Agenda and minutes

RESOLVED:

That the minutes of the meeting held on 22 June 2022 be approved as a correct record.

All actions were covered elsewhere on the agenda.

Sara Telahoun from Anthesis gave a presentation which outlined the work done to date in supporting the council to achieve its net zero ambitions, and a high level breakdown to the action plans and the recommendations based on the analysis and feedback received.  Anthesis had been commissioned to develop a greenhouse gas baseline to gain an understanding of greenhouse gases in terms of the largest sources and biggest impacts locally to determine where efforts should be focussed in terms of decarbonisation.  The Climate Change Action Plans have been developed which were used as the basis for this work and a number of different pieces of analysis were done, including workshops for officers, councillors businesses, residents and youth.  Feedback from the workshops was fed into the final recommendations which were delivered in March 2022 and arose from evidence based action planning,  A number of interventions and actions had been identified to enable the council to meet the scale of the challenge to become a net zero district by 2030 with details including details around type of actions, timescales and responsible services. Next steps and monitoring processes were also set out,  The Council now needs to review the action plans to select actions to take forward in alignment with the 7 themes within the plan, and then onto delivery.

Regarding delivery, work was required to identify action already underway such as LAD2, energy audits etc. Part 2 of the plan aimed to look at the borough as a whole and provide a framework for reducing emissions and tackling climate change.   It was queried how much the council could influence within the rural wider environment, and it was noted that DWT have been commissioned to produce a nature plan which included a section on land and issues such as tree planting. Reference was also made to the Derbyshire-wide Local Nature Recovery Strategy being developed by Vision Derbyshire.  With reference to the retrofitting of houses, the measures within the sustainable warmth competition aim to take properties up to a level C on an EPC certification (on or off grid).  Further information was awaited from Government around their plan for properties that could not be brought up to standard.  It was noted that in order to meet it’s own emissions targets, the Council is reliant on action from the Government,

RESOLVED:

That Sara be thanked for her presentation.

Comments were sought on the draft Climate Change Annual Report which had been circulated with the agenda.

The following comments were made:

·        Few targets for 2025 – 30 – a piece of work was on-going to identify realistic targets which would report back in the Autumn – a note would be added to the report

·        Some actions difficult to gauge and fix targets for – work was on-going with Heads to Service

·        P19 – Transition New Mills – amend to ‘they bought’

·        P12 – amend to ‘slight’ reduction in emissions

·        P16 – audit on potential for renewables – include something about initial audit and result – brief summary

·        P18 – reference to litter – include explanatory note about encouraging people to go out walking

·        Urban trees target – include reference to Ash tree diebacks

·        Recycling targets and residual waste targets – covered on page 12

·        P22 – amend to ‘choose’

Other matters raised included the results of the Renewable Energy study and the energy audit of our buildings.

RESOLVED:

That, subject to the above, the Climate Change Annual Report be noted.

The following award have been made:

·        Buxton Baby Bank – grant towards running costs

·        Glossop allotments – grant towards improving soil health

·        Men in sheds – grant towards repurposing old tools – making into bat boxes and troughs

·        Sustainable Hayfield – working in partnership with Marches Energy Agency to target houses for the Warmer Homes – leaning to be shared

·        Transition New Mills – grant towards a Thermal imaging camera

·        Whaley Bridge after school club – allotment and healthy eating club

Applications are now invited to Round 2 of the fund, deadline is 19 September, and the results of that round would be reported.

RESOLVED:

That the report be noted.

RESOLVED:

On a date to be determined in September.