Minutes:
The picture across the borough at parish level in regard to tackling climate change was mixed. Some parishes, such as West Horsley/’The Horsleys’ and Shalford had been quite active, albeit activity was subject to the availability and commitment of volunteers and volunteers’ particular interests. In the case of ‘The Horsleys,’ a community group had been formed separate to the parish council. Locally, there was also a U3A group.
Anecdotally, SCC was thought to be constructing a toolkit for communities and parishes but this could not be confirmed or any detail provided as SCC had sent apologies for the meeting.
The GBC parish clerk liaison meeting which was held bi-annually was considered a useful way to engage with parishes. The meetings were held in March and September.
The council would wish to engage with climate change community groups as well as parish councils. The parish councils had a degree of resource available to them, in terms of finance and also parish council support networks such as the NALC and SALC, whereas community groups did not have such resources to access and would need to raise funds themselves to undertake local activities, so the council might endeavour to offer support to them in regard to comms.
The meeting heard from the Communications and Digital Manager that the council had a Comms Team but there was currently no specific resource for engagement work. However, individual service areas had local links and connections, and to an extent could assist to an extent with communications and engagement. The Economic Development Team, once staff had been recruited to it, had a useful role in engaging directly with local business which could once again be picked up.
It was observed that engagement work was also required within the council itself to encourage officers and councillors to collaborate with their own communities to reduce carbon and to be more aware of the issue.
It was suggested the new website would be a useful engagement tool in terms of providing inspiration, information and signposting to connect individuals and groups. Local groups might be asked to make contributions to the council’s website in regard to what activities had taken place or were planned, frequently asked questions or guidance in setting up and running projects or events. Oversight of such website content, running as a hub, could see the council ‘matchmaking’ and putting people together. It was noted that the University and SCC were undertaking development work on their websites with which the council’s website would connect.
The digital newsletter was another vehicle the council could use to get messages out and to share information. To connect, residents needed to subscribe to receive information from the council. There were plans to expand this offer and to include more video content to include interviews and discussions with councillors and partner agencies. There were currently 3,000 subscribers and numbers were growing. Comms would work with the CCO closely to ensure that best use of all the council’s media options was being used.
The Board found it challenging to put together an engagement plan at the current time without some dedicated resource available within the council. There was agreement that it was not the role of the CCO to solely undertake engagement with communities. Consequently, it was felt there could be a period of time, whilst certain vacancies remained, when the council must focus internally on its own ambition to reach net-zero by 2030.
It was noted that partner agencies such as SCC and Surrey Wildlife Trust were delivering engagement work locally and the council did play a significant role in sharing communications in regard to those activities. Some members of the Board had personal experience that the council’s Comms Team were successfully delivering news locally and that messages were being picked up, certainly at parish level. Those areas without parish councils were more poorly connected and this was a concern. Once again, the role of local councillors was considered important in this regard. Cllr Creese, who had joined the meeting remotely but unfortunately experienced some technical difficulties, shared concerns about unparished areas and especially in her ward of Bellfields and Slyfield.
In summary, the Board felt unable to arrive at any definite recommendations for the lead councillor given so many external partners were absent. Consequently, it was proposed that a breakout session be convened at a later date to troubleshoot community engagement as a topic with the anticipated outcome to provide a good understanding for the lead councillor and the Executive of what could be achieved in this regard both in partnership and in future with adequate resource in place.