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.

Councillor Lisa Nash was absent.

Audio recording – 5 minutes 13 seconds

There were no apologies for absence.

Councillor Lisa Nash was absent.

To take as read and approve as a true record the minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on the 2 April and 17 September 2025.

RESOLVED: That the Minutes of the Committee meetings held on 2 April and 17 September 2025 were approved as a true record of the proceedings and be signed by the Chair.

Audio Recording – 5 minutes 17 seconds

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

RESOLVED:Thatthe Minutes of the meetings of the Committee held on 2 April and 17 September 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.

(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 advised that section 4.8.23(a) of the Constitution did not apply to this meeting.

(4)         The Chair highlighted the final agenda item which was to consider suggestions of items for future meetings, and asked Members and members of the public to consider any items that they may wish to suggest ahead of this item.  

Audio recording – 6 minutes 20 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.

(4)       The Chair highlighted the final agenda item which was to consider suggestions of items for future meetings, and asked Members and members of the public to consider any items that they may wish to suggest ahead of this item.

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 – 7 minutes 17 seconds

There was no other business notified.

INFORMATION NOTE OF THE POLICY & STRATEGY TEAM LEADER

This note highlights the topic for this Cabinet Panel meeting as well as a Council Activity Update, and Action Tracker Review (at Appendix A) for the Cabinet Panel on the Environment.

Officers from the Policy and Strategy Team provided a verbal update on the Information Note entitled ‘Council Activity Update and Action Tracker’.

Audio recording – 7 minutes 25 seconds

Officers from the Policy and Strategy Team presented the Information Note entitled ‘Council Activity Update and Action Tracker’ and advised that:

·             A summary of Council activities relating to sustainability, including key progress made on Sustainability Strategy Actions had been provided within the Information Note.

·             Progress had been made on the first phase of the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme relating to leisure facilities, and preparations for the second phase relating to other Council assets had begun.

·             The Sustainable Communities Grant had awarded over £62,000 to six local organisations across the district to support sustainability projects since its launch last year.

·             Over 650 residents had registered interest for the third round of Solar Together and 113 offers for Solar PV had been accepted so far, which included one business for battery storage.

·             An estimated 63,295KG of CO₂ would be saved per year from the 72 completed solar installations so far.

·             The Climate Hive, which now had over 920 subscribers, continued to keep subscribers up to date on events, general Council activities and more relating to biodiversity and sustainability.

·             The Local Recovery Nature Strategy would be launched at the Hertfordshire Nature Summit on 27 January.

·             Actions for the Sustainability Strategy 2025-2030 were being monitored quarterly by the Climate and Sustainability Officer Group, in addition to the Political Liaison Board.

·             Hydrogenated vegetable oil had been implemented for use in all refuse vehicles and hire vehicles until the arrival of electric refuse vehicles.

·             New EV charge points had gone live in car parks across the district, and further connections to the grid would be made either this month or next.

·             The Warm Homes Local Grant continued its progression, and the scheme had been publicised in the Winter Outlook magazine to reach more eligible residents.

·             Further areas were in consideration for reduced mowing regimes to improve biodiversity.

·             A mandatory sustainability e-learning module for Council staff had been launched in December to address one of the Sustainability Strategy Actions. The training had been tailored to Officers at the Council to educate them on how climate change would affect the district and its biodiversity, and the adaptations that would be needed.

·             Good feedback had already been received on the e-learning module.

·             A free Council app had been launched in November which provided guidance on multiple subjects, with a focus on waste and recycling as part of a wider effort to improve recycling rates. The app also provided bin day notification reminders to residents and had 14,500 downloads so far.

·             A project to monitor the impacts of extreme weather events on Council services had been launched with key teams across the Council to ensure resilience to climate change and improve the ability to mitigate future impacts to services.

·             In response to a request from Decarbonise Letchworth, Letchworth Garden City Heritage Foundation were scheduled to give a presentation on retrofitting at the last Panel meeting in September, however this meeting was cancelled, and they had given this presentation to Letchworth Community Forum  ...  view the full minutes text for item 13.

To receive presentations from the following organisations:

1)           Letchworth Garden City Heritage Foundation – Environment Update

2)           Green Heat Coop – Community Energy

Presentations were received from Letchworth Garden City Heritage Foundation on ‘Environmental Updates’ and Green Heat Coop on ‘Community Energy’.

