LAST Friday, SBC councillors received a less than ordinary delivery.

Ten sapling trees were packaged up in eco-friendly paper bags and dropped on the doorstep of SBC executives by Extinction Rebellion Scottish Borders.

The trees which are said to be excellent for collecting carbon, were provided by A Greener Melrose and were presented with a personalised tag for each councillor.

Each tag had the name and title of its recipient which was followed by this message: "Dear SBC Executive, Enjoy your free tree! Please declare a climate emergency. Love and rage, XR Scottish Borders".

The local XR branch say that the council has been unresponsive to its recent campaigns to declare a climate emergency, including their weekly vigils for the earth which have been held outside the Council in St Boswells and across the region, and their recent demonstration - a die in.

A spokesperson for Scottish Borders Council told us: “We thank the campaigners for their delivery of the trees which were received last Friday, with staff making sure they will be planted in appropriate places.”

The Council recently set up its Sustainable Development Committee which is promising to implement sustainable developments into its strategies and policies, adhering to UN sustainability goals.

However, this isn't the immediate action that XR Scottish Borders were hoping for.

"We believe this is not a good enough way to respond to an emergency crisis", said XRSB member Dr. Joanna Bredski.

"We’re pressing the Council to ‘play their part’ too - declare a climate emergency immediately and show much stronger effective leadership in addressing climate issues now."