Agenda and minutes
PDF 248 KBVenue: The John Meikle Room - The Deane House. View directions
Contact: Sam Murrell, Email: s.murrell@somersetwestandtaunton.gov.uk and Jess Kemmish, Email: j.kemmish@somersetwestandtaunton.gov.uk
Webcast: View the webcast
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Apologies
To receive any apologies for absence.
Additional documents: Minutes: Apologies were given by the following committee members, Cllrs S Coles who attended the meeting via Zoom, Cllr R Lees who was substituted by Cllr J Hassall, Cllr A Pritchard who attended via Zoom and was substituted by Cllr I Aldridge and Cllr J Lloyd who was substituted by Cllr Whetlor.
The Portfolio Holder for Housing, Cllr Fran Smith, also gave their apologies. |
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Minutes of the previous meeting of the Community Scrutiny Committee
To approve the minutes of the previous meeting of the Community Scrutiny Committee held on Additional documents: Minutes: The committee resolved to approve the minutes of the previous meeting held on 6th January 2022. |
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Declarations of Interest
To receive and note any declarations of disclosable pecuniary or prejudicial or personal interests in respect of any matters included on the agenda for consideration at this meeting.
(The personal interests of Councillors and Clerks of Somerset County Council, Town or Parish Councils and other Local Authorities will automatically be recorded in the minutes.)
Additional documents: Minutes: Members present at the meeting declared the following personal interests in their capacity as a Councillor or Clerk of a County, Town or Parish Council or any other Local Authority:-
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Public Participation
The Chair to advise the Committee of any items on which members of the public have requested to speak and advise those members of the public present of the details of the Council’s public participation scheme.
For those members of the public who have submitted any questions or statements, please note, a three minute time limit applies to each speaker and you will be asked to speak before Councillors debate the issue.
Temporary measures during the Coronavirus pandemic Due to the temporary legislation (within the Coronavirus Act 2020, which allowed for use of virtual meetings) coming to an end on 6 May 2021, the council’s committee meetings will now take place in the office buildings at the John Meikle Room, Deane House, Belvedere Road, Taunton. Unfortunately due to capacity requirements the Chamber at West Somerset House is not able to be used at this current moment. Following the Government guidance on measures to reduce the transmission of coronavirus (COVID-19), the council meeting rooms will have very limited capacity. With this in mind, we will only be allowing those members of the public who have registered to speak to attend the meetings in person at the office buildings, if they wish. (We will still be offering to those members of the public that are not comfortable in attending, for their statements to be read out by a member of the Governance team). Please can we urge all members of the public who are only interested in listening to the debate to view our live webcasts from the safety of their own home to help prevent the transmission of coronavirus (COVID-19).
Additional documents: Minutes: There was no public participation. |
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Community Scrutiny Request/Recommendation Trackers
To update the Community Scrutiny Committee on the progress of resolutions and recommendations from previous meetings of the Committee. Additional documents: Minutes: The committee noted the Request and Recommendation trackers. |
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Community Scrutiny Forward Plan
To receive items and review the Forward Plan.
Additional documents: Minutes: The Committee noted the Community Scrutiny Forward Plan. |
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Executive and Full Council Forward Plans
To review the Forward Plans of the Executive and Full Council.
Additional documents: Minutes: The Committee noted the forward plans. |
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Report of the Task and Finish Group on Council Housing Zero Carbon Retrofit
This is the final report of the Task and Finish Group chaired by Councillor Dave Mansell.
This matter is under the responsibility of Executive Councillor for Housing, Cllr Francesca Smith
Covering Report Author: Marcus Prouse – Specialist – Governance and Democratic
Additional documents: Minutes: Cllr Mansell gave a presentation on the work of the Zero Carbon Retrofit Task and Finish Group:
· The Task and Finish Group was set up by the Scrutiny Committee before it was spilt into two separate Scrutiny Committees. · Membership of the Task and Finish Group wasCllr David Mansell, Cllr Norman Cavill, Cllr Ian Aldridge, Cllr Alan Wedderkopp and Cllr John Hassall. The group was supported by officers. · Eight online meetings were held. Presentations were given by officers as well as from representatives of external organisations such as Sanctuary Housing. · The group sought to look at ways to undertake zero carbon retrofits and looked at what would be needed to achieve zero carbon and carbon neutrality. · The group looked at whole house retrofit which involved retrofitting the whole house. This could be beneficial as only insulating one area, such as the loft, could lead to damp in certain areas of a house. · The group consideredEnegiesprong which looked like a good method for retrofit. Also looked at what other councils were doing and other retrofit approaches. · Near the end of the group’s work a guide called the LETI retrofit guide was published. · The group looked at a comparison between the cost of gas and electricity. There were levies on electricity which made it more expensive even though it was the cleaner fuel. A comparison of heat pumps and gas boilers was also undertaken. · Announcements about government policy and funding had been made recently. · Energiesprong used a wrapping layer around the outside of a house to insulate it. This was both more beneficial than interior insulation and was also designed to be more cost effective. There were a number of local authorities working with and using Energiesprong and Energiesprong had government support, however, the cost of Energiesprongwas currently still relatively high. · An explanation of the recommendations in the report of the Task and Finish Group were given. · The following was highlighted from the recommendations the Task and Finish Group put forward; a need for a guide for the net zero retrofit of the council’s housing stock,the potential for work to be done in stages based on a whole house approach, a target date needed for gas boilers to cease being fitted in the Council’s housing stock, solar and thermal panels being provided where there was a business need for it, a report being produced on what would be needed to achieve a net zero retrofit programme and funding being sought for carbon retrofit. · It was raised that there was greater use of electricity planned, for example to power cars and for heating. Greater energy efficiency was therefore needed, as well as more zero carbon electricity and more renewable energy production. · The use of the LETI guide for retrofit was encouraged.
