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.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Tina Bhartwas.

Audio recording – 1 minute 42 seconds

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Tina Bhartwas.

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 20 March 2024.

RESOLVED:That the Minutes of the Meeting of the Committee held on 20 March 2024 be approved as a true record of the proceedings and be signed by the Chair.

Audio Recording – 2 minutes 12 seconds

Councillor Amy Allen, as Chair, proposed and Councillor Mick Debenham seconded and it was:

RESOLVED:That the Minutes of the Meeting of the Committee held on 20 March 2024 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 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 agreed a change to the order of tonight’s agenda and Agenda Item 5 would now follow Agenda Item 7.

Audio recording – 2 minutes 59 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 advised of a change to the published agenda order and Agenda Item 5 would follow Agenda Item 7 and Agenda Item 8 would follow Agenda Item 9.

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.

There was no other business notified.

To receive petitions, comments and questions from the public.

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

Audio recording – 109 minutes 03 seconds

The Chair invited Sue Lines to address the Panel, and Ms Lines advised that:

·       There were missed opportunities to involve groups and residents in the process to address climate and sustainability issues.

·       Previously roadshows had taken place to engage regular people with actions ongoing and changes they could make.

·       It would be helpful to know what was being done to help ordinary people who did not have the funds to participate in some of the able-to-pay schemes that the Council had run, such as Solar Together.

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

·       Support for lower income families to retrofit homes has centred around funding available from central government, as the Council does not have the budget to support this.

·       There were several current schemes being run which would support lower income families to make their homes more energy efficient and the Panel would be kept updated on these accordingly.

The Policy and Strategy Team Leader provided a verbal update on the Work Programme for 2024/25 civic year.

Audio recording – 4 minutes 59 seconds

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

·       The Panel was established in 2019 with an aim to set a Work Programme which would encourage discussion with the public, who could share ideas with Officers and the Panel could refer these on for consideration.

·       There were several projects which the Council had ongoing, alongside the Hertfordshire Climate Change and Sustainability Partnership (HCCSP) and these would be discussed throughout the meeting.

·       The North Herts Prosperity Fund, part of the Shared Prosperity Fund, had been established and agreed at Cabinet earlier in 2024, with £210,000 to support parish and community projects. Criteria had now been developed for applications to this fund and was now open for applications through to 1 September 2024.

·       An allocation of funding had been made separately for unparished areas, such as town centres.

The following Members and members of the public asked questions:

·       Councillor Mick Debenham

·       Councillor Joe Graziano

·       Councillor Claire Strong

·       Councillor Bryony May

·       Diane Ketcher

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

·       A discussion had taken place on the future of the Solar Together scheme, and it was proposed that the Council would not take part in the next round in autumn as the uptake for the second round was lower than the first. It was hoped that a cooling off period would increase interest in uptake of the scheme.

·       The Home Upgrade Grant applied to the income of a household. A request had been made to increase the level of household income at which residents would be able to access the scheme to £39,000, but this was refused as it was made part way through the scheme.

·       Information provided verbally was covered in the reports pack from the meeting and further information would be provided in presentations throughout the meeting, with slides circulated afterwards.

·       Discussions had been held between Officers regarding the roll out of the EcoFlex scheme and the resources required to support this, as well as what documentation was required. It was expected that this would move forward over the next few weeks.

·       Organisations who had already received funding from the Council for other projects would likely still be able to apply for further funds from the North Herts Prosperity Fund, but this would be confirmed, and the full criteria circulated to Members.

·       The application period was normal for this type of scheme and the application was straightforward, with broad criteria which groups could meet.

·       Funds allocated must be spent by the groups by March 2025.

·       The Community / Partnerships team would monitor applications and, should it be required, the deadline could be extended. However, there had already been applications received, and further discussions with potential applicants, and so it was unlikely the scheme would be undersubscribed.

·       It would need to be explored whether BIDs could make applications to the Prosperity Fund scheme.

The Chair advised that Morrisons also had  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

To introduce Members to the climate and sustainability work ongoing at the Council.

