Agenda item

Invitees:

Councillor Yvonne Forsey – Cabinet Member for Climate Change and Biodiversity
Paul Jones – Strategic Director of Environment and Sustainability
Silvia Gonzales-Lopez – The Head of Environment and Public Protection.
Ross Cudlipp – Service Manager for Climate Change.

The Committee agreed to hear this item first.

The Chair reminded Committee that this was the first year of reporting.

The Cabinet Member for Climate Change and Biodiversity introduced the report and the Head of Environment and Public Protection gave an overview of the report.

Questions:

The Committee queried the Business Travel and Employee Commuting figures and asked why this had increased and what the challenges of reducing this would be.

·       The Service Manager stated that there had been an increase in 22-23 compared to previous years due to the pandemic. The Service Manager highlighted that it would be better to compare data to 2019 as a baseline. The Service Manager informed Committee that they would find out why emissions were higher when homeworking was also increased and provide Committee with that information.

The Committee noted the changes in the way that the Welsh Government attribute organisational Carbon Emissions and asked whether this methodology had been applied retrospectively to the previous years as well as whether it was Officers’ opinion that overall emission levels had dropped.

·       The Service Manger informed the Committee that they had not been applied retrospectively but noted that this could be done and provided to Committee.

·       The Head of Service added that this is reported annually, and that the official data would not be able to be changed.

·       The Strategic Director explained that the methodology is continuously evolving and added that there are likely to be further changes.

·       The Chair stated that the Committee would receive the information but that it would not be regarded as official data.

·       The Strategic Director stated that they are confident that the emissions are going down.

 

The Committee noted that the People and Culture Strategy Action had a red rating and asked what challenges there had been.

·       The Head of People, Policy and Transformation noted that this had been on the plan from the year before and explained that since the staff conference, the development time scale had been set and that it was being drafted to be brought back to the Committee.

The Committee noted the action on using the Council’s influence to encourage the staff pension fund to invest ethically and stated that this would be a yes or no question and so queried how had it been marked as amber and what the challenges were associated with it. 

·       The Service Manager stated that this would be checked back on and a response provided to Committee.

·       The Strategic Director stated that as the Climate Change Plan was all encompassing and they may not be able to provide all answers at that moment.

·       The Committee noted that in their personal experience there had been delays in getting a response from the pension fund and that could be the reason why it was amber.

·       The Chair noted that in the past the pension funds had only stated that they would only do what was economical.

The Committee noted the actions to ensure that all new Council buildings would be net zero carbon and asked why there were four that were being discussed with Newport Norse and asked whether more detail could be provided.

·       The Service Manager explained that initially the action had been to complete a document on their requirements but noted there had been a delay. The Service Manager stated that the document and the report could go to the Cabinet for briefing and explained that the document that was currently in its draft form would set out the requirements, approach and minimum standards.

·       The Strategic Director noted that in many cases, the Council would not be the sole financer and that many grants would be conditional. The Strategic Director added that the majority of buildings that are in construction are currently following this as the net zero agenda is moving so quickly.

·       The Service Manager stated that no gas was being used in new build homes, and each building has as much onsite energy generation as possible. The Service Manager explained that the remaining energy need comes from sustainable suppliers.

The Chair queried the net zero of the supplier and asked how far down the supply chain they had gone to prove sustainability.

·       The Service Manager stated that as they no longer used gas it was only looking at electricity suppliers. The Service Manager informed the Committee that they have solar panels on site and that the remaining need is met by a German electricity company that have certified that they get all energy from solar and wind energy. The Service Manager added that ideally, they would make the majority of it on site.

The Committee asked about the deep retrofit and the Solar PV and what the challenges had been.

·       The Strategic Director stated that they had provided an overview and added that Officers had been critical as they wished to hold themselves to a higher standard.

·       The Service Manager stated that part of the challenge had been that many of the buildings retrofit have been grant funded and informed the Committee that the grant budget had been put in place 2 to 3 years prior and so they had faced challenges staying on budget in the present day.