The Chair thanked Cllr Mansell for his presentation.
The Portfolio Holder for Climate Change ... view the full minutes text for item 76. |
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Annual Update of CNCR Progress
This matter is the responsibility of Executive Councillor for Climate Change, Councillor Dixie Darch
Report Author: Jonathan Stevens, Assistant Director Climate Change, Regulatory Services and Asset Management.
Additional documents: Minutes: The Portfolio Holder for Climate Change introduced the report:
· The Council’s CNCR Plan was approved in October 2020 and built into that plan was an annual review report to be produced to review progress. · The report focused on the 180 immediate actions in the CNCR Plan.
The Assistant Director for Climate Change raised the following points:
· This was the first update on the CNCR plan. There were 180 actions included in the report. The main successes were highlighted. · Work against the plan was progressing quickly and there were some updates since the report was published. Such as the fact that all the Council’s fleet cars would be electric by the end of the year and extensive woodland creation projects having been progressed. · The Council was today named highest scoring district council in the UK by Climate Emergency UK who have scored all council action plans. · The CNCR was a live document and constantly updated. The appointment of officers to own updating the progress on actions was currently being undertaken. · Some commitments were challenging but there were some which were easy steps. The plan was held by the Climate Team, but actions were taken by services across the Council. Some actions in the plan were reliant upon the action of external bodies but the Council would encourage those bodies to take action. · There was difficulty in quantifying the amount to which these actions reduced the districts emissions, however, work on developing an approach to calculate this was being worked on.
During the debate the following points were raised:
· It was asked if the actions which proved the greatest challenges to complete were those where the Council did not have direct control and had to rely on external bodies. Officers responded that this interpretation was a fair assessment. Cllr Deakin left the meeting at this point (20:14). · It was expressed that there had been difficulty in persuading parish councils to install electric vehicle charging points even where funding was available. It was asked if more could be done to encourage parish councils to install charging points. Officers responded that the grants for electric vehicle charging points for parish councils were to be relaunched in the coming weeks and this would be communicated to parish councils. · It was asked if grants for electric vehicle charging points were also available to the unparished area. Officers responded that they were. The Portfolio Holder for Climate Change added that those who had off road parking would likely install their own electric vehicle charging points and that those at places such as village halls would be used by those who did not have one at home. · It was raised that some public water taps had been installed by town and parish councils and that their work should also be recognised. Officers responded that working with parish councils, community groups and other organisations would be vital to achieve net zero and agreed that their work ... view the full minutes text for item 77. |
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To Consider Reports from Executive Councillors - Councillor D Darch
To consider reports from Executive Councillors on their respective Portfolios;
i. Councillor Dixie Darch – Climate Change
3.2 of the Scrutiny Terms of Reference state that the Scrutiny Committee may review and scrutinise and ask questions of the Leader, lead Councillors, the Executive in relation to their portfolios. Additional documents: Minutes: · The Portfolio Holder asked the Assistant Director for Climate Change to update on an application for funding for trees to DEFRA. The Assistant Director for Climate Change informed the committee that the Council was a partner in a bid that was submitted to DEFRA. The bid was for an exciting multi-year project and would be similar to the Forrest of Cornwall project. The project would span the whole of Somerset and all the other district councils in Somerset and Somerset County Council had been some of the partners involved as was Somerset Wildlife Trust in addition to other organisations. · It was asked if the funding would provide money for the purchase of land for planting trees. Officers responded that some of the grant funding could be used to purchase land and that a full plan for the project would be put together if the bid was successful and grant funding received. · It was asked whether there had been any accidents involving e-scooters and whether the Council could be held liable for any injury from accidents from e-scooter use. Officers responded that the operator's insurance covered any accidents, and that the Council did not have any liability. Statistic on incidents and accidents were not yet available but would be shared once they were available. · The Chair raised that a report on e-scooters would be coming as anitem to a future meeting of the Community Scrutiny Committee. Officers responded that this would be coming to the Community Scrutiny Committee meeting in March.
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