Agenda and minutes

The Joint Executive Advisory Board (JEAB)

RESOLVED

that Councillor Angela Goodwin be elected as Chairman for this meeting.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Andrew Gomm, Diana Jones, Fiona White, Graham Eyre, Jo Randall and Steven Lee.  There were no notifications of substitutions.

In accordance with the local Code of Conduct, a councillor is required to disclose at the meeting any Disclosable Pecuniary Interest (DPI) that they may have in respect of any matter for consideration on this agenda. Any councillor with a DPI must not participate in any discussion or vote regarding that matter and they must withdraw from the meeting immediately before consideration of the matter.

If that DPI has not been registered, the councillor must notify the Monitoring Officer of the details of the DPI within 28 days of the date of the meeting.

Councillors are further invited to disclose any non-pecuniary interest which may be relevant to any matter on this agenda, in the interests of transparency, and to confirm that it will not affect their objectivity in relation to that matter

 There were no declarations of disclosable pecuniary or non-pecuniary interests.

To confirm the minutes of the meetings of the Joint Executive Advisory Board (JEAB) held on 24 and 30 January (to follow) 2023.

The minutes of the meetings of the Joint Executive Advisory Board (JEAB) held on 24 and 30 January 2023 were confirmed as correct records, and would be signed by the Chairman at the earliest opportunity.

The Joint Executive Advisory Board (JEAB) considered the Borough’s Climate Change Action Plan, which sought to respond to the Council’s Declaration of a Climate Emergency in 2019, together with a covering report introduced by the Lead Councillor for Climate Change and Organisational Development.  The Executive Head of Organisational Development made some further introductory comments before the Action Plan was presented by the Climate Change Officer to inform the JEAB’s deliberations.

The covering report explained that, at a meeting held on 23 July 2019, the Council:

·             Formally declared a Climate Emergency that required urgent action.

·             Called upon the Government to provide the powers, resources and funding support to enable local, in addition to national, action against climate change.

·             Committed to working with partners across the Borough to evaluate and determine how and when the Council could become carbon neutral, with a target goal of 2030 for reaching net zero emissions.

·             Undertook to working towards rendering the Council’s activities net zero carbon by 2030.

·             Committed to introducing the necessary governance structures, investment plans and officer resources in order for the Council to build a strong foundation to deliver progressively ambitious carbon reductions across its operations.

·             Agreed to establishing a Borough-wide Climate Change Partnership consisting of representatives from all stakeholders across all sectors.

·             Committed to developing, within 12 months, a clear Action Plan and timescale for becoming net zero carbon across the Council’s operations by 2030, commencing with a review of what had already been achieved and plans already instigated.

·             Undertook to providing a joint member-officer training programme to enable a shared understanding of how to deliver the above commitments, commencing in September 2019.

The presentation covered the following points:

o      Global climate change and its local implications.

o      The legislative background relating to climate change.

o      Carbon emissions categorised into Scope 1 (direct emissions), Scope 2 (indirect emissions) and Scope 3 (other indirect non-Council emissions).

o      Gross emissions data relating to each Scope.

o      The amount of emissions per Scope.

o      The percentage by source of greenhouse gas emissions across the Borough in kilotonnes of carbon dioxide as at 2019.

o      The Council’s role in tackling climate change.

o      Action Plan example and prioritisation.

The following points arose from the ensuing discussion, comments and questions for forwarding to the Executive:

1.           A non-JEAB councillor expressed the view that, although the Action Plan represented an excellent review of the Council’s current position with regard to climate change, it was overly lengthy and resembled a ‘wish list’ of projects and undertakings that would be beneficial to achieve without any particular prioritisation of importance or delivery.  However, the Lead Councillor was of the view that the Appendix to the Action Plan outlining the actions, which extended to 32 pages, was not excessively lengthy and shortening it would result in excluding some important detail.  The structure of the Action Plan document had been modelled on other similar well received climate change action plan documents.

2.           Further to the reference to strategic priorities within the Action Plan,  ...  view the full minutes text for item 71.