Agenda item

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 not be done by the Council alone. The Climate Leadership Board would include the major partners – including the biggest employers and influencers within the BCP area.  It was essential to engage with energy providers, commerce and transportation providers.

The Board asked if the Council was taking action on a commercial retail green energy proposition to the advantage of Council Taxpayers, and if so, what were these initiatives and how did they link to climate objectives. The Board was advised that the Council was in the very early stages of this process. It was agreed that energy providers and partners would be part of the Leadership Board. There were opportunities in this area, but these were in the very initial stages of being explored.The Head of Climate Action agreed that there were potential opportunities. There were a number of leased buildings which were not on a green tariff and there were potential opportunities to utilise roof space for solar panels. The Chief Financial Officer advised that the Council would need to ensure it worked with the financial code. The Portfolio Holder assured the Board they would be looking into this and would involve the Cabinet member support group on buildings and energy. A Board member commented on the increasing pressure on councils to fund their own services and suggested that perhaps there could be a challenge back through the LGA to allow us to do more to fund future development of council services. The Chief Financial Officer advised that he held regular meetings to ensure that any proposals were looked at in an early stage and that the system would be tested if necessary for the benefit of trying to achieve the ambition set out. A Board member questioned whether schemes such as Solar Together, which was not for commercial gain but negotiated as a group buy, were being considered and if not, could it be added to a list of potential opportunities. The Portfolio Holder confirmed that this was amongst many opportunities which could be considered.

The Board asked how the Council was adopting a clear and detailed strategic plan, and how it was mainstreaming climate change mitigation and adaptation? The Chairman commented that from the earlier report it appeared that there were two main elements; activities that the council does and controls for itself and areas of activity within the general conurbation. It appeared that a task list had been formed without having a strategy from which a detailed plan should be formed. The Board asked whether there should be a clear strategy in place so it could be easily seen where we were and the progress which had been made.The Board was advised that there was already a process in place which helped, this was the decision impact assessment. Every decision taken was assessed for it impact on climate change. Rather than one overall plan there were number of plans. It was also suggested that ideally there would be a regional climate change risk assessment and regional decarbonisation plan. The Portfolio Holder also advised that he didn’t feel it necessary to pause work just to get a structure in place when it was known what needed to be done.

The Board asked how this was monitored though an organisational perspective, how was everyone informed of where we want to go and how we were going to get there. Every decision had to go through the decision impact assessment, the Climate Action Steering Group ensured that the alignment was in place and the last element was the genuine will from everybody across the Council.

The Board asked how this was developing in the greater area in terms of engagement with local stakeholders and businesses to promote the climate change issues. The Portfolio Holder expressed his disappointment in that the Climate Change Leadership Board had yet to be set up. This was really the next step in order to hit the target but as this developed it did not necessarily mean the Council would be the leader or sole leader. The Head of Climate Action commented that having a strategic plan in place was the number one priority both for within the Council and externally. A strategy was currently being refreshed and it was hoped this would be available by the end of March. There hadn’t been sufficient resources in place previously to progress both the strategic plan and the operational work which had been taking place. However, there was now an opportunity to address this and create a plan going forward. It was noted that the action plan was intended to be a live document but there was a need to address prioritising and scheduling of actions to make sure that whatever actions were to be taken had the greatest impact possible, both within the Council and regionally. There was then an opportunity to get a strategic plan going on a regional level up to 2050.

The Board questioned how well the Council understood the need to take action locally.  A Board member asked why it was important for the Council, businesses and residents to promote local activity rather than activity more widely. It was clear that there was a need to respond locally because of what happens locally. There were many local issues and threats including flood risk. The Board member commented that it was hoped there was an understanding that the more trade and activities were local the shorter the supply trains were, which would reduce the carbon footprint. It would also have positive results in improving local communities.

