Agenda and minutes

To elect a Chairman for the municipal year 2023/24

Cllr M. Fletcher was duly elected Chairman of the Environment PDG for the municipal year 2023-2024.

(Proposed by Cllr B. Holdman, Seconded by Cllr C. Adcock)

no other nominations – Carried unanimously.

To elect a Vice Chairman for the municipal year 2023/24

Cllr B. Fish was duly elected Vice Chairman of the Environment PDG for the municipal year 2023-24.

(Proposed by Cllr G. Czapiewski, Seconded by Cllr J.Poynton)

no other nominations – carried unanimously.

The Chairman stated that he would take the Climate and Sustainability Update next.

To receive a report from the Climate and Sustainability Specialist which documents progress against the Climate Action Plan.

Cllr Natasha Bradshaw (Cabinet Member for Climate Change) addressed the PDG.  She said that Climate Change affected all departments across the Council and all Councillors and everybody had a part to play. The Council was committed to get to Net Zero by 2030, she had been impressed at how far the Council had come already and wanted to thank the officers. There was an enormous task on the Council’s hands, however, she was aware of the great enthusiasm throughout the Council. Partnership working would be a key to achieving this and the Council was looking at Climate Action in two ways; within Council Services and also across the District. The latter was extremely challenging but progress included two extremely impressive projects to decarbonise heating and cooling systems at Exe Valley and Lords Meadow Leisure Centres.

Following this the Group was presented with, and NOTED, a *report to update on the Climate Action Plan (CAP) and the wider Climate and Sustainability Programme.

Consideration was given to:

·         The Corporate Project Manager had applied for funding for Culm Valley Leisure Centre for a detailed design for decarbonised heating and cooling.

·         Passive House Social Housing and Affordable Housing at Post Hill.

·         Working with community groups was very productive and inspirational, for example the Mural at the Pannier Market, tree planting and other various initiatives.

·         The Climate and Sustainability Specialist has been running training workshops and getting officers up to date with energy use and data. The Council has cut electricity usage at some of its key buildings by about 21% since 2018/19, unfortunately gas usage had not gone down so there is still work to do there.  The decarbonisation project would hit that figure very squarely.

·         Officers would be running workshops on various projects and topics such as planning policy and decisions, renewable energy, Energy Champions etc.

·         The Net Zero Advisory Group will be reconstituted. The Clerk observed that Member Services awaited parties to put names forward for that group.

The Officer then answered questions from Councillors:

·         Carbon footprint. The Annual GHG Emissions by Category (Annexe A figure 1) – the orange dashed line was the “hoped for” trajectory i.e. what we need to achieve to hit net zero by 2030. The black line showed how we were actually doing including a rise in emissions for the year 2021/22.

·         Item 3 on table 3 of Annexe A to the report – The Climate and Sustainability Specialist was arranging a project group update for the relevant Cabinet members on renewable energy e.g. the hydroelectric scheme. An update would follow that.

·         Green Homes Grant Local Authority Delivery Scheme (3.4.1). The Council were working in partnership with other agencies such as Exeter Community Energy, the peoples path to free advice about retrofitting of insulation etc. On the Council’s Climate and Sustainability Website there were a whole range of links to places where you can get information. Of the 149 home installations, councillors asked what percentage of the properties that equated to? The Officer replied that the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

To agree a start time of meetings for the remainder of the municipal year.

The Chairman proposed a start time of 5.30pm – carried unanimously

To receive any apologies for absence and notices of appointment of substitute Members (if any).

Apologies were received from Cllr M Jenkins. Cllr A Glover attended via Teams.

To record any interests on agenda matters.

Members were reminded of the need to make declarations where appropriate

Cllr C. Adcock declared a personal interest, he is a Director in South Somerset Community Energy Society, (a Community Benefit Society).

To receive any questions relating to items on the Agenda from members of the public and replies thereto.

Note:   A maximum of 30 minutes is allowed for this item.

There were no questions from members of the public.

To consider whether to approve the minutes as a correct record of the meeting held on 14^th March 2023.

The minutes of the meeting held on 14 March 2023 were NOTED

To receive any announcements that the Chairman may wish to make.

The Chairman thanked the PDG for electing him as Chairman and said he was looking forward to working collaboratively with all members of the PDG across the board.

To receive a report from the Deputy Chief Executive presenting the Revenue and Capital Outturn figures for the financial year 2022/2023 for both the General Fund (GF) and the Housing Revenue Account (HRA).

The Group had before it, and NOTED, a * report from the Deputy Chief Executive presenting the Revenue and Capital Outturn figures 2022/23 for both the General Fund (GF) and Housing Revenue Account (HRA).

