Agenda item

This matter is the responsibility of the Portfolio Holder for Climate Change Cllr Peter Pilkington.

The purpose of the report is to provide an update in relation to the opportunity to create a climate change delivery partnership with Sedgemoor District Council for the benefit of both organisations.

The Council had the opportunity to create a climate change delivery partnership with Sedgemoor District Council for the benefit of both organisations.

The Partnership if approved would be established with Somerset West and Taunton leading on its delivery. The employees from Sedgemoor District Council will be seconded to SWT with SDC continuing to pay the associated costs of these employees and their proportion of the projects delivered.

A Member Consultation Panel would be created to represent the needs of both councils.

Somerset West and Taunton Council (SWT) and Sedgemoor District Council (SDC) have been in discussion at an officer level as to the potential benefits of joining up their Climate Change delivery activity.

Both Councils have approved the Somerset wide Climate Emergency Strategy and have an adopted localised action plan.

Many of the delivery ambitions are the same for both Councils and by sharing the project delivery resource creates an environment to centralise knowledge and experience, minimise duplication, and potentially deliver ambitions more quickly with the benefits of economies of scale.

The joined up service would acknowledge the sovereignty and prioritisation of both Councils as well as their independent finances. The attached governance diagram and section 5 of the report provides more detail on this.

The proposal considered the ways of achieving financial transparency. Through this process officers have excluded the option of the seconded resourced from Sedgemoor District Council only working on SDC project delivery. This option has only limited benefits to both organisations as there would remain a segregation of the works rather than combination and removal of duplication.

The proposal is for the team to work as a whole on the delivery of the agreed actions. This enables a crossover of knowledge and skills and prevents duplication. The proposed funding mechanism would see the contribution from SDC considered as a proportion of the new total and the work across the agreed priorities is delivered with that proportion back to SDC. The proposed contribution from SDC would be for two Project Delivery employees, this combined with SWT’s three would produce an allocation of 60% to SWT and 40% to SDC. This allows all resources to be shared and the benefit of the activities increase.

The proposal would see Sedgemoor District Council resources seconded to SWT and fit within the existing organisational structure for Climate Change shown at Appendix A1. This allows the benefits of working together to be established early, and bring forward the connectivity of our priorities preventing duplication.

Officers from both councils recognised the importance of Member engagement within this delivery partnership. The proposal being put forward is that the Somerset West and Taunton establish a joint Member Consultation Panel with appropriate cross party representation from each Authority.

The Panel is proposed to provide a means of engaging with each authority on a more detailed level, Appendix A2 shows a diagram of the proposed governance structure both for officers and Members.

The proposed make-up of the cross party Consultation Panel would consist of the Climate Change and relevant portfolio holder from SDC and SWT and two other Member nominations as approved by Full Council of each authority.

During the discussion the following comments and questions were raised:-

·        Both partners had the same levels of ambition in the partnership. More urgency was encouraged in addressing the climate change priorities.

·        4.13 of the report set out funding opportunities and bid writing was considered. The Committee emphasised on exploring and succeeding in bid opportunities, this was important to the future success in tackling climate change.

·        More information was requested around the Somerset wide implementation board alongside multi district project management.

·        More emphasis was requested in relation to how councillors were engaged and welcomed to form and be part of climate change projects.

·        The criteria of bids differed, some were open and some required a larger amount of detail.

·        The joint consultation panel was linked to the proposed partnership. This was represented by two Councillors and a portfolio holder in each partnership.

·        It was questioned what was required of the ecological strategist. This post would keep the Council focused on the Climate Change Strategy, making the biggest impacts on tackling climate change through projects ecologically.

·        It was questioned if the job description and role could be circulated to the committee.

·        Both Councils had a CNCR plan which had a crossover, both Councils had similar ambitions in their CNCR plan. The anticipated benefits was in shared resources for both Councils.

·        Individual Councils sovereignty remained and could therefore prioritise and make decisions on this basis. The arrangement didn’t prevent specific geographical work where needed.

·        Concerns were expressed that setting up new structures could slow progress down. The funding bid writer and ecological strategist roles were welcomed.

·        It was questioned why Mendip and South Somerset Councils were not involved in the arrangement.

·        Sedgemoor were looking at cross funding the Ecology Strategist post.

·        Two posts were proposed to be transferred from Sedgemoor, these were project officer and manager roles.

·        The proposed model didn’t prejudice any potential Unitary outcomes.

Recommendations

1. The Committee recommended that Scrutiny supported Executive in Somerset West and Taunton leading the creation and operation of a Joint Climate Change Delivery Partnership.

2. That impacted employees of Sedgemoor District Council will be seconded from Sedgemoor District Council to Somerset West and Taunton Council.

3. That a legal agreement is created for the partnership setting out cost and resource allocations, with delegated authority to the Director of External Operations and Climate Change, the Assistant Director for Climate Change, Regulatory Services and Asset Management, in consultation with the Climate Change portfolio holder to negotiate the final detail.

4. The creation of the Joint Consultation Panel with delegated authority to the Director of External Operations and Climate Change, the Assistant Director for Climate Change, Regulatory Services and Asset Management, in consultation with the Climate Change portfolio holder to create the Terms of Reference.