Maria Wood, Kristina Zaljic and Flora Clemett at the Town Hall

WILL council workers have to start sneaking in their own milk as the Town Hall moves to becoming a dairy-free zone?

The humble cheese sandwich should also be on a banned list, according to campaigners who lobbied councillors on Thursday night.

Kristina Zeljic, from the campaign group Animal Rising, presented a 31-signature petition to Islington’s full council meeting calling on members to switch to non-dairy milk in their tea and give cheese the boot for good.

She said they were busy collecting more signatures.

“When compared to the most impactful plant-based milk, dairy causes triple the amount of greenhouse gas emissions,” the neuroscientist, who lectures at City University and lives in Holloway,” Ms Zeljic said.

“It also uses 10 times as much land and up to 20 times as much fresh water than plant-based alternatives. The resulting levels of pollution are also much higher.”

A number of councils across the country have already gone completely vegan. Islington has a climate emergency commitment – made in 2019 – to take measures to be net zero on carbon by 2030.

At the meeting, Ms Zeljic described this as a “commendable landmark decision” but said Islington lacked action over banning animal products altogether.

“We asked the council to go plant-based a year ago and were told that you would be ‘happy to investigate this possibility in the future’,” she said.

“We believe the time is now right for this change. Last year we saw devastating wildfires, extreme heat, and mass migrations across the world driven by global heating.

“According to research from Oxford University, switching to a fully plant-based diet is the single most effective thing an individual can do to reduce their environmental impact.

“We are asking the council to acknowledge the devastating impact that dairy has on the environment.”

Many other UK councils including Oxford City, Enfield, Cambridge City have switched to plant-based catering.

A council spokesperson said: “We have already committed ourselves to only providing vegetarian food and were rated ‘green’ by the Vegan Society for the steps we have taken to be inclusive of veganism. We were among only 19 local authorities commended by the charity.”