Agenda and minutes

The meeting commenced with the Chair offering his condolences to the family of Councillor Roger Redfern, member of this committee, following his recent sudden death.

To receive Declarations of Interest (if any)

There were no declarations of interest.

To confirm the non-exempt minutes of the Improvement and Scrutiny - Climate Change, Biodiversity and Carbon Reduction meeting held on 22 May 2023.

RESOLVED – to confirm the non-exempt minutes of the meeting of the Improvement & Scrutiny – Climate Change, Biodiversity and Carbon Reduction committee held on 22 May 2023.

30 minutes maximum in total for this item.  Questions may be submitted to be answered by the Scrutiny Committee or Council officers who are attending the meeting as witnesses, on any item that is within the scope of the Committee. Please see the procedure below for the submission of questions.

Question from Mr Ring (in relation to the workstream on Decarbonising the Domestic Sector, within Derbyshire CC's Climate Change Strategy 2023-25):

“A draft action plan was published in April of this year, on "Homes fit for the Future: Decarbonising Derbyshire's Housing", setting out a major multi-sector programme of work beginning in May (2023), with the Council assuming lead responsibility in many of the actions proposed.   This followed an extensive consultation with Derbyshire householders and local community groups about the barriers to retrofitting. Early findings were considered by the Committee (in November of last year), when it was resolved to "co-design and co-deliver a programme of activities to support homeowners to undertake energy efficiency work". 

The closing date for comments on the draft Action Plan was 5^th May.  It is now July 2023. A final action plan has not been published. Many of the goals set out there cannot be achieved without this, and the extensive leadership from the County Council envisaged in the plan.

What steps (beyond increasing the capacity of the Officer Team in the Climate Change Section, which is in progress) do the Committee consider are needed to ensure immediate and effective leadership by the Council of this urgent programme of work to decarbonise Derbyshire's housing?”

Response:

“Thank you for your question, Mr Ring.  The County Council, along with Derbyshire’s district and borough councils, undertook extensive community engagement during late 2022 and early 2023 to understand the barriers that exist to Derbyshire’s homeowners undertaking energy efficiency retrofitting activities on their homes, and to ascertain the support that could be provided by local authorities and their partners to help remove these barriers. 

The Homes Fit for the Future Action Plan was developed in response to the engagement findings and, following the securing of support from the Council’s senior management and Elected Members, the draft Action Plan was shared with groups and individuals for comment between March and May 2023. Feedback received on the draft Action Plan has been positive and we do therefore not expect there to be any significant changes to the final version of the Action Plan, which will be signed off for delivery this summer.  

The Action Plan is seen as the foundation of a long-term strategy and approach to decarbonising Derbyshire’s housing. There are two crucial factors that will underpin the effectiveness and success of any approach: funding and partnership working.    

In terms of funding, running in parallel to the Action Plan development, officers have been exploring funding opportunities to enable the Action Plan and any subsequent long-term strategy to be delivered. This includes a collaborative bid with local authority partners in Derby, Nottingham and Nottinghamshire to help fund the provision of face-to-face and tailored retrofitting advice and support to homeowners. We are hopeful that this bid will be successful and expect to hear the outcome over the coming weeks.

In terms of partnership working, and recognising the scale of the challenge, the Action Plan needs to be delivered through joint  ...  view the full minutes text for item 19/23

Stuart Etchells, Principal Procurement Officer introduced the report, which had been circulated in advance of the meeting and gave an update on the implementation and impact of the Council’s new sustainable procurement policy and the use of the Social Value Portal.

The report was accompanied by a presentation that highlighted the three key principles of sustainable procurement and the three projects that had been trialled and were progressing to contract award:

•  Supply of Disposable Gloves;

•  Road Marking, Studding Works, and High Friction Surface

Treatment; and

•  Supply of Traffic Management

One of the key criteria identified in the Sustainable Procurement policy was to drive sustainability through the Council’s procurements and to begin getting the supply chain to commit to sustainable goals and measures.  A wider review of procurement documentation was under way and County Procurement were working with its provider, Procontract, to ensure availability of documentation on line where possible and to reduce duplication for suppliers.

Members asked a number of questions which around the social values, medium-term framework and SCAPE.

RESOLVED to note the update provided on the implementation and impact of the Council’s new sustainable procurement policy and the use of the Social Value Portal.

Daniel Ayrton, Assistant Director of Resources and Waste gave an overview of resource and waste management.  This was supported by a presentation which gave a review of performance; a summary of objectives and actions for 2022/23; a review of outcomes for 2022/23; an overview of national waste strategy landscape; and future actions.

The presentation gave a breakdown of the responsibilities of district, county and unitary councils with the County Council being responsible for green waste – it shared responsibility with other councils in the county around strategy. 

Performance data showed a steady decline in the proportion of waste being landfilled locally and nationally.  A 1.8 percentage point improvement had been seen locally however a marked reduction in residual waste had been seen due to the cost living crisis.  The presentation outlined the specific and country wide targets for the department and gave actions and objectives progress for 2022/23.  There had been a 42% carbon reduction since 2024/15 from landfill with an increase in recycling performance.

Climate outcomes were presented, some of which included carbon recycling, provision for the development of up to three re-use shops at the County’s recycling centres plus the creation of a new Waste Strategy and Engagement team.

Members initiated discussion around the differing practices experienced  around the county on waste collection, composting and monitoring of practises.  Mr Ayrton advised that councils need to consider a number of components in order to provide economical and practical systems including the introduction of incentives and stated that it would soon be unlawful to collect garden waste with other waste.  Fly-tipping was an area that needed consideration.

The Chair thanked Mr Ayrton for his presentation and attending Committee.

The Chair informed the Committee of the need to consider the draft Tree and Woodland Strategy; the final draft would go to Cabinet on 21 September 2023.  The Chair invited Committee members to form a working group where the draft Strategy would be considered.

The Chair made two suggestions for future consideration by the Committee:

·          Grey fleet – to consider the impact on the environment by the Council’s grey fleet (use of personal vehicles for business use), best practice and incentives in place to help improve effects; and

·          The decarbonising of Derbyshire’s homes.

RESOLVED – to

1.    Form a working group made up of Councillors Major, Hickton and Ford to meet with officers outside of the Committee to consider the draft Tree and Woodland Strategy and to circulate the draft document to all committee members; and

2.    Accept the suggestions made by the Chair for future consideration.