Agenda and draft minutes

To note any substitution of Members made in accordance with Council Procedure Rules.

Apologies for absence were received from Cllr Grewal.

The following substitution of Members was made in accordance with Council Procedure Rules:

Cllr Adrienne Nix for Cllr Rose Grewal.

To confirm as a correct record the Minutes of the meeting held on 18^th December 2023 (previously circulated).

The minutes of the meeting held on 8 November 2023 were approved as a correct record.

There were no items of urgent business.

To note declarations of Members’ disclosable pecuniary interests, non-disclosable pecuniary interests and non-pecuniary interests in respect of items on the Agenda.

There were no declarations of interest.

The Climate Change Officer introduced the report, advising the climate change action plan had been reviewed and there were no new actions although actions continued to be progressed. Specific project updates were provided as follows:

-        Action 6 was to publish the climate change risk assessment, assessing in detail anticipated local impacts. The main local risks were hotter drier summers with greater potential for heatwaves; warmer wetter winters with greater potential flooding, and an increase in frequency of extreme weather. Following a robust review, the 61 individual risks prepared by the Local Government Association had been whittled down to around 25 local risks. These risks were then scored with control measures factored in; now the assessment had been completed, the next stage was to embed the resulting actions in order that the borough was as prepared for and resilient to climate change as possible. Climate change was being added to the strategic risk register alongside the existing climate mitigation risk.

-        The Group was shown the Climate Change Risk Assessment which set out both risks and control mitigation measures. It highlighted additional actions which could be completed by the Council.

-        A staff travel survey was completed in November 2023 and a completed Travel Plan had been produced to encourage sustainable travel options. A sustainable travel action plan was in place to support the Travel Plan.

-        Action 38 was to calculate the Council’s organisational and borough-wide carbon emissions at least annually to see if emissions were being reduced. Emissions were measured through a greenhouse gas assessment by Team Energy and this information was available on the Council’s website. In 2023 the Council had emitted 2,104 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent; officers advised that the two previous reporting periods had been heavily impacted by the pandemic and had been an anomaly due to office closures. There had been a 16% reduction since the base year of 2019/20. There had been a steady decline since 2005 in terms of borough-wide emissions with a small increase in the most recent reporting period.

-        Over 300 street trees were being planted this winter. 11,000 trees had been given to borough residents as part of the Our Tree Your Future scheme and it was hoped the scheme would run again next year.

-        Landscape management plans for Singlers Marsh and Danesbury nature reserve had been consulted on and almost 85% of respondents agreed with the vision, aims and objectives set out in the plans; the plans would go back to Cabinet next month for final approval.

-        Late last year, Hertfordshire County Council had conducted an audit on how the borough was addressing the climate emergency; they had been satisfied with their findings and had no recommendations which was positive.

-        A climate action survey took place in November with one resident receiving a £30 voucher. There had been 678 respondents and 346 had wanted to sign up to a climate e-bulletin. The main action people had wanted to take was to reduce their  ...  view the full minutes text for item 27.