·       The Service Manager highlighted the challenges as finding funding and maximising energy creation.

The Committee asked about the further installation of solar panels on schools.

·       The Service Manager stated that a full review of operational buildings had been done and that they were looking for a delivery route for the solar panels as one package. The Service Manager added that they intended to get this rolled out in the current financial year and added that although there had not been a policy at that point they wished to get Solar on all suitable schools by 2025.

·       The Chair asked about the figures and whether they only showed the year before.

·       The Cabinet Member informed the Committee that the numbers had shown the total to that point.

The Committee asked about the action for tackling illegal parking and queried what threshold had been used as it was marked as Green.

·       The Service Manager stated that they would have to refer back to the Action owner for that information.

·       The Strategic Director stated that they would provide more detail on this going forward and added that although they had not eradicated illegal parking, it had improved over the 5 years since the civil enforcement had been brought in.

The Committee asked about the city-wide bike hire scheme and whether there had been an update on progress.

·       The Strategic Director noted that the bike hire scheme was rolled into the Burns recommendations and that there had been a backlog but that they should be making progress. The Strategic Director stated that they would get a date for the Committee. The Strategic Director added that the scheme was delivered by Newport City Council staff.

The Committee queried the demand responsive transport scheme and asked whether this had looked at extending to areas with air quality management issues.

·       The Strategic Director noted that they are served by main bus routes and that the DRT are used in areas where main bus routes are not commercially viable. The Strategic Director added that for AQMAs they would be looking at getting electric fleets.

The Committee asked about the updates and challenges from the Electric Vehicle Taxi Scheme.

·       The Service Manager stated that there had been a pilot scheme of this in Cardiff and that they had done a limited trial. The Service Manager added that they had encouraged this action so that an additional trial could be done. The Service Manager informed the Committee that the action was currently Red as there had been no progress but that this was expected to change as they have had an increase in resource in the team.

The Committee queried the action regarding new taxi’s being ULEV and asked whether they would provide a percentage.

·       The Head of Service stated that they would provide information to the Committee on this.

The Committee noted there had been some progress on the plastic free Newport and asked for more detail.

·       The Head of Service stated that a ban on non-reusable plastic had recently come in but added that the Council has limited influence. The Head of Service informed the Committee that they had moved a motion to encourage it in their premises but as this had been implemented, the pandemic began. The Head of Service added that they had made progress with water fountains and reusable bottles as well as supporting re-fill shops.

The Committee noted the action of ensuring pension funds use more ethical funds and queried how they were planning to do this.

·       The Strategic Director noted that this would be a case of writing to the pension funds and informing them of the Council’s desire to use more ethical funds. The Strategic Director added that although they would have limited control, they wish to make their position clear.

·       The Committee noted that there did not appear to be a way to measure this and added that it was unlikely to achieve what they wish it to.

·       The Strategic Director stated that the reduction can be picked up on monitoring and that the balance of the environment and investing had been made previously.

·       The Chair noted that this question had been an issue for 40 years and that it may be more applicable to be in the political forum.

The Committee stated that the report had been easy to read but noted that there should be further explanations on actions that have been listed in red and highlighted action points that have due dates that have been exceeded.

·       The Strategic Director noted that there had been a slight lag due to the annual update and noted that an update on the expired actions would be included in the following report. 

·       The Chair noted that it may be of use to include the date the report had been authored for clarity.

The Committee queried the use of the terminology when stating that they were encouraging the use of public transport and asked whether there had been any evidence to back up its green status.

·       The Strategic Director noted that the use of public transport had increased but added that they would need to go and find out further detail for the Committee.

·       The Committee asked for further explanation of the word encourage.

·       The Cabinet Member stated that the aim was to get the public to increase their use active travel routes even if this was just occasional.

The Committee asked whether there had been any evidence to support that green waste 3 weekly collections had increased recycling.

·       The Cabinet Member stated that this had in part been done for budgetary reasons but added that many orange bins would not be full when collected. The Cabinet Member informed the Committee that if needed, residents can apply for a second orange bin.

