The Cabinet Member for Climate Change will be present to assist the Committee in understanding what actions have been identified as easy to do, what maybe more medium term, plus any high investment opportunities whilst also recognising the severe restrictions on the Council’s budget.
Minutes:
The Cabinet Member for Climate Change had been invited to attend the Audit Committee to provide an update and to explain what actions had been identified as ‘easy to do’, what may be more medium term, plus any high investment opportunities whilst also recognising the severe restrictions on the Council’s budget.
She explained that the emerging Climate Plan had passed through the Environment PDG and it was hoped that the final version would be brought before the Cabinet next month. This plan looked at where the Council was now within the context of the Council’s finances and examines what it would cost to make small changes right away. She was in regular contact with different Council departments where changes could be made and this work had already thrown up some opportunities.
The Plan also set out an approach where by an opportunity was examined in terms of what the benefits could be and what the financial cost would be to the Council.
There was a great deal of collaborative work taking place across Devon and a Citizens Assembly was planned for 2021.
As a priority, carbon literacy training would be taking place across the Council in areas such as housing and waste collection. Currently there were lots of conversations taking place regarding cycling and walking and they were working with the Solar Together Scheme.
Additionally a large part of the work in this area centred around the communication of all these initiatives. Plans and opportunities needed to be relayed both in terms of what the Council was doing but also what was happening in local communities to push this agenda forwards.
The Group Manager for Corporate Property and Commercial Assets explained that the Emergency Action Plan had been considered by the Scrutiny Committee in June and that there was a tracking process within the document to monitor the progress of actions within the plan, for example, identifying the ‘end of life’ of particular assets such as old boilers that could be replaced by gas boilers that could also be run on hydrogen.
Grant funding was being applied for to help improve the housing stock with a view to reducing our emissions on our housing stock, enhancing the assets energy efficiency further. Procurement and the supply chain was also being examined as part of this process. He reiterated the point that all officers would be trained and he informed the Committee that the website would be constantly updated regarding the actions taking place.
Discussion took place regarding:
· How the Leisure Centre recharging scheme was going? It was explained that the electric recharging points were very well used. Monthly data could be circulated to Members. This was an important element in trying to encourage green travel within the district.
· The comment was made that it was vital to look at the ‘whole life’ costs of introducing new initiatives, for example, the manufacture of a hydrogen boiler took three times the amount of energy than a traditional type, although the long term benefits needed to be weighed up against this.
· A guide book would be created to assist the public and residents.
· A lot of learning would take place with the Hydro Mills project that had been approved by the Cabinet in the previous week.