Agenda item

Item introduced by Senior Climate Action officer. An opportunity for the committee to review progress on the delivery of the CAP, and to make any requests for further detail to be brought forward at future CEEAC meetings.

Cabinet Member introduced the report.

Developed with service areas, and approved by Cabinet recently, it was now before CEAC for consideration.

Cabinet member can take up any actions and comments raised by the advisory committee with Cabinet colleagues.

Committee commented on the following:

Theme 1:

• Cabinet member would ask the relevant Cabinet member regarding the status of the toolkit. (WOW3). Head of Policy and Programmes explained that this would be developed across quarter 2 and 3, and he welcomed members to email any comments and ideas for the toolkit.
• WOW6: Staff training – it was confirmed this was internal training. Cabinet member wanted to raise carbon literacy as training.
• WOW21: any progress on anti-idling? Cabinet member explained that there was no national policy to allow enforcement, particularly for contractors. Education was key to change attitudes to idling.
• Discussion had on electric cars, and coordination with developers to include EV chargers. Lack of robustness in policy on their installation, and whether the electricity supply was able to cope. Cabinet member explained that there were regulations in place to ensure safe installation, but we do not control building regulations. There were changes to building regulations to specify EV chargers. However, should we focus on encouraging new car ownership and parking or energy parks where people can utilise different fuel types whilst we transition.
• WOW17: Pool vehicles: can we encourage car clubs? Potentially a future topic for CEAC. Head of Policy and Programmes reminded that WOW17 itself was limited to corporate mileage.

Theme 2:

• SD2: Can we rethink waste collection ahead of contract change? Minimising mileage. Cabinet member responded that there was work occurring that looked at routing, however the actual waste created was another big issue that impacted the environment. Consideration will be given to bin collection days and frequency as part of these improvements. Members did discuss why fortnightly collections were important, and weekly for food waste, due to pest lifecycle issues. Food waste handling and waste collection was stated in DEFRA policy already.
• Discussion around plastic waste, and Cabinet Member explained that a lot of this was out of the district’s control. Repurposing plastic in the UK was important, but central government movement on this was needed. We needed to urge residents to consume less to begin with. New waste contract will be informed from what central government states we will need to do.
• SD9: Planning development webpages – energy efficiency considerations for small planning applications as well as large ones? It was confirmed that all applications were covered.

Theme 3:

• Some items had no progress, particularly due to the office move, for example, a staff green travel plan would not be created whilst staff were moving location. Climate and Biodiversity Team Leader explained that progress will be showing up in future quarters.
• Tree planting – were there any projects in the pipeline? Climate and Biodiversity Team Leader explained there were no applications yet for this season (Nov-March). Cabinet member hoped to create a database of local groups to improve communications and uptake of such schemes.

Theme 6:

• C11: climate focus network meetings – Cabinet member stated there were no delays foreseen, but members should encourage communication with their local groups to empower them despite the lack of funding.

Theme 7:

• OP6: landlord funding for retrofit: no requests, can we reach out more? Cabinet member explained that government funding for retrofitting had decreased, and the cost-of-living crisis impacted this.
• OP7: queried, detail to be expected in the quarter 2 report.