Agenda and minutes

Councillor Sir Robert Atkins was elected as Chair of the Overview and Scrutiny Climate Change Sub-Committee for 2023/24.

In his absence, Councillor Peter Cartridge was elected as Vice-Chair of the Overview and Scrutiny Climate Change Sub-Committee for 2023/24.

The Corporate Director Environment, Mark Billington, has submitted the draft Climate Change Strategy for the sub-committee to review.

Members are asked for their comments on the review and these will be taken back to officers, and be reviewed at the next meeting.

The Corporate Director Environment, Mark Billington, submitted a report summarising the draft Climate Change Strategy which was attached at Appendix 1 of the agenda pack.

Sammy Gray, the Climate Change and Environmental Projects Officer (CCEPO), introduced the report.

She explained to members that the climate change team had been working on the strategy for several months. There had been two previous council action plans on climate change; however, with updated local government guidance over the years, the council’s own action plans required an update. This was also particularly relevant with the review of the council’s Local Plan, which was ongoing. Planning Inspectors would use the Climate Change Strategy to show that the council was taking action on climate change in all aspects of the council and not weighted only on planning.

She explained to members that there were eight different action plans, to which each of the eight objectives were linked to. They developed these through best practice methods from other councils similar to Wyre and that scored high on the Council Climate Plan Scorecards. This, alongside the marking criteria for these scorecards, formed into the eight objectives set out in the strategy.

In terms of costs, she told members that not all actions were costed, as the impact of inflation and other external factors was still unclear. Some actions had exact costs where possible, and others used a key to indicate approximate costings.

She noted that it was an ambitious strategy, and that it would not be possible to fund all the actions set out; the council would be reliant on external grant support.

Actions were currently split into themes by how much the council could influence these actions, such as those within the council’s control. Following the meeting, officers would start prioritising actions into high, medium or low priority. Mitigation actions would also be prioritised to reduce emissions rather than offsetting emissions.

In terms of monitoring the action plans, the CCEPO explained that they were live documents and likely to change. Officers will plan to update them annually and each action would have their own measures against them. The sub-committee could then use these measures in their reviews to aid officers. Any changes made would be included on an action log.

The Climate Change Strategy would be subject to a public consultation, ensuring public involvement and engagement. This was still to be confirmed, most likely through an online consultation in the New Year. Key stakeholders would also need to be involved but the mechanism would still need to be confirmed.

Officers anticipated that following the first meeting of the sub-committee, a redraft would commence after comments from other officers and members, with a final check in December to then send the strategy out for consultation in the New Year. This would allow the sub-committee to review a more final version at their meeting in December 2023, and review comments from the consultation at their meeting in March 2024 with a final sign-off by Full Council in April 2024.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.

The Democratic Services Officer will give a verbal update to the sub-committee on their request for information on how and if the sub-committee can make a submission to the Local Plan review process.

The Democratic Services Officer, Daphne Courtenage, gave a verbal update to the sub-committee on the possibility of submitting a consultation response on the council’s Local Plan.

The DSO explained to members that following the meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee in July, she had followed up on members’ request to submit a response to the Local Plan. After discussions with planning officers, it was agreed that individual submissions when the public consultation was open was the best way to make specific comments. Officers would soon clarify when exactly the public consultation would take place; this would be confirmed through the Local Development Scheme (LDS), which was anticipated to be published in the following months. She said to members that climate change matters were planned to be baked into the Local Plan, and it was also a part of the Climate Change Strategy. She recommended that the sub-committee wait to see what the LDS proposed for the public consultation, and that perhaps the sub-committee could help to advertise the consultation and could make representations to the Planning Policy Working Group.

Councillor Baxter explained to the sub-committee that building regulations were expected to change from 2025 for future home standards.

The Corporate Director Resources, Clare James, has submitted a report informing the sub-committee about the delivery of the suggested Climate Change Sub-Committee Work Programme 2023/24. Daphne Courtenage, Democratic Services Officer, will introduce the report and respond to questions and comments from councillors.

The Corporate Director Resources (S151 Officer), Clare James, submitted a report to the sub-committee setting out their suggested work programme for the remainder of the municipal year 2023/24.

The Chair expressed to members the need to recommend a review topic for the sub-committee, and suggested they consider the recommendation of a task group on electric vehicle charging points.

The Democratic Services Officer, Daphne Courtenage, introduced the report. She pointed members’ attention to the scoping document for the proposed task group on electric vehicle charging points, attached at appendix one of the agenda pack. Within the recommendations, it had been included for members to consider this scoping document and discuss whether they would like to commission a task group on this topic. She did point out to members that they did not have to commission a task group straight away; going through the strategy, they might find something they believed was a higher priority to focus on. She also pointed members to their terms of reference and the scrutiny work prioritisation guide included in the agenda pack to support them in discussing potential review topics.

Members agreed that they would like more information on electric vehicle charging within the borough and specifically with the council’s own charging points. This was to be brought to the next meeting and a decision on a task group made at a future meeting.

Members noted the report.

The date of the next scheduled meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Climate Change Sub-Committee is the 2 December 2023.

The next meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Climate Change Sub-Committee was scheduled for Thursday 7 December 2023.