Agenda, decisions and 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.

No apologies for absence were received.

Audio recording – 2 minutes 47 seconds

No apologies for absence were received.

Councillors Cathy Brownjohn, Dominic Griffiths, Chris Hinchliff and David Levett were absent.

To take as read and approve as a true record the minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on the 27 September 2023.

RESOLVED:That the Minutes of the Meeting of the Committee held on 27 September 2023 be approved as a true record of the proceedings and be signed by the Chair.

Audio Recording – 3 minutes 01 seconds

Councillor Steve Jarvis, as Chair, proposed and Councillor Amy Allen seconded and, following a vote, it was:

RESOLVED:That the Minutes of the Meeting of the Committee held on 27 September 2023 be approved as a true record of the proceedings and be signed by the Chair.

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 audio 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 a Climate Emergency. This was a serious decision and means 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.

Audio recording – 3 minutes 21 seconds

(1)        The Chair advised that, in accordance with Council Policy, the meeting would be audio 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 a Climate Emergency. This was a serious decision and means 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 00 seconds

There was no other business notified.

This note highlights proposed items scheduled in the work programme for the Cabinet Panel on the Environment for 2023/24, agreed at the initial meeting. The Work Programme at Appendix A highlights the agreed topics.

The Policy and Strategy Team Leader provided a verbal update on the Work Programme for the 2023/24 civic year.

Audio recording – 4 minutes 04 seconds

The Policy and Strategy Team Leader presented the Information Note entitled ‘Work Programme for 2023/24’ and the appendices, and advised that:

·       This meeting would focus on waste, as part of the programme agreed at the first meeting of the Civic Year.

·       The Herts Climate Change and Sustainability Partnership (HCCSP) had its annual event on 7 November, with North Herts leading on the biodiversity programme.

·       Feedback was provided at this event, and this was being reviewed and incorporated into current work.

·       The event had been featured on Channel 4 News.

·       The second round of the Solar Together scheme had now closed, with 872 people registered. At Monday 4 December, 856 people had applied and 175 had accepted an offer, with the majority of these adding battery storage.

·       41 people had applied for battery storage alone, with 8 people accepting the offer.

·       The most common reasons for declining the offer were cost and personal situation of the applicants.

·       The average cost of this round was 34% cheaper than market price, which was an improvement on the previous scheme.

·       Through the HCCSP, the team were drafting a climate related risk log to identify climate risks to services and the district as a whole. This would be brought together along with equivalent logs from all Councils in Hertfordshire, to identify mitigative actions that could be taken across the county.

·       A second round of Home Upgrade Grants had been made available to retrofit properties for those living in fuel poverty.

·       There had been three heat decarbonisation plans drafted and submitted as part of the Public Sector Decarbonisation scheme, which were for leisure sites, and a decision was due on these by mid-March 2024.

·       The team had continued to monitor the Climate Hive engagement page and had attended events across the district, including the Baldock Ecofest.

·       The Community Investment Fund was available to support community groups to build capacity, and climate projects could be included in this.

·       On the Action Tracker, completed actions had been removed, a couple of actions alongside other teams were on hold until the Waste Awareness Officer had been appointed and were looking into work around car idling with the HCCSP.

The following Members asked questions:

·       Councillor Gerald Morris

·       Councillor Louise Peace

In response to questions, the Policy and Strategy Team Leader advised that:

·       There had been little change to actions on the Action Tracker since the last meeting, other than the removal of completed actions. Those remaining may take longer to address.

·       A clearer idea of when an action had been completed was needed.

·       Action on enforcement to prevent idling was being delayed due to resourcing issues.

·       There was no further update on the Council action to reduce single use plastic or other items.

In response to questions, Councillor Steve Jarvis advised that:

·       The next meeting of the Cabinet Panel was to review achievements from the Civic Year and the review of the Action Tracker could form part of this.

·       NHDC could work with  ...  view the full minutes text for item 86.

To receive presentations on topics including waste disposal, waste service updates and waste at Christmas. Following this the Chair will lead a discussion with Members and public.

Presentations were received from Cllr Amy Allen, Executive Member for Recycling and Waste Management, and David Birley, Waste Aware Co-Ordinator – Herts Waste Partnership.

