To introduce Members to the climate and sustainability work ongoing at the Council.
Decision:
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.
Minutes:
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 and the new 4-year administration, to encompass other areas including ecological and biodiversity concerns.
The Policy and Strategy Team Leader advised that:
· There were three arms relating to biodiversity, biodiversity duty, biodiversity net gain (BNG) and the Local Nature Recovery Strategy (LNRS), all of which were required by the Environment Act 2021.
· Since January 2024, the Council had been required to consider what can be done to enhance biodiversity, not just conserve it.
· The Council was now required to publish objectives, policies and actions around this, and regular reviews are required, with the first review due in 2026.
· BNG requires developers to leave the environment in a better state that before development and needed to make a 10% net gain and applied to major developments from February 2024 and minor developments from April 2024.
· Net gains must be legally secured for 30 years.
· Some biodiversity would need to be offset off-site, as it will not be possible to develop net gain onsite, and in the worst case developers can purchase credits from national government, but these were not priced competitively to discourage this option.
· Herts County Council have established a site matching service, so that developers can review available sites for BNG.
· It would be possible for off-site BNG to be provided outside the district of the development, though the aim was to keep this as local as possible.
· The LNRS was a strategy to deal with nature recovery in a comprehensive way, looking at all aspects of nature, and was being led by County Council with support from districts and other stakeholders.
· The HCCSP was established in 2020 and comprises of the County Council, as well as all the district Councils within Hertfordshire, with an aim to drive changes across the county regarding Climate Change and Sustainability actions.
· The Hertfordshire Growth Board works with residents, communities, public sector organisations and businesses to achieve sustainable growth in the county.
· One of the new 6 missions of the Board was ‘Sustainable County’ and the HCCSP had a specific role in supporting this aim.
The following Members and members of the public asked questions:
· Councillor Mick Debenham
· Diane Ketcher
· Sue Lines
· Roger Lovegrove
In response to questions, the Policy and Strategy Team Leader advised that:
· There was no current policy regarding solar panels, but clarified that SPDs could not create policy themselves, but needed to strengthen existing policy.
· Developers would need to develop agreements with Councils to support the maintenance of sites identified for BNG.
· Consultation had not yet taken place with social housing providers regarding the installation of solar panels on their stock.
· A successful bid was made by settle previously to complete retrofitting measures on their housing, but this was more focussed on reducing waste.
Councillor Joe Graziano proposed a topic for a future meeting could explore the cross boundary issues with access to household refuse sites, which were now restricted by county boundaries, with rural residents needing to travel further afield to attend a tip.