Agenda item

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 had to be electric and use of hydrogenated vegetable oil in refuse freighters had been agreed.

·                Soft plastics recycling had been trialled across the district and would be rolled out to all areas as part of the new waste contract.

·                A Bee Corridor had been developed in Letchworth in partnership with John O’Connor and had won two Green Apple Environmental Awards. Another Bee Corridor would be introduced in Royston.

·                Five Green Flag Awards had been given to sites in North Herts which were Norton Common, Oughtonhead Common, Ivel Springs, Howard Park and Gardens and Priory Memorial Gardens.

·                Norton Common had also received a Green Award which was presented to the founder of Green Care at the North Herts Heroes Awards.

·                They had worked with the County Council to facilitate engagement on the Local Nature Recovery Strategy for Hertfordshire.

·                A government grant of £40,000 had been awarded to the Council to produce a strategy to decarbonise the Council Estate.

·                The first Staff Sustainability Survey had been carried out to inform future work on sustainability.

·                Additional EV charging points had been installed outside the District Council Offices to support the growing electric vehicle needs of the Council and to aid the transition away from petrol and diesel vehicles in their fleet.

·                The ECO Flex Scheme was launched to help North Herts residents access funding for insulation and other home improvement measures.

·                There had been promotion of free green home surveys and action plans through the SuperHomes project.

·                More North Herts residents had been able to install solar panels on their homes as the Council had participated in a second round of Solar Together.

·                Free bike repairs and vouchers for home cycle repair visits had been offered to residents at various events across the district.

·                The SSPD had been published to encourage developers to incorporate sustainability into their plans and designs for developments.

·                North Herts Prosperity Fund had funded various community sustainability projects including a low-emissions van for Green Care at Norton, the improvement of biodiversity at Triangle Community Garden, and a tech recycling project at Letchworth Garden Shed.

·                HCCSP had been given the Gold Award in the category of Green Public Service at the iese Public Sector Transformation Awards.

 

The following Members and members of the public asked questions:

 

·                Councillor Amy Allen

·                Councillor Bryony May

·                Deolinda Eltringham

·                Roger Lovegrove

·                Councillor Claire Strong

·                Dr John Webb

·                Julia Sonander

·                Councillor Tina Bhartwas

 

In response to questions, the Climate Change and Sustainability Project Manager advised that:

 

·                The SuperHomes project was managed by NEF and they were offering free surveys of homes across North Herts and Central Bedfordshire that would normally cost £250. As part of the project, residents received a home visit from a surveyor to identify their energy priorities and to inform them of easy fixes to their homes and the cost of implementing suitable energy harnessing or efficient technologies based on their needs.

·                Case studies of developments that had met gold, silver and bronze targets in the SSPD would be formed and following this, they may look at capturing data on these, however, building the case studies first would be the priority.

 

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

 

·                A draft of the Local Nature Recovery Strategy was currently being looked at by Members and officers at the Council. Once it had been through the amendment process, it would be circulated to Members of the Cabinet Panel who wished to read it.

·                She would liaise with the Waste Team for further information on soft plastics recycling and would advise the Cabinet Panel on this after the meeting.

·                Greenspace were proactive in gaining accreditation for Council sites, but she would ask their team if it was possible to raise the standards of smaller sites to achieve additional accreditations. There was also an action on Appendix B to the Information Note that specified reviewing Council assets to investigate implementing additional features where possible which would address this.

 

In response to questions, the Chair advised that:

 

·                There was misinformation on how soft plastics were not recycled due to a recent news article where air tags had been placed on soft plastics to track their location throughout the recycling process, however, the air tags were removed from the soft plastics and incinerated before the soft plastics could reach the end of the process.

·                All recycling produced waste as not everything could be repurposed.

·                Materials that were not specifically biodegradable could potentially last a very long time before they disintegrated.

·                Within the product packaging industry, there had been a push to move away from plastic packaging and to more biodegradable materials such as paper. 

·                Changes to refuse collection bins had made it more logical for residents to recycle as much as they could while keeping their waste at a minimum.  

·                A new Waste Communications Officer had been employed by the Council to educate North Herts residents on changes to waste and recycling and why they were important.

·                It would be dangerous to litter pick on land either side of the railway lines and would require a huge operation involving coordination with Network Rail workers and possible line closures to make it safe. Network Rail would be contacted again to see whether they would be willing to clear the litter close to the railway lines as it was an eye sore to the public, however, they would not be obliged to do this as it was private land.  

·                It would have been helpful if the litter either side of the railway had been cleared while the vegetation had, but it was recognised that the professionals who removed the vegetation did not have a responsibility to remove the litter.

 

In response to questions, Councillor Daniel Allen advised that:

 

·                The targets within the SSPD were not enforceable but there was an incentive for developers to meet them as they could advertise that they had been achieved and potentially gain more revenue when selling properties on the accredited development.

·                The Council took part in the Hertfordshire Infrastructure and Development Board that had representatives from district and borough councils across Hertfordshire as well as leading developers in the county. The SSPD had been discussed at the board and would be talked about again when the Council hosted the next board meeting. However, the direction of the SSPD once local government reorganisation had taken place would be unknown until they had more information on what this would look like.

 

In response to questions, Dr John Webb advised that:

 

·                There were lots of complications with the recycling of soft plastics around chemical additives, their reuse life and forever plastics that were impossible to destroy without producing Carbon in the destruction process.

·                Much of the vegetation close to the railway lines had been cleared for safety reasons, which might allow for litter to be removed from these areas more easily.

 

In response to questions, the Policy & Community Manager advised that the Council were already working in partnership with the ten other district and borough councils within Hertfordshire in addition to the County Council to contribute to combined activity to address climate change and sustainability matters. It would make sense to continue this partnership and any (award-winning) work that had been produced out of it in the future, regardless of the local authority structures that were established.

 

In response to questions, Councillor Mick Debenham highlighted that Watford Borough Council had thirty Green Flag accredited sites, therefore, there might be scope for further sites within North Herts to be awarded with Green Flag accreditation.

 

Councillor Daniel Allen expressed his delight at the publication of the SSPD and how it prepared the Council for receiving planning applications.

 

Councillor Claire Strong suggested that they should invite a Waste Officer from Hertfordshire County Council to a future Cabinet Panel meeting to give a presentation on the recycling process that took place in the County and how they could help to improve the process. The Chair agreed with this idea and arrangements would be made for this after the meeting had finished.