Audio recording – 17 minutes 36 seconds

The Chair invited Cllr Amy Allen, Executive Member for Recycling and Waste Management, to provide a presentation on waste at Christmas. Councillor Allen advised that:

·       As Christmas only happens once a year, it is often not thought about until the last minute, and this impacted on the ability to practice sustainable living at this time of year.

·       There was a tendency to indulge more, travel more and buy more over the Christmas period, which often led to waste. Having less at Christmas can be beneficial on both finances and carbon footprint.

·       It was important to think about sending cards, especially who to send these to and whether a physical card was necessary.

·       The ability to reduce waste at Christmas came from a position of privilege, as many families are having to reduce their expenditure all year round.

·       Poorer families often must choose a cheaper, plastic alternative to the sustainable option, as they do not have the financial capacity to afford to live sustainably.

·       Some things at Christmas cannot be controlled, but it was important to identify the areas which you can control and make changes to be slightly more sustainable.

·       It was not possible to control the actions of others.

The Chair invited David Birley, Waste Aware Co-Ordinator – Herts Waste Partnership, to provide a presentation on reducing food waste. Mr Birley provided a presentation supported by slides and advised that:

·       The Herts Waste Partnership existed to promote better understanding of waste, recycling and was reduction, with a specific campaign on food waste.

·       The costs associated with producing packaging that ends up in the waste system were increasing and therefore this was an incentive for manufacturers and consumers to think about materials used more cautiously.

·       There was a significant drop in waste generated between 2021-22 and 2022-23.

·       There were three ways of managing organic waste: In Vessel Composting, Open Window Composting and Anaerobic digestion.

·       Almost all organic waste material generated across Herts are processed within Herts, or just outside, and all three methods were available within the North Herts District.

·       Of the 49% of residual waste collected in Herts, 56% was non-recyclable with the other 44% being split between dry recyclables (14%) and recyclable organic waste (30%).

·       There were two types of food waste. Edible waste which had been brought for consumption but had not been eaten and unavoidable food waste such as peel, skin and cores.

·       The impact of edible food waste was that Councils would need to collect this, which would increase the cost to the residents. There was also an environmental impact of this kind of food waste, which contributed to climate change and biodiversity issues.

·       Councils collected more edible food waste than unavoidable waste.

·       It was important to identify what types of edible foods were being wasted so that a campaign can be organised to address this.

·       The cost of living crisis had caused people to reduce their food waste either through necessity or a realisation that whilst some  ...  view the full minutes text for item 87.

To receive petitions, comments and questions from the public.

The Chair led a discussion amongst Members and members of the public present on the topics raised at this meeting.

Audio recording – 85 minutes 23 seconds

The Chair invited Robert Sprigge, Knebworth Environmental Group, to provide feedback on the soft plastic recycling trial. Mr Sprigge thanked that Chair and provided the following points, that:

·       Collection bags and explanatory leaflets had been left by the kerb and these could have easily blown away. People may have received the bags without knowing what they were for.

·       The uptake on his road had been good and cannot think that previously everyone would have been saving this plastic to recycle at a collection point.

·       It appeared very easy for refuse workers to handle and manage collections.

·       It was said on a Facebook page that it was all combined with residual waste.

·       The feedback from the Knebworth Environmental Group had been positive, with the overwhelming view that it was easier than currently.

·       Some questions remained around whether making collection of soft plastics easier would encourage their use more widely rather than reducing.

·       There were also questions about whether the plastic bags used for the trial would be replaced when rolled out further, and why there was a disparity between what was collected at kerbside and what could be deposited at supermarkets.

In response to the points raised, Councillor Allen advised that:

·       A lot of residual waste was sorted through to reduce, as far as possible, what was sent to landfill.

·       Knebworth was the only place in North Herts participating in the trial at the moment.

·       The leaflets and bags had been delivered by crews on their normal rounds and therefore kerbside was the most suitable place to leave the collection bags and leaflets.

·       It was important to know what was in the bag and that the correct things were being collected.

·       There was usually a central bin which would collect in multiple loads to deposit into the waste vehicle at once.

·       Plastics would also be needed for some things and government was mandating the reduction of this, but this scheme for now prevented items going to landfill.

·       This scheme could not accept all plastics, as under the TerraCycle scheme, and was only for soft plastics currently. However, this could widen further, once what is manageable and easy for residents is better understood.