The Board asked how much did the Council attribute to local supply in the procurement scoring matrix. The Chief Financial Officer advised that he would need to check and some back on this issue. The Board asked whether Bournemouth Airport and Poole Harbour had agreed to participate in the Board. It was confirmed that they were both expected to be on the Board but there had not been any further discussions surrounding this.

In response to a question about a more frequent stopper service on local rail the Portfolio Holder commented that this would be an extremely desirable outcome.  A turn up and go level of service was required and an integrated system would be extremely important. There was more opportunity to work with the local bus companies as a non-fixed element in developing a metro system. However, a local system would need to be accommodated along with fast trains to London.

The Strategic Lead for Climate, in response to a question about sustainable food cities, advised that there had been a number of sustainable food initiatives whether through the sustainable Food Cities project or individual campaigns such as fair-trade towns. It was also noted that a lot of pressure to make changes, such as sustainable palm oil was being driven by pressure from the market. The Board asked what the Council was doing to encourage businesses to localise their supply chains. It was widely accepted that compared to other places in the country there was not a great relationship between local farming producers and businesses. Produce didn’t seem to make its way into shops and restaurants in the same way it did in other places. BCP wanted to take supply chains into account and understand the impact of these. There was a sustainable business group which included environmental officers and financial officers, which had been able to explore things like food co-operatives. There was a need to make numbers work for suppliers and also for businesses within BCP. Economic and social benefits of shorter supply chains also needed to be taken into account.

The Board asked how the Council reviewed its investment strategy, supply chains and procurement models to give due consideration to climate change impacts. A Councillor informed the Board that officers had confirmed that the Council had not set out a sustainable procurement strategy beyond that set out in the BCP Financial Regulations and asked whether there was an intention to move forward with a sustainable procurement policy outlining green, local and ethical procurement practices. It was suggested that the Leader would need to respond to this question in full but the Board was advised that a balance in procurement processes was required and further discussion on this issue would be needed. The Chief Financial Officer advised that there wasn’t a set percentage within the procurement strategy in terms of sourcing locally, but this was looked at on each individual procurement. Each would need to be assessed on its own merits as by setting a fixed amount it could lead to the exclusion of some small business. The Board member commented that there were different interpretations of what was meant by sustainability in terms of the investment strategy.

A Board Member observed that there had been little or no mention of the natural environment. This could be an excellent contributor for biodiversity in the area and have an impact on climate change. The Board asked how the Council was acting as a custodian of the natural environment which it owned and what were the plans for wildlife corridors.  The Portfolio Holder for Environment and Place advised that there were many different green initiatives underway, and the green infrastructure strategy was in the later stages of drafting. There were lots of pieces of green space over a very wide-ranging area. The Council should also consider some of the plans and testing which had taken place elsewhere. The Portfolio Holder for Development, Growth and Regeneration advised that this was a major issue as part of the local plan process. There was a significant section in the local plan on climate change itself. There were decisions and consequences related to this which would need to be considered in the future. It was noted that urban densification could be positive in respect of less need to travel. The climate and ecological emergency work would also feed into the local plan.

The section on how the council was planning to understand and act on the need to adapt existing properties and estates to address the impacts of climate change was partially responded to but it was suggested that further responses may be provided outside of the meeting.  The Board was advised that Poole Housing Partnership had undertaken an assessment of all housing stock to identify the carbon emissions and then identify what measures were needed to improve energy efficiency. There was a programme of work in place which would be fulfilled with the budget setting process, and it was understood that colleagues in Bournemouth were undertaking similar measures.

The Board asked about whether there was a robust carbon literacy training programme in place.  There were already good programmes in place through the LGA and others, but the Council was working on a programme with the University. The Board asked how the Council was supporting and working with relevant private and civic actors in the area towards climate change mitigation adaption. Many councils had done really good work with citizens groups and direct engagement without having a citizens’ assembly in place. The Portfolio Holder advised that they would be working with non-state actors through the Climate Leaders Group but that they were reluctant to include specific interest groups as sometimes their agenda was too specific as to where we want to be. There was also engagement with the public in terms of the action plan. It was agreed that all officers needed to be at a certain level of carbon literacy and how to train them was being considered. The Portfolio Holder advised that he would ask the Climate Strategic Lead to provide further information on this issue. A specific request was made that all Councillors should be included in carbon literacy training. It was noted that this was part of the induction programme for Councillors, but the Council would ensure everyone was fully informed on it.

