A council has vowed to go “plastic free” in a formal stance against pollution within the community.

Holywell Town Council has declared they will ditch plastic materials from their offices in response to a growing national concern.

In comes after bosses from Iceland, the Deeside based frozen food supermarket chain, stated their intentions this week to eliminate plastic packaging from all of its own brand products by the end of 2023.

At a Holywell Town Council meeting, Cllr Peter York called for the council to take action.

He proposed: “We are to mark the resolution stating that we as a town council are going plastic free, not as a town centre, but we will write to Flintshire Council on the basis of encouraging them to work towards a plastic-free county.

“Over the Christmas period, there has been a number of issues on the news which have concerned me deeply. To have that many things in the news over a fortnight means we have to do something about it ourselves.

“Two councils in Wales have already declared themselves plastic free and this is something we should definitely consider,” he urged.

The council agreed it was a “very important thing to be doing” in light of the current “plastic problem” across the country, which began on the first day of 2018 when China announced its ban on plastic import waste from the UK.

Councillors agreed they could not “sit back” any longer, and voted to become a plastic-free organisation with the aim of setting examples to other bodies and councils across Wales.

Cllr Linda Carter said: “We need to urge people to go their AM and MP to make a stand on this terribly important issue,” while Cllr Paul Johnson said: “We need to look at ourselves. We have to sometimes stand up to planning and environment pressure, and I urge we seriously consider becoming plastic free.”

The clerk will communicate their new stance to Flintshire Council in a bid to bring the issue to their attention and their hope is that officials at Shire Hall will reconsider their plastic policy across all Flintshire town councils.

Any plastic items “as far as practical” will be “banned” from Holywell Town Council offices at the most minimal effective cost.

For Cllr Rosetta Dolphin, this winter’s news stories were frightening eyeopeners to the do’s and don’ts of recycling.

She said: “It’s stupid things we wouldn’t think of, like tea bags, which reportedly have plastic in them.”

Cllr Mike Brooks said although the town council has no legal weight to impose that Holywell businesses go plastic free, he said the council’s decision is the “first move” in making the wider picture attainable for the whole town.

Cllr Ted Palmer said they also cannot request businesses and establishments in Holywell to dissolve their use of carrier bags, but added: “We will now ask Flintshire Council to look into putting this movement in across the county, and I’d like to see steps being made to find out the use and resource of plastic in the area.”

Announcing their new stance this week, Richard Walker, Iceland managing director, said: “The world has woken up to the scourge of plastics.

“A truckload is entering our oceans every minute, causing untold damage to our marine environment and ultimately humanity since we all depend on the oceans for our survival.”