THE first nail in the coffin of the plastic bag may have been hammered home in Selby.

A meeting of Selby District Council’s environment board has discussed the possibility of trying to bring in a plastic bag ban across the town – as has been done in other places in the UK.

A report to councillors said there were various initiatives the council could introduce, including implementation of a district-wide ban run by the council, to providing support to community groups who want to pursue this issue through the community engagement forum organisations within the district.

But the report added: “No matter which route is followed this is likely to incur costs both in terms of finance and officer time. It is, therefore, recommended that no further action is taken at this time.” Because of this councillors agreed to take no direct action, and the idea of a plastic bag ban will now be fed into the local community engagement forums with the hope that they take a lead on the subject.

However, there is a question over whether the people of Selby support the idea. A button allowing people to vote on the issue which was placed on the Selby District Council website received only 34 hits, despite the council website as a whole receiving 18,000 hits per month.

But councillors still want to support the idea of a ban.