The Climate Change and Sustainability Project Manager, the Policy and Strategy Team Leader and the Policy and Strategy Trainee provided a presentation to introduce Members to the climate and sustainability work ongoing at the Council.

Audio recording – 26 minutes 18 seconds

The Climate Change and Sustainability Project Manager, the Policy and Strategy Team Leader and the Policy and Strategy Trainee provided a presentation to introduce Members to the climate and sustainability work ongoing at the Council.

The Policy and Strategy Trainee advised that:

·       The Council had declared both a Climate and Ecological Emergency and set out actions which needed to be taken to address these.

·       There was a commitment to place environmental responsibilities at the centre of policymaking at the Council, and this meeting would focus on this area, rather than financial sustainability.

In response to a question from Mr Roger Lovegrove, the Policy and Strategy Team Leader advised that the Sustainability SPD was not specifically on the agenda, but that a work scoping item was, and the SPD could be discussed as part of that.

The Climate Change and Sustainability Project Manger advised that:

·       His role was to pick up some actions contained within the tracker and ensure that these were worked on, and implemented, where possible.

·       Most actions at the Council are driven by the Climate Change Strategy, which had three main focusses, taking action on the Council emissions, enabling actions to support residents and communicating and engaging others.

·       An Officer group had been established to ensure cross-Council representation, feed into strategic work and to identify gaps in current policies.

·       This group included representation from key areas, such as Property Services, Planning, Enterprise and Community/Partnerships.

·       A major source of emissions from the Council was the leisure centres in the district and several actions had been taken to address this.

·       Any changes in nation planning policy would be reflected in the SPD when adopted.

·       Changes had been made to the fleet at the Council and this was now predominantly electric vehicles, with infrastructure also installed to support this.

·       The Green Spaces team, along with contractors, had been implementing policies across the district, including the introduction of bee corridors.

·       The Solar for Business pilot scheme had been introduced and it was hoped that 5 businesses would sign up to this initially.

The Policy and Strategy Trainee advised that:

·       The North Herts Climate Hive was established in March 2023, and was a platform to update residents and Officers of ongoing relevant actions, funding streams and sustainability tips.

·       Monthly briefings were provided to the Executive Member, and this was shared through the Members Information Service (MIS) and at the Staff Consultation Forum (SCF).

·       Further internal updates were provided through the Hub, new starter inductions and as sessions delivered as part of ongoing Officer development.

·       That Council had been successful this year with a £7.7million bid to the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme (PSDS) to decarbonise the leisure centres in the district. This scheme would include replacing existing boilers with air source heat pumps, retrofit energy efficiencies measures and installation of solar panels. The project was expected to be completed by March 2026.

·       A review of the Climate Strategy was started following the all-out elections in May 2024  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

To review the current progress made by the Panel against the Action Tracker.

The Policy and Strategy Team Leader led a review of the Environment Panel Action Tracker.

Audio recording – 130 minutes 00 seconds

The Policy and Strategy Team Leader led a review of the Environment Panel Action Tracker and advised that as this was a new civic year, the Policy and Strategy team would review the tracker and its presentation to make it more actionable and measurable.

Councillor Claire Strong suggested that items included which do not have direct actions should be removed altogether.

The Policy and Strategy Team Leader led a discussion with the Panel regarding the the Work Programme and possible topics for future meetings.

Audio recording – 119 minutes 21 seconds

The Policy and Strategy Team Leader led a discussion with the Panel regarding the Work Programme and possible topics for future meetings, which could also be provided outside of the meeting via email.

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

·       John Webb

·       Councillor Claire Strong

·       Roger Lovegrove

The following points were raised during the discussion:

·       Hertfordshire had a responsibility for many of the chalk streams in the world and the protection of these and whether funding could be sourced from central government or international organisations.

·       An application had been submitted for Oughtonhead by Affinity Water to build a nitrate filtration plant and extract water from the site. This needed to be monitored and any impacts on the River Hiz identified.

·       Oughtonhead was one of only two locations in North Herts where fresh water can be collected from the surface.

·       A review of communications to be produced to support the new waste contract would be a useful piece of work for the Panel to conduct.