Agenda item

An update from Cabinet Member Councillor Sally Povolotsky.

Cabinet member briefed the committee as follows:

At the end of June, we made some exciting awards to thirteen successful applicants of the Climate Action Fund. The Fund, which opened for the first time this year, was very popular and attracted a wide range of interesting and action focused projects.

The funding was aimed at projects which actively tackled climate change and/or enhanced biodiversity across the Vale, alongside increasing local communities’ awareness and knowledge of the climate emergency. We particularly welcomed applications from those at the beginning of their climate journey, as well as established local groups. The Fund was oversubscribed this year, with a total request of £77,000 from applicants, with a £50,000 fund available.

Out of the thirteen successful applicants, three projects were focused on energy, five on lifestyle changes including food and five on biodiversity and wildlife. The organisations that received funding will now also be invited to join a network to share experiences, highlight the success of schemes that  received funding and potentially collaborate on future projects. Cabinet member was very pleased to have visited the Abingdon Carbon Cutters / Abbey Buildings event on Saturday called ‘Plot to Plate’ around food, food waste reduction, and composting. It was inspiring and look forward to seeing what our other award winners do with their funding. Round two of the Fund was anticipated to open in Autumn later this year.

FOP/EAG feedback meeting

Cabinet member had also assumed the position as the Vale’s representative on the Future Oxfordshire Partnership’s Environment Advisory Group.  She attended her first meeting on 21 June, where the group received an update on the Pathways to Zero Carbon Oxfordshire (PAZCO) route map. Consultants had been appointed to take forward the work (City Science) and stakeholder workshops were being planned to take place during July. The five themes were:

–      Freight

–      Rural travel

–      Finance and Local Models of Finance

–      Domestic retrofit

–      SME support to decarbonise

The thematic workshops will focus on developing some of the longlist of actions needed to achieve the route map. The draft route map will be reviewed in draft by the EAG at their next meeting in late September.

The EAG also received a presentation from Good Food Oxford and the Food Strategy they have developed for Oxfordshire. There was clear alignment to climate change, and we know through the IPCC report this year that food systems contribute 40% of greenhouse gas emissions. Notably, the strategy having a whole theme on “Food for the Planet”. The strategy will be coming to Councils in Oxfordshire for endorsement.

We also agreed given the CCC and IPCC recommendations we needed to review our language within local authorities and start to stress the emergency we do face.

Woodland Creation Accelerator Fund

Cabinet member was pleased to update the committee that the Climate Action Team were working in partnership on an application into the Woodland Creation Accelerator Fund which was designed to provide financial support to increase the capacity of specialist skills within local authorities enabling them in turn to accelerate the delivery of tree planting and woodland creation commitments. The ultimate goal of ]the fund was to enable more trees planted particularly in winter seasons 2023/24 and 2024/25.

The Vale had identified tree and woodland planting as a key part of their response to the climate change. A lack of capacity to develop and design planting proposals, to consult widely, apply for capital grants and organise planting had been identified as a key barrier to progress. This fund will help us to address this capacity barrier.

• All upper tier authorities (County Councils) had been invited to apply for the £8 million fund.

• Oxfordshire County Council, the City and all District Councils were working in partnership to pull together an application to this fund for the maximum grant of £300,000. The window for submitting applications was very tight with completed applications having to be submitted by 8 July.  

• If successful, the fund will provide additional staff capacity to work with the partnership to look at opportunities for tree planting across public and private land throughout Oxfordshire.

• Cabinet member noted that Councillor Johnston was on the call and that he was keen to ensure we plant trees sustainably and this was something Cabinet member had been discussing with officers around Climate Appropriate and Resilient species, for example looking to the Southern Mediterranean species.

Performance reporting on the Climate Action Plan

Cabinet member noted that the committee were receiving an update on the performance reporting approach to the Climate Action Plan (CAP) tonight. Each quarter the Committee will receive detailed narrative against each action in the climate action plan to help the committee provide advice and guidance to Cabinet on progress or lack of, or prioritisation so Cabinet member was looking forward to receiving member’s feedback at the next CEAC meeting where we will review the progress made in Quarter 1 of this year.

EV Waste Truck trial

Cabinet member updated the committee on the following progress:

• The EV waste truck was trialled across the district in a mixture of rural and urban areas.
• It was identified very early on that it was struggling to complete a whole round if doing more than one load of collected material. A vehicle would normally do two and sometimes three loads in a day.
• With the current depot infrastructure, charging would take too long so coming back to charge mid shift was not an option, the vehicle had to be charged overnight.
• The vehicle completed around 60-70% of the round depending on the distance from the depot.
• The feedback from drivers was very positive because of how quiet it was although some considered it was too quiet. There was no specific incidents but there was concern that it was too quiet and could be an issue for other road users who may be unable to hear it. Drivers were also anxious that they may run out of battery power during the day.
• Whilst electric vehicle technology was improving rapidly at the moment the commercial vehicle market doesn’t seem to have an option for the type of work the waste service carries out. In our case mainly because of the round sizes and the distances needed to be covered in our rural districts. In a small urban area with less properties to cover then it might be a viable option.
• We needed to be conscious of our decarbonisation plans, and finding the right equipment for the job, but also think of a full circle approach with purchasing.
• Cabinet member was pleased to see the advancement in hydrogen technologies which seeing now opportunities in engine conversions and government investment in low and no carbon hydrogen generation.

Committee were welcomed to ask the Cabinet member questions.

• A discussion was had regarding buying second hand Internal Combustion Engines (ICEs) from cities, for example, to reuse unneeded vehicles. Some felt the efficiency of second-hand vehicles was always declining, but ICE conversion was suggested as an alternative. Cabinet member added that HVO (from processing cooking oil) was being trialled at Drayton Depot. Hydrogen had been reclassified by carbon output, and Harwell Campus was one of the first in favour of decarbonise hydrogen.
• A member suggested that route efficiency was being looked at for waste removal vehicles by being set to only turn left where possible on new efficient routes. Deputy Chief Executive for Place confirmed there was plans in place to do this in autumn.