Issue - meetings

The Overview and Scrutiny Board are asked to consider the progress and current status of BCP Council’s response to Climate change the declared climate emergency.

This part of the meeting will be divided into two sections in the first section the Board has invited Council Officers, Portfolio Holders and Partners to attend the to respond to enquiries from Board members and other Councillors on current progress and future plans, including how the Council is progressing against its Climate action Plan.

Each Board member will be looking at a particular area of focus but all Board members may ask questions on any aspect of the Council’s response to climate change. The attached report provides a full scope for the session.

Following the questioning and investigation section Board members will consider and comment on the information received with a view to making recommendations or observations as appropriate.

The Chairman introduced the item and outlined how the enquiry process would work. A number of members of the Board had undertaken to lead questioning on specific areas. The areas of discussion were outlined in the scoping report which had been circulated to Board members and which was attached at Appendix B to these minutes in the Minute Book. During the enquiry session the issues raised included:

How the Council's leadership championed and directed action on climate change? The Board asked how the Portfolio Holder and the senior leadership team led the process of tackling climate change, how this was done on a daily basis and how that was targeted for each of the different departments. The Portfolio Holder advised that from his perspective the political leadership on this issue was very solid, as was the political support for the climate change agenda that had been put through. This was evidenced particularly financially, but also in the support for putting together the team that was now in place. There had been an increase in activity across the board. The Steering Group was making sure that everyone was pulling in the same direction and ensuring that the action plan had been a collaborative approach. The Leadership on this was extremely strong.

The Board asked about the liaison with different teams on a daily basis and how the ongoing work was being disseminated through managers to their teams and delivered.

The Head of Climate Action explained that currently the systems and processes in place were not necessarily the ones that needed to go forward. There was good engagement with directors, but this needed formalising and for it to be made clear how plans tied together to support an overall reduction. All actions would be tracked going forward and there would be a management control process to ensure things moved in the right direction.

More regular meetings would be useful to ensure that the emissions reductions were passed to the appropriate officers in different Directorates and that they were aware of the support that could be provided to them. The Strategic Lead for Climate explained that they had worked with different teams on a case-by-case basis, some teams required more support, and some needed specific support on practical solutions to reduce carbon emissions. It was suggested that it would be useful to have officer responsibility included in the internal version of the Climate Action Plan.

The Board asked how many Council buildings were now on a green energy tariff and how the Council was engaging with the commercial sector and public to encourage similar change – All Council buildings were now on a green tariff. The only non-green contract in place was Christchurch streetlighting, which was in place until 2031/32 but the Portfolio Holder advised that he was happy to take away Cllr A Hadley’s suggestion to push them to move towards a green tariff. 

The Council would look into how it could green up both commercial and residential centres, but it should  ...  view the full minutes text for item 145