even table the item for debate on the agenda you really have to question why they are silencing further discussion on this issue?"

The item on the agenda had been amended from agreeing that the parish council should declare  a climate emergency to a milder one calling for a debate on ways of supporting the environment.

Taplow Parish Council clerk Hilda Holder said that social or environmental issues that polarised opinion did not fall within the remit parish councils but that the amended motion had still enabled Ms Hatch to make a comprehensive presentation at the meeting and for the issue to be debated without restriction.

She said: "Naturally, the Parish Council takes environmental issues and our environmental responsibilities seriously, and we have undertaken a number of initiatives to reduce the carbon footprint in the parish, such as introducing LED streetlights, maintaining and increasing the provision of public amenity green spaces, councillor-led litter picking, maintaining rural public footpaths, and robustly defending local Green Belt. We are currently investigating opportunities to plant a substantial numbers of trees within the Parish and create a wildlife diversity recreation space."