Audio recording – 25 minutes 1 second

The Chair invited Kris Karslake from Letchworth Garden City Heritage Foundation to give a verbal presentation on ‘Environmental Updates’. They thanked the Chair for the opportunity to present and advised that:

·             The work of the Heritage Foundation was guided by the aims within Strategy 2028.

·             One of these aims was financial resilience and to address this aim, they had successfully obtained funding through the Great British Energy Fund to conduct a feasibility study on their rural estate to assess the potential for renewable energy generation.

·             A contractor called Seen had been commissioned to carry out the study, and two sample locations with the highest suitability had been selected.

·             They were waiting to hear back from UK Power Networks on the infrastructure cost for those locations.

·             They were unsure what size solar array would be deemed feasible, however, it was revealed that a five-megawatt peak solar array would be enough to power 1,375 homes and require less than 1% of their rural estate.

·             Income generation from the project would be maximised to benefit residents through their charitable activities and grants programme.

·             It was still unknown who would design, construct, operate and maintain the solar array, or if a community share option would offer the best value.

·             Development of this kind on Green Belt land would also conflict with the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), unless the Heritage Foundation could clearly demonstrate that the benefits of a ‘Solar Meadow’ would outweigh the harms.  

·             Any proposal would also be affected by their charitable objective of preserving the environment and the Garden City ethos of local food production and guarding the countryside surrounding Letchworth.

·             A board paper would be presented to the Board of Trustees if one of the selected locations was deemed to be feasible.

·             Solar arrays were preferable on rural land rather than buildings as they could be reversible developments and support biodiversity improvements during their operation, whereas not all of their buildings were technically or economically suitable for solar panels.

·             They would progress to pre-application advice with the Council if UK Power Networks judged one of the sites to be financially sustainable.

In response to a question from Fiona Hughes, Kris Karslake advised that they were hoping to know by summer whether solar arrays would be feasible at the selected locations.

The Chair thanked Kris Karslake for their presentation and invited Fiona Hughes from Green Heat Coop to give a presentation on ‘Community Energy’. They thanked the Chair for the opportunity to present and advised that:

·             Green Heat Coop were a non-profit community energy business.

·             Community energy was about keeping the benefits of energy use in local communities, rather than losing them to large companies or hostile nations.

·             Not-for-profit companies or cooperatives that used democratic business models were used to invest in community energy in the form of renewable energy generation. 

·             They could also provide advice and services to residents related to home energy, and surplus funds from these schemes could be reinvested into  ...  view the full minutes text for item 14.

To receive petitions, comments and questions from the public.

The Chair led a discussion with members of the public on the presentations and Information Note provided at this meeting.

Audio recording – 1 hour 9 minutes 15 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.

To consider items for discussion at future meetings of the Cabinet Panel.

The Chair led a discussion to consider items for future meetings of the Cabinet Panel with Members and members of the public present.

Audio recording – 1 hour 9 minutes 29 seconds

The Chair led a discussion to consider items for future meetings of the Cabinet Panel.

The following Members and members of the public took part in the discussion:

·             Gilly Chegwyn

·             Roger Lovegrove

·             Sue Lines

·             Councillor Claire Strong

The following points were raised as part of the discussion:

·             The Council should liaise with the County Council and Government on a blue light response to a food crisis as reserve food provisions were very low in the UK.

·             There was no strategy to address the poor commuter parking in Letchworth and the increased pressures that development on the outskirts of the town would put on this. 

·             The effects of the National Planning Policy Framework refresh on the environment and planning policy should be discussed at a future meeting.

In response to points raised in the discussion, the Chair advised that:

·             Modern houses generally had less storage and garden space to store or produce additional food supplies compared to older houses.

·             The summary of the report by Tim Lang entitled ‘Just In Case’ that had been provided would be considered by Officers after the meeting.

·             Lack of parking demand after 7pm in the Garden Square Multi-Storey Car Park in Letchworth meant that it was not financially feasible to keep it open after this time.

·             Local Government Reorganisation in an environmental context could be discussed at a future meeting, however, members of the public could also contact the Executive Member for Local Government Reorganisation/Devolution in the meantime on this.

In response to points raised in the discussion, Councillor Claire Strong advised that the Garden Square Multi-Storey Car Park closed at 7pm due to past instances of anti-social behaviour. 

The Chair advised that suggested items would be considered, alongside Officers, for inclusion at future meetings of the Cabinet Panel.