The Committee noted that there was reference to encouraging active travel and public transport and asked how they were encouraging this for people with restricted mobility as well as the elderly.

·       The Strategic Director stated that there had been funding for bus shelter replacements and that this had started to be rolled out and that they would hope to have replaced them all over the coming 3 to 4 years.

·       The Committee asked whether there was a complied list of when the improvements will come to each area as this may be of use.

·       The Strategic Director stated that the priority had been worked out based on the use and the ones in the worst condition and stated that he would ask for this list to be shared.

The Committee asked whether there had been any research into whether the addition of a new bus stop may increase the usage. 

·       The Strategic Director noted that he would enquire but stated that often where there are no shelters is due to the engineering challenge of the spot to physically put one there and added that they also had limited funding. The Strategic Director noted that many of the bus shelters were in very poor condition and so there was a need to get these up to standard.

The Committee asked whether the Council offers a home composting bin.

·       The Strategic Director stated that the Council used to as well as a phase where they offered ones at a discounted rate and added that this was something that could be looked into.

·       The Committee noted that if more people were using home composting bins, this would reduce the quantity of waste the vehicles would be taking.

The Committee asked whether the cycle to work scheme had been rolled out and whether the Council workforce were able to utilise it.

·       The Head of Service stated that they would need to confirm this.

·       The Service Manager stated that the scheme had been open over two periods in a year and added that this had then also been extended for a further year.

·       The Chair questioned whether they were referring to the salary sacrifice.

·       The Head of People, Policy and Transformation stated that the scheme had been open to Members due to the fact that it had been due to go to scrutiny. The Head of People, Policy and Transformation noted that it was due to the nature of the scheme that they use that it would only be open for certain times and added that it was the same scheme under a different name.

·       The Service Manager noted that there was a series of staff benefits that included the salary sacrifice scheme and noted that was a lease arrangement which has been running for 7 years.

The Committee asked whether there would be a way to measure how often the bikes have been used to get to work and noted that it would be worth having a metric to use to measure the use.

·       The Cabinet Member informed the Committee that there had been comments in the staff network.

·       The Strategic Director noted that they could discuss a way of measuring this but added that if they were being used outside of work, this was still a benefit.

·       The Head of Service noted that there had been intentions to perform a survey.

Conclusions:

The Committee welcomed the report and thanked Officers for their hard work.

 

·       The Committee asked for more information regarding the increase of both homeworking figures and commuting figures as these seemed contradictory.

·       The Committee asked for an exercise to be completed wherein the new changes to the measurement of supplier emissions be applied to previous years’ data to better understand trends and changes.

·       The Committee asked for more information on the threshold of Green actions, especially in regards to illegal parking.

·       The Committee asked for the date on which the city wide bike scheme would be rolled out.

·       The Committee asked for the percentage of new taxi licenced drivers with ULEV cars.

·       The Committee asked for further explanation regarding the improvement in public transport and why that action was marked as green.

·       The Committee asked for a response on how the Council is ensuring that work is being carried out to encourage ethical investments by the staff pension fund.

 

·       The Committee recommended that data on 3 weekly garden waste collections’ impact on recycling waste be included in next report.

·       The Committee recommended that lists of bus shelter improvements be shared more widely with Members and the work programme of these improvement be shared with Ward Members so residents can be informed.

·       The Committee recommended a survey be carried out to ascertain in which areas would improvements to bus shelters encourage bus usage. 

·       The Committee recommended that monitoring be carried out to ascertain how often those in the Cycle to Work Scheme use their bicycles to travel to work.

·       The Committee recommended that more information be included regarding pensions in the Organisational Leadership and Culture Action Plan under Priority 4, Action V in the report.

·       The Committee recommended that Red, Amber and Green RAG ratings have a commentary/explanation column added to the report.

·       The Committee recommended that more information regarding rating thresholds be included in the report.

·       The Committee recommended that the date the report is written should be included to increase clarity when considering dates within the report – namely action dates which have been exceeded by the meeting but may have been met outside the time where the report is able to be edited.