Agenda item

This report is the responsibility for Executive Cllr Peter Pilkington, Portfolio Holder for Climate Change.

The Somerset Climate Emergency Strategy (the Somerset-wide Strategy) has been produced in partnership between SWT, Sedgemoor, Mendip and South Somerset District Councils and Somerset County Council together with expert inputs from a number of external bodies.  The Carbon Neutrality and Climate Resilience Action Plan (the CNCR Action Plan) has been produced as this Council’s own response to declaring a Climate Emergency in February 2019 and inclusion of addressing climate change as the Council’s number one priority in the Corporate Strategy.

The item was introduced by Councillor Pilkington and further statement read out by Councillor Whetlor setting out the work undertake by the Climate Change working group and what the strategy sought to address working in partnership with County and District colleagues.

The Strategy Specialist presented the report.

The Somerset Climate Emergency Strategy (the Somerset-wide Strategy) had been produced in partnership between SWT, Sedgemoor, Mendip and South Somerset District Councils and Somerset County Council together with expert inputs from a number of external bodies. The purpose of the Strategy was to provide a strategic overview of the key issues facing Somerset and the Councils in relation to the climate emergency and the shared ambition to work towards carbon neutrality for the county of Somerset by 2030 and to provide a strategic basis for partnership working going forwards on addressing the issues together, where a shared approach would be appropriate and improve the chances of delivery. The Strategy included three strategic goals, a number of proposed outcomes relating to nine workstreams/sectors and a high level action plan to guide the direction of travel. The Strategy mentioned that each district would produce its own detailed action plan to supplement/complement the strategic one. For SWT, this was the Carbon Neutrality and Climate Resilience (CNCR) Action Plan.

The Carbon Neutrality and Climate Resilience Action Plan (the CNCR Action Plan) had been produced as the Council’s own response to declaring a Climate Emergency in February 2019 and inclusion of addressing climate change as the Council’s number one priority in the Corporate Strategy. The CNCR Action Plan identified a total of 345 potential actions to progress over the next ten years based on current understandings, but focused on a Y1 action plan with Y2+ routemaps, with an intention for the plan to remain iterative and to be reviewed on an annual basis, which will evolve as the understanding of what was necessary and possible improved. The CNCR Action Plan sat alongside the Somerset-wide Strategy as the detail for how the Council proposed to address the specific issues, meet the goals and deliver on the outcomes that the Somerset-wide Strategy identified.

The Council has already committed to working towards carbon neutrality by 2030, and as such, the Somerset-wide Strategy and CNCR Action Plan adds detail as to what is necessary, the actions and projects to be developed and help to identify the places where we can look to focus partnership working going forwards. The CNCR Action Plan is already informing internal resourcing and project development. The formal adoption of both the Somerset-wide Strategy and CNCR Action Plan is now being sought to improve corporate and public visibility and inform the 2021 budget setting

During the debate the following points and comments were raised.

·        The District action plan was considered positive and received strong praise for the work undertaken to produce this from the strategy officer.

·        The taskforce and group still needed to be set out to inform members of the governance channels of the climate change agenda in the future.

·        Further detail was requested of exactly what this is, members were reassured that they would be part of the governance going forward.

·        Additional Leadership was considered necessary to acknowledge the scale of challenge in the future.

·        Further details around the budget were requested. £500k of funding was achieved from a rebalancing of reserves but in future years there was a commitment made that this would be hardwired into budget setting.

·        More certainty was encouraged on the budget going forward, to provide an indicative breakdown when the report is considered at Full council.

·        The local multi agency climate emergency task force had been set up to involve all councils to be included.

·        Somerset wide strategy was considered, this would include details around the Somerset Waste Partnership and their initiatives in tackling climate change.

·        Further information was requested in the Full Council report to provide more details on the working groups to take forward the strategy and action plan, including member involvement. As an alternative the committee were happy for this information to be brought back to a future scrutiny meeting before it is finalised.

·        Further guidance was requested over the priority of the list of actions and what the impact and achievement was for these actions

·        Tree planting proposals and increasing woodland was requested, recognition of this was understood along with the importance and enthusiasm for tree planting from the public.

·        Councillor Stone referred to a previous statement circulated to the committee in advance of the meeting setting where both strategy’s didn’t go far enough in addressing tree planning and developing community woodlands and orchards. A formal request was made to make an allocation of £50k out of the £500k climate change budget for the purposes of tree planting.

·        Work was being encouraged with parish councils support to consider areas that could be earmarked for rewilding schemes.

·        Awareness of Carbon neutrality along with the need to absorb more carbon than what’s emitted was an area of concern. More details of the plan of addressing carbon reduction and absorption was requested.

·        Various workstreams across the organisation would be factored in, with the need to work towards phosphate replacement and neutrality. Further innovation would be needed to address the implementation of new green initiatives.

·        Provisions in the local plan to increase strategic natural green space in housing developments were discussed, alongside promoting a more natural environment with additional open spaces for residents.

·        It had been established that 8 out of 10 members of the countywide Task and Finish Group supported the strategy.

·        Focusing on decarbonisation was a priority over other alternatives. Emissions were the urgency in terms of the immediate impacts and tackling climate change. Adaptation techniques were being explored as well as reducing carbon.

·        The countywide strategy to plant 55k trees was referred to, 1k of these trees were in the nursery ready to plant.

·        The principles of tree planting was supported but the specific budget allocation was considered and questioned.

·        Officers were congratulated on the strategy which was welcomed as a starting point.

The Scrutiny Committee recommend to the Executive that:-

2.1 The Somerset Climate Emergency Strategy progresses to Council for adoption.

2.2 The Carbon Neutrality and Climate Resilience Action Plan is approved.

2.3 A local, multi-agency Climate Emergency Task Force is established to aid delivery and implementation of the Carbon Neutrality and Climate Resilience Action Plan.

2.4 A recommendation is made to Full Council that a supplementary “Climate Change Fund” budget of £500,000 is approved within the General Fund 2020/21 Revenue Budget, funded from General Reserves, for the delivery of Somerset West and Taunton priority actions with delegated authority to the Director External Operations and Climate Change / Assistant Director Climate Change, Regulatory Services and Asset Management to agree those priority actions in consultation with the Portfolio Holder for Climate Change. Council also be asked to approve the principle that any unspent balance of this Fund at the end of 2020/21 be carried forward to 2021/22 financial year.

2.5 The Committee request that the report to full council gives more details for proposals on the groups to take forward the strategy and action plan, including on member involvement, or that these details are brought back to a future Scrutiny meeting before they are finalised.

2.6 £50k of £500k Climate Change fund (referred to in 2.4) to be allocated for tree planting.

The committee voted by majority in favour of recommendation 2.6 with three abstentions.