Agenda, decisions and draft minutes

Members are required to notify any substitutions by midday on the day of the meeting.

Late substitutions will not be accepted and Members attending as a substitute without having given the due notice will not be able to take part in the meeting.

There were no apologies for absence from Members.  

Audio recording – 3 minutes 25 seconds

No apologies for absence were received from Members. 

To take as read and approve as a true record the minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on the 22 January 2025.

RESOLVED: That the Minutes of the meeting held on 22 January 2025 be approved as a true record of the proceedings and be signed by the Chair.

Audio Recording – 3 minutes 43 seconds

Councillor Amy Allen, as Chair, proposed and Councillor Claire Strong seconded and, it was:

RESOLVED:That the Minutes of the Meeting of the Committee held on 22 January 2025 be approved as a true record of the proceedings and be signed by the Chair.

Climate Emergency

The Council has declared a climate emergency and is committed to achieving a target of zero carbon emissions by 2030 and helping local people and businesses to reduce their own carbon emissions.

A Cabinet Panel on the Environment has been established to engage with local people on matters relating to the climate emergency and advise the council on how to achieve these climate change objectives.

A Climate Change Implementation group of councillors and council officers meets regularly to produce plans and monitor progress. Actions taken or currently underway include switching to green energy, incentives for low emission taxis, expanding tree planting and working to cut food waste.

In addition the council is a member of the Hertfordshire Climate Change and Sustainability Partnership, working with other councils across Hertfordshire to reduce the county’s carbon emissions and climate impact. The Council’s dedicated webpage on Climate Change includes details of the council’s climate change strategy, the work of the Cabinet Panel on the Environment and a monthly briefing on progress.

Ecological Emergency

The Council has declared an ecological emergency and is committed to addressing the ecological emergency and nature recovery by identifying appropriate areas for habitat restoration and biodiversity net gain whilst ensuring that development limits impact on existing habitats in its process.

The Council has set out to do that by a) setting measurable targets and standards for biodiversity increase, in both species and quantities, seeking to increase community engagement, b) to work with our partners to establish a Local Nature Partnership for Hertfordshire and to develop Nature Recovery Networks and Nature Recovery Strategy for Hertfordshire and c) to investigate new approaches to nature recovery such as habitat banking that deliver biodiversity objectives and provide new investment opportunities.

Declaration of Interest

Members are reminded that any declarations of interest in respect of any business set out in the agenda, should be declared as either a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest or Declarable Interest and are required to notify the Chair of the nature of any interest declared at the commencement of the relevant item on the agenda.  Members declaring a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest must withdraw from the meeting for the duration of the item. Members declaring a Declarable Interest, wishing to exercise a ‘Councillor Speaking Right’, must declare this at the same time as the interest, move to the public area before speaking to the item and then must leave the room before the debate and vote.

Change to Membership

On 21 March 2025, it was decided that Cllr Caroline McDonnell would replace Cllr Lisa Nash as a Committee Member on the Cabinet Panel on Environment. Councillor Lisa Nash will be a Liberal Democrat Substitute Member until the end of the Civic Year.   

(1)     The Chair advised that, in accordance with Council Policy, the meeting would be recorded.

(2)     The Chair drew attention to the item on the agenda front pages regarding Declarations of Interest and reminded Members that, in line with the Code of Conduct, any Declarations of Interest needed to be declared immediately prior to the item in question.

(3)     The Chair reminded Members that the Council had declared both a Climate Emergency and an Ecological Emergency. These are serious decisions, and mean that, as this was an emergency, all of us, Officers and Members had that in mind as we carried out our various roles and tasks for the benefit of our District.

(4)     The Chair informed Members that following a delegated decision taken on Friday 21 March 2025, Councillor Caroline McDonnell had replaced Councillor Lisa Nash as a Committee Member on the Cabinet Panel on the Environment until the end of the Civic Year.

Audio recording – 4 minutes 3 seconds

(1)   The Chair advised that, in accordance with Council Policy, the meeting would be recorded.

(2)   The Chair drew attention to the item on the agenda front pages regarding Declarations of Interest and reminded Members that, in line with the Code of Conduct, any Declarations of Interest needed to be declared immediately prior to the item in question.

(3)   The Chair reminded Members that the Council had declared both a Climate Emergency and an Ecological Emergency. These are serious decisions, and mean that, as this was an emergency, all of us, Officers and Members had that in mind as we carried out our various roles and tasks for the benefit of our District.

Members should notify the Chair of other business which they wish to be discussed at the end of either Part I or Part II business set out in the agenda. They must state the circumstances which they consider justify the business being considered as a matter of urgency.

The Chair will decide whether any item(s) raised will be considered.

There was no other business notified.

Audio recording – 4 minutes 56 seconds

There was no other business notified.

N.B. Councillor Dominic Griffiths joined the Zoom call at 19:37.

INFORMATION NOTE OF THE POLICY & STRATEGY TEAM LEADER

This note highlights the topic for this Panel meeting as well as a Work Programme and Action Tracker (at Appendix A) for the Cabinet Panel on the Environment for 2024/25. It also includes updates on sustainability work taking place within the council.

The Policy & Strategy Team Leader and Policy & Strategy Officer presented the Information Note entitled ‘Work Programme 2024/25’ including verbal updates on the achievements from the current year.

Audio recording – 5 minutes 5 seconds

The Policy & Strategy Team Leader and Policy & Strategy Officer presented the Information Note entitled ‘Work Programme 2024/25’ and advised that:

·                The third round of Solar Together had commenced and would be open until 4 April for expressions of interest. There was no obligation to continue with the purchase of solar PV or battery storage once registered. As of 31 March, 579 North Herts residents had signed up for this.

