Minutes

Councillor Catherine Houston welcomed everyone to the meeting including Marieke van der Reijden, Joint Assistant Director Assets and Property who was in attendance to give a presentation about Energy Use for the GBC Estate.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Amanda Creese, James Jones, Richard Mills and Catherine Young.  Councillor Joss Bigmore attended as Councillor Young’s substitute which the Co-Chair, Councillor Houston permitted.

The minutes of the meeting held on 22 May 2024 were approved.

Matters Arising

Car Free Day

Ben McCallan (SCC) reported to the Board that local bus companies were unable to provide services for GBC’s ‘Guildford’s Cleaner Air Day’ on Sunday 29 September 2024.

Local Nature Recovery Strategy

The Board noted that the strategy was now in a consultation phase.  The Commonplace Site for Surrey Nature Recovery  can be fed into by all residents.  The framework proposal is being built off the back of the initial 7 engagement workshops Have Your Say Today - Local Nature Recovery Strategy - Commonplace.

The Group received a presentation by Marieke van der Reijden, Joint Assistant Director for Assets and Property regarding energy use for the GBC Estate.

The Board noted the following:

·        There were three main functions in assets and property; Asset Management – look after the tenanted estate and operational assets, also includes the Energy Strategy Officer; Building, Surveying and Engineering – looking after the repairs and maintenance and capital works and lastly facilities – looking after the day-to-day functioning of offices and depot mainly.

·        The Climate Change Action Plan was at the heart of the Asset Management Projects which included data collection for the carbon report which was produced annually.  Other projects were Estate Realisation which involved an overall reduction and a disposal strategy was underway for key sites, Spectrum redevelopment in which Assets had an advisory role and was overseen by Kelvin Mills, Joint Assistant Director for Commercial Services.

·        An Action Plan was also in place which included the constant updating of ‘Systemslink’ which monitored the spending on utilities across the Council per asset.  The data had taken a few years to collate and was used retrospectively so to assess the Council’s carbon footprint over the last year.

·        Grid Edge was but one of the options being looked at for energy management.  However, no work had been completed to assess our energy management needs.

·        An Energy Strategy Officer had been appointed and had been in post for the last 18 months.

·        An Emissions Reporting Working Group would be appointed fairly soon.  This work would be carried forward by the Utilities Officers Post.  ‘Laser’ was a company the Council used currently to forward buy its electricity and gas, and which also carried out critical checks on the bills the Council paid.  However, an officer was still required to double check the figures and to ensure that the Council was on the best energy tariff.  An ‘Invest to Save’ proposal would therefore be put forward for a Utilities Officer.  This would be a shared officer post with Waverley Borough Council.  They would also work with the Energy Strategy Officer to map emissions produced by the Council.

·         Improving data collection methodology was being facilitated by the fact that across the UK all electricity would be billed using market half hourly settlement, resulting in more accurate billing and better data availability.  This was to be implemented from April 2025 to October 2026. 

·        The Council was currently out of contract with its meter operator and data collector ‘STARK’.  A new contractor would soon be appointed.  The meter operator would analyse where improvements could be made on the Council’s energy use.  Meters would need to be replaced to half hourly on some Council properties and could be achieved via a ‘Cost to Save’ Mandate.

·        The Realisation Project at Millmead House was about improving upon the building’s energy use.  The glazing and air flow for example, were of a poor standard, and in climate change terms were construed as at the end of their life.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

The Board received an update from Nat Prodger, Climate Change Officer on the Action Tracker.  The Board noted that it was Nat’s intention to make the document more user friendly and convert it into a readable word version rather than the excel spreadsheet as it was currently.  Everything marked as ‘in progress’ would now be included in the climate change updates and any outstanding actions would be included in a very brief word document. 

The Board noted comments that two separate lists should be included in the future action tracker, one which listed outstanding actions and a second list which was comprised of actions completed. 

Kelvin Mills, Assistant Director for Commercial Services queried whether there was a deadline date by which actions would be achieved by.  It was noted that the actions were currently classified by ‘high’, ‘medium’ or ‘low’.   Nat confirmed that he tended to work through the high priority actions first. 

Lastly, it was noted that the Action Tracker would be reviewed in its entirety to ensure that the most relevant Assistant Directors, Lead Councillors and officers were assigned the appropriate action.

It was noted that Alastair Atkinson had already connected up relevant officers regarding Thames Regional Flood which had been confirmed prior to the meeting starting. 

Outstanding Items to progress:

Ben McCallan (SCC) - Thermal Imaging Operators Volunteer Scheme.

Nat Prodger to discuss biodiversity poor areas with Councillor Lucas and Hendryk Jurk, Parks and Countryside Leader.

The Board received an update from Nat Prodger, Climate Change Officer on the Climate Change Progress Report.  The report would be expanded upon in the future to include Council wide climate change progress incorporating key items such as the date by which the consultation for the Local Plan would finish or when the Corporate Strategy had been finished and finalised. 

The Board were reminded to review the climate change webpage.  Nat Prodger had already noted that the Climate Change Action Plan needed to be linked and that the ‘What can I do’ pages be made more visible.  Nat Prodger asked for any additional comments to be made so a list can be drawn up and passed to the web development team.

If the Board or External Partners had any comments on the webpages, please email Nat and he will collate these for attention by the Web Team.  A reminder email would also be sent to remind all Board members with the relevant link. 

The Co-Chair, Councillor Houston recommended that the website was included as a standing item on all future agendas so that the Board could monitor its effectiveness on promoting sustainability and climate change goals.     

The Group received a partner update from Ben McCallan (SCC).  It was noted that Sam Peters (Guildford Zero) was currently away and therefore Ben was reporting on his behalf. 

Guildford Zero had been asked to comment on Blackwell Solar Farm publicly as well as GEF. 

Guildford Zero was about to launch a shared working space for people working in climate, environment and energy which could be rented out and was a good way to support the Guildford Zero charity.  The office space would be in place in the next 2-3 weeks with private pods in which to hold meetings. 

The Board requested that this information was sent to the communications team so that it could be advertised internally. 

Lastly, Ben McCallan offered to support the work being undertaken by the communications team in running climate change conversations.   

The Board received an update on the work programme from Nat Prodger, Climate Change Officer.

 Setting carbon budgets was to be included in the work programme for the September or following meeting.

The Board noted that the promotion of sustainability ideas which was in the communications and engagement plan and Solar PV which was with regeneration and planning policy officers had not yet been covered.

To set up a meeting to discuss the work programme with the Co-Chairs, Councillors Catherine Houston and Jo Shaw, Councillor George Potter, Carrie Anderson and Nat Prodger. 

Martin Wiles from the University of Surrey found it difficult to attend at this time owing to a reoccurring work commitment. 

It was therefore suggested that an email poll regarding the starting time of future meetings was sent to members.   

The dates of the future meetings of the Board were noted as follows:

18 September 2024

20 November 2024

22 January 2025

19 March 2025