Agenda item

The Executive Member for Environmental Sustainability explained that the Council already had a detailed living sustainability action plan in place, which was reviewed and published on a monthly basis. He said that this new strategy would add to the action plan by clearly and succinctly laying out the Council’s overall vision and approach.

The Executive Member for Environmental Sustainability said that importantly and unlike many local authorities’ strategies, the East Herts Climate Change Strategy makes clear what the Council was already doing and what changes would be assessed between now and 2030, in order to meet the goal in the climate change declaration of being carbon neutral by 2030.

Members were advised that the strategy had been subject to public consultation with 35 responses being received from individuals and community groups. The Executive Member for Environmental Sustainability said that analysis of the responses was included in the covering report. He said that he was concerned that the majority of respondents had disagreed that the Council had got the overarching priorities right. He welcomed comments from Members and said that the strategy had been rewritten to make clearer the links between the ambitions of the respondents and those of the Council.

Councillor Wilson asked if the Council had looked at other similar district councils’ climate strategies when developing its own and if so, how East Herts’ strategy compared to theirs. The Executive Member for Environmental Sustainability said that other Hertfordshire district strategies and other districts outside Hertfordshire had been considered which had been highly rated in the climate coalition’s recent review. He explained that the East Herts Strategy set out a road map for the actions that the Council would need to consider year by year to become carbon neutral by 2030.

Councillor Wilson asked if advice and schemes for councillors could be incorporated into the strategy, to help reduce the Council’s contributions to emissions etc by encouraging car shares, and by hosting civic events in places that were more accessible via public transport.

The Executive Member for Environmental Sustainability said that providing training for Members was already included in the environmental sustainability action plan as well as a timescale for this to be provided.

Councillor Frecknall asked if there was any plan to replace the electric vehicle (EV) car club and could this be included in the strategy. The Executive Member for Environmental Sustainability referred Councillor Frecknall to a detailed answer he had given on a related question from Councillor Crystall. He explained that the DEFRA funding had ended and the Council would soon be replacing five diesel vans with electric vehicles, which would be available for Officers as an e-car club and then available to the public once the e-car club was up and running.

Councillor Frecknall asked if there could be a direct referral to the re-writing and refresh of the District Plan in 2023, and in particular the inclusion of the Sustainable Planning SPD into the District Plan. The Executive Member for Environmental Sustainability explained that this matter was included in the table on page 24 of the draft strategy and he would be happy for this to be made clearer.

Councillor Symonds asked if there was any way for paper and plastic recycling to be separated. The Executive Member for Environmental Sustainability referred to the joint waste contract which was currently under review and said that there would be nine workshops to discuss matters such as how waste would be managed and collected separately from other materials going forward.

Councillor Wilson said that the access to the council building was not pedestrian friendly and it was not easy to cross the road at the entrance on Pegs Lane. He asked if representations could be made so that this can happen. The Executive Member for Environmental Sustainability said that any Member could directly approach the highways team or the lead Member at Hertfordshire County Council regarding road improvements.

Councillor Wilson asked if the responses to the consultation had suggested that the strategy was perceived as a PR exercise. He asked of there was any evidence from these responses that this perception was due to the following things:

·                Failure of the District Plan to impose strict environmental standards for the building of new developments

·                Built car parks (if you build car parks, cars will come)

·                Not written a Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plan (LCWHIP)

·                Charge for garden waste, meaning food waste had to go in the residual waste, causing an increase in emissions

·                Agreement to build over the River Stort causing environmental damage

·                Presiding over a car-dominated environment, with AQMAs still in place?

The Executive Member for Environmental Sustainability said that only one of the 35 respondents had made a specific comment that the strategy appeared to be a PR exercise. He said that two respondents had mentioned the term “green washing” and they had been particularly keen to see cars taken off the road.

Members were advised that figure four in the covering report clearly showed that a sizeable proportion of respondents regarded the issues referred to by Councillor Wilson as priorities.

Councillor Frecknall asked if there could be a removal of the sentence stating that the strategy only accounted for 0.4% of the carbon emissions across the District. He said that he did not believe that this struck the right tone given that the Members were elected leaders and they should be indicating what they could do, rather than what Members were limited to.

The Executive Member for Environmental Sustainability said the strategy was aiming to demonstrate that the Council’s direct emissions formed only a small part of the overall picture. He commented that the emphasis was on the Council using its regulatory powers and influence to bring about a wider change and said that he was open to the views of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee as to how best to make this point.

Councillor Frecknall asked if there was any way that the Council could show leadership and use more positive language in the strategy document rather than simply stating what the Council had achieved and what it could not do.

Councillor Snowdon said it was essential that the Council was seen to lead and that this did happen. He asked the Executive Member how confident he was that the Council would achieve carbon neutrality by 2030. The Executive Member for Environmental Sustainability said that he was very confident and Officers were fully engaged with the process to make this happen.

Councillor Curtis said that he would be cautious about removing the examples of good work that had already been achieved by the Council. He commented on whether consideration had been given to how the Council could show leadership by liaising with partners as to how they could reduce emissions. The Executive Member said that he was open to any ideas that the Overview and Scrutiny Committee could put forward.

The Head of Housing and Health assured Members that the action plan was not just focussed on the Council’s own work and emissions and the document did reach out to partner networks. He confirmed to Councillor Devonshire that the Council was working with housing associations in respect of moving towards achieving carbon neutrality.

Councillor Devonshire proposed and Councillor Curtis seconded, a motion that the draft Climate Change Strategy 2022 – 2026, as amended, be endorsed for consideration by the Executive for approval by Council.

After being put to the meeting and a vote taken, the motion was declared CARRIED.

RESOLVED – that the draft Climate Change Strategy 2022 – 2026, as amended be endorsed for consideration by the Executive and approval by Council.