·                The Hertfordshire Climate Change and Sustainability Partnership (HCCSP) had been working with the MCS Foundation to develop a Retrofit Strategy as part of the Local Authority Retrofit Accelerator.

·                Development of the Local Nature Recovery Strategy was ongoing and the strategy had undergone a number of engagement events in 2024 with the most recent one held in February to discuss the draft. Public consultation on the draft would reopen later in the year.

·                Climate Hive, the Council engagement hub for climate and sustainability had 407 subscribers to date, and continued to update readers on relevant events, national environment days and the activities of the Cabinet Panel. As of April, Climate Hive would be provided on a different platform and subscribers had been informed of this change.

·                The ECO Flex Scheme had been launched in January 2025 with the National Energy Foundation (NEF) to support low income and vulnerable households in making their homes more energy efficient. Four applications had been received through this scheme and they had all been approved.

·                £1.5m had been awarded to the Council after a successful bid to the Warm Homes: Local Grants scheme. The funding would enable the Council to deliver energy efficient measures and low-carbon heating to those living in lower income households, particularly those with hard to heat, poorly insulated homes. Compared to previous schemes (ECO Flex or HUG2), a greater number of households would be eligible to apply for funding from this.

·                The Council had applied for phase four of the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme (PSDS) to fund the decarbonisation of North Herts Museum, Hitchin Town Hall and the District Council Offices. They would expect to hear back on this by May and they would keep the Cabinet Panel updated on this.

·                One action was ongoing on the Action Tracker for 2024/25 which was was to review the asks of Decarbonise Letchworth regarding retrofitting and Supplementary Planning Guidance. In response to this, planners were working on a Design Code for the district about what good design would look like. The Sustainability Supplementary Planning Document (SSPD) also addressed this action by encouraging developers to implement energy efficient measures on new developments. This had also been raised with the Chief Executive who had regular meetings with the Heritage Foundation Chief Executive.

The Policy & Strategy Team Leader and Policy & Strategy Officer then presented Appendix C to the Information Note entitled ‘Sustainability Achievements 2024/25’ and highlighted the following achievements in the last Civic year:

·                New waste and recycling contracts with environmental commitments including all vehicles that were 3.5 tonnes and under  ...  view the full minutes text for item 12.

To receive a verbal update on the draft Sustainability Strategy feedback.

A presentation was provided by the Climate Change and Sustainability Project Manager, Policy & Strategy Team Leader and the Policy & Strategy Officer on the feedback received on the Draft Sustainability Strategy.

Audio recording – 54 minutes 16 seconds

The Policy & Community Manager presented Appendix B to the Information Note entitled ‘Sustainability Strategy Draft Actions’ and advised that:

·                A public consultation on the Sustainability Strategy took place in March.

·                The Climate Change Strategy had been expanded into the Sustainability Strategy as sustainability was now a key council priority in the Council Plan. 

·                It covered many areas such as reducing emissions, climate change adaptation, biodiversity and cross cutting sustainability matters.

·                These four areas would be covered in the following presentations from relevant officers.

The Climate Change and Sustainability Project Manager provided a presentation on reducing emissions and advised that:

·                In the draft, there was a goal for the Council to achieve Net Zero by 2030 on its own operations which was also referenced in the Council Plan.

·                Within that target, they would be focusing on their own buildings, vehicle fleet and key contracted services including waste collection, leisure centres and grounds maintenance which accounted for 90.4% of all council emissions.

·                The biggest emissions contributor was gas usage from leisure centres and lidos which equated to 45% of all council emissions. Other key contributors were electricity use in leisure centres and gas use in council buildings.

·                9.6% of council emissions were from activities that the Council had less influence over such as staff working remotely and commuting. They had a target for these wider emissions to be Net Zero by 2040.

·                There were still gaps in their knowledge about understanding emissions that arose from IT and smaller contracts, as well as emissions related to Council Estate.

·                Key actions to reduce council emissions included delivering decarbonisation of leisure centres in North Herts by March 2026, implementing the use of sustainable low carbon fuels in heavy duty refuse collection vehicles, and wider measures to reduce fuel consumption in the waste collection service.

·                Other actions included decarbonisation of key council buildings, particularly the District Council Offices, Hitchin Town Hall and North Herts Museum.

·                Work would also take place with the Contracts Procurement Group to assess their supply chain of goods and materials and how they could utilise procurement to reduce emissions in this area. 

·                There was a longstanding target to achieve a North Herts Net Zero district by 2040. 

·                Key sources of district wide emissions from the biggest to smallest emissions contributors were transport, domestic, industry, waste, agriculture, commercial and public sector. Land use such as forestry had a slightly negative emissions contribution to the district.

·                They had limited influence to drive national action, but they had an important role to play in the district by place shaping new residential and commercial developments as the Planning Authority.

·                They could also engage in showcasing to influence district wide emissions by providing case studies of sustainability, for example developments that had met gold, silver or bronze targets in the SSPD.  

·                In addition, they could participate in partnerships to bring groups and stakeholders together to influence district wide emissions.

·                It was important for the Council to engage with residents through  ...  view the full minutes text for item 13.

To receive petitions, comments and questions from the public.

Members of the public took part in discussions on Agenda Items 5 and 6 at this meeting.  

Audio recording – 1 hour 48 minutes 19 seconds

The Chair advised that there was no specific participation from members of the public at this meeting, but that public participants had been included as part of discussions on Agenda Items 5 and 6.