The contents of the report were outlined and a high level summary provided specific to this PDG as follows:

·         On the General fund the Council overspent by £190,000 and on the Housing Revenue Account it underspent by £312,000 both of which should be regarded as a good achievements in the current economic circumstances and pointed to a good level of Budget Management.

·         The cost of living crisis had impacted the Council with a higher pay award for staff, staff turnover, vacancies and higher than normal sickness levels requiring hiring of temporary staff.

·         There had been some investment during the year for example Bin It 123.

·         There had been significant levels of grant funding to run the energy rebate schemes.

·         With regard to the report the specific page numbers in the pack to refer to were pages 34 Grounds Maintenance, 41-42 Property Services & 45-46 Waste.

·         There was minimal variance with regards to Grounds Maintenance. With regard to Property Services the underspend was due to some planned maintenance not being needed and some not being done due to staff vacancies, those funds would go back into the Reserves so that the funds are there to do the work when needed.

·         The notable variance in Waste was due to the funding of the Bin It 123 scheme which was funded out of reserves, increases in fuel costs and additional costs in terms of salaries and agency staff to cover vacancies. That increase in costs had been offset by increased income in things like Green Waste, Trade Waste, the money the Council gets from, for example, recycling materials.

·         The Council had also received a higher refund from Devon County Council due to its higher recycling, there was less to put into landfill so DCC could share the saving with Mid Devon DC. – the refund is part of the service budget and so becomes a variance which went into reserves.

Discussion took place regarding:

·         In relation to paragraph 3.63 relating to General Fund Housing and how the Council could make its own housing stock more sustainable? – The Climate and Sustainability specialist stated that there was a constant allocation of capital funds to maintain and improve Council stock – they wouldn’t be able to retrofit to Passive House but depending upon the type of house, each one would have the potential to retro fit to a certain standard.  Some of them have been insulated and then retro fitted with air source heat pumps for example. Some residences are not suitable because they cannot be insulated and draught proofed to the relevant standard, but each archetype has opportunities identified and depending upon what money is in the budget or what funds can be accessed by bidding from Central Government, then the Council is able to invest in those properties.  There  ...  view the full minutes text for item 11.

To identify items for the work plan for the Environment PDG.

It was asked if the PDG could look at the fee for the Garden Waste Bin and whether the fee could be paid in instalments? The Corporate Manager for People, Governance and Waste would provide an update at the next meeting in August.

The Clerk reminded the PDG of their Thematic area as set out in the Constitution at page 22, Article 8 – policy Development Groups, in order that the PDG could consider what areas they might want to build into their work programme.

Items suggested were:

·       The Data Processing Centre at the Exmouth Swimming Pool.

·       Hydro Electric Power

·       Linking the Planning Policy Advisory Group and Environment PDG to discuss  the subject of Anaerobic Digesters

·       Looking at a robust form of green support for all future planning applications. – Planning couldn’t insist on very much when it comes to “Green” considerations. Cllr Holdman feeds these issues into the Planning Policy Advisory Group. – Perhaps we could link this PDG with that group?

·       Developments around Cullompton and Air Pollution

·       The Corporate Manager for People, Governance and Waste said that with regard to Fly Tipping, the Annual Review and First Quarter Enforcement figures will be on the Agenda for the next PDG meeting in August.

·       Was there a tree planting plan? – The Climate and Sustainability Specialist answered that we hadn’t got a fund but we did have a target of the number of trees to be planted. – A tree planting event was a good idea, he would work with the open spaces officers.

·       Observation of Planning policies – people bought properties with large trees in the garden and then apply for them to be removed altogether rather than being pollarded – perhaps more trees need TPO’s to be applied to them.

·       The Climate and Sustainability Specialist informed the PDG that the Biodiversity duty to the Council has been upgraded and work is required this year. There may again be an overlap with the Planning Policy Advisory Group.

·       The Scrutiny Committee would be looking at Motion 583 Protecting Rivers and Seas, where there may again be overlaps with Planning and the Environment PDG. – This PDG may want to look at that motion.

·       Do we want to have a specific managing process as a specific focus group on ensuring that we can deliver net zero by 2030? The Climate and Sustainability Specialist said that this information was already included within the report that he would produce for each meeting of the PDG.

·       Strengths and obligations on biodiversity net gains – The Climate and Sustainability Specialist responded that there are two main elements. Firstly the obligation for a 10% minimum biodiversity net gain on new developments. Local Authorities if they wish, could write in a higher obligation. Secondly nature conservation and enhancement of biodiversity – Government though the Environment Act 2021 requires plans to set out what local authorities will do and how – the Council needs to set some targets etc. The Climate and Sustainability Expert will pull a report  ...  view the full minutes text for item 12.