The Board asked what measures were being taken to ensure that health and social care systems would be resilient with the extra pressures they would come under due to climate change. The Covid pandemic had thrown a spotlight on the health system and the aging population put further pressures on the care system. The UK Climate Change risk assessment identified climate change as one of the greatest risks to public health in the UK and one which would impact vulnerable people disproportionately. The Board asked how resilient the system was and how was it reacting locally to pressures. The Board was advised that the majority of care locally was delivered by external care providers which had their own plans to deal with continuity of care issues. The overriding issue was how rare occurrences that created disruption for a period of time were planned for. The Local Resilience Forum would be stood up to consider how to plan for appropriate disruptions. There were more frequent issues around storms or disruptions. The Local Resilience Forum adopted an emergency planning approach. In these circumstances providers would prioritise care calls.

The Council needed to work with hospitals on reducing air pollution and we all needed to consider the impact on the environment for any health choices which were made. The Portfolio Holder confirmed that he would expect to see health partners as key members of the Climate Action Leadership Board.

Public Health Dorset was promoting a lot of the health inequalities work and Building control would be working closely with the hospital around their building projects.

A Board Member asked whether the Council had an opportunity to look at the providers resilience plans. At the start of the pandemic the Council asked all providers to review and update these and had looked at the plans for all 183 providers.  These would be reviewed again in light of current changes.

The Board asked how the council identified those who were most at risk from the impacts of climate change, and what was being done to assist the most vulnerable. The Board questioned whether there was any broader work specifically around equalities and the wider climate plan; how the Council identified those who were most at risk from the impacts of climate change and what was being done to assist the most vulnerable. The Portfolio Holder trusted that the measures employed by the Equalities Board and reviews would identify those that would be most affected, both by the actions that were taken and also by the effects of climate change itself. As each decision came forward it would be accompanied by a DIA, which would take equality issues into account.

The Board Member advised that it was also wider than look that, looking at social, economic, financial and geographical impacts that effected different pockets of individuals or how communities might actually suffer with some of the effects. The Portfolio Holder was asked whether vulnerability plans had been or could be considered.  The Portfolio Holder advised that he wasn’t aware of this but would take it up with officers. The Portfolio Holder mentioned some of the policies which were being put into place which included LEAP scheme and an opportunity to provide insultation and other measures for those who were not on the highest incomes. The latest scheme had a limit of approximately £42k annual income. There was also a free assessment available if a home had an EPC rating of D or lower. It was thought that BCP was the first to be offering such a scheme. There was an opportunity for those who may not be financially struggling, a scheme open to more people to access an assessment. It was reported that at present 1400 households had accessed the LEAP scheme. It was suggested that this needed to be pushed out further. It was suggested that the scheme should also be open to people who were not financial struggling to pay for the service.  It was noted that this measure was in place and there was a small incentive scheme for others as well

The Board member asked about how the Council was engaging on this issue with those groups who did not normally have much of a voice, particularly young people and children, older voices and those from minority groups. The Portfolio Holder responded that the opportunity was open but perhaps there was more to be done to encourage engagement from these groups and this may need to be left to the experts to address.

The Chairman proposed that the final part of the meeting, the decision-making section, would be added to the agenda for the next meeting of the Board. This would allow everyone time to reflect on the issues which had been raised.  The Chairman thanked the Portfolio Holder and the Portfolio Holder thanked everyone on the Board who had participated and particularly the officers who had answered the questions which the Board had gone through.