PHELIM Mac Cafferty has been a leader with conviction who has championed green causes and made big changes.

That is what he was voted in to do and was expected to do as leader.

But he is absolutely right in stating that flying to the COP26 green summit was a major failure of judgement.

Trains can be unreliable. But as the green leader of the council he needs to try to use sustainable transport no matter what.

Even driving would have been better.

Work can be done on trains, even if you are delayed. Most people are not working in offices anyway. So it did not really matter how long the journey was going to take, unless he was short on time.

A report called Aviation’s Economic Downside from 2003 on the Green Party website states that Aviation is the most highly-polluting transport mode on earth, and its pollution constitutes a major hidden cost to the economy. Aviation is also subsidised directly and indirectly by the taxpayer, and is a major drain on the UK balance of payments.

It states that the health costs of air pollution from the UK aviation sector were estimated at more than £1.3 billion pounds a year.

The economic costs of aircraft noise in the UK were estimated at £313 million a year. The costs of UK aviation’s contribution to climate change were estimated at well over £2 billion a year in 2001.

Phelim knows all this and he needs to decide if he is the right person to lead the push on Green causes after what he has done.

It was a case of extreme hypocrisy flying on the same day that he criticised the country's leaders over a lack of action.

Then the next day he gave a speech at COP 26 stating that "every day local cities are leading the way in resetting the balance through positive action". His action needs to set an example too.

The view of readers is clear. 89 per cent believe his hypocrisy means he should go.

He needs to decide how credible he can be now. The views of his fellow Green councillors and party members are crucial here too and no doubt he is in detailed discussions with them.

Criticism is coming from different people and groups and the Green Party here needs to make sure the positive work being done by them on the environment locally is not derailed - or shot from the sky - by this.