Agenda item

(Director of Neighbourhoods) to consider the attached report.

The report on the Councils Environmental Charter and objectives was introduced by the Environmental Co-ordinator, Liz Ainslie. In November 2015 the neighbourhood and Community services Select Committee had agreed that a draft environmental charter and action plan should be developed to replace the existing Climate Change Policy.  It was further agreed that it should be brought back to the Select Committee for comment and agreement.

The outcome of these discussions was considered at the Green Working Party (GWP) on 7 December when it was agreed that the charter and action plan should be modelled on the ‘Climate Local’ methodology.  This looks at various environmental commitments for a local authority and breaks them down into broad areas, such as Finance, Energy, the Natural Environment, etc.  Within each area, suggestions are made for environmental commitments and associated actions. These documents now follow the format of Climate Local methodology but have been tailored to EFDC requirements. 

The Environmental Charter is an overarching document to explain what we as EFDC (and the GWP) feel are our main commitments to the environment as the area leader. 

The ‘Commitments and Actions’ is a document to demonstrate ways in which we are fulfilling our Charter.  It was broken into three main headings with broad actions under each heading.  The broad actions will then be supported by specific actions from the GWP work plan.  Once actions have been completed they can be added to this document as a record of what has been achieved.  In this way the work plan can be the “working document” which changes; supporting the overall commitments and actions document.

Councillor Whitehouse asked about objective S.08, working with the local tourist board on sustainable travel to the local sites, and what we were doing about using buses. Ms Ainslie replied that nothing specific was being done about the buses, but they were asking the companies how they could influence or give feedback on how to make things more robust, such as telling people how to get to the tourist destinations by public transport.

Councillor Neville noted S.01 on sustainability campaigns and training; and asked if members could be invited to the training sessions? He was told that they could.

Councillor Bedford commented that when we were notified that a bus service was withdrawn, we should ask why. Mr Macnab noted that this really came under the County Council’s remit; but we could look at bus routes as a committee as part of our sustainability work. Ms Swan noted that the second recommendation of this report was to have an annual updating report on the Environmental Charter objectives and bus routes could be tackled there.

Councillor Neville noted the objective on seeking the view of residents on electric charging points, but wondered where this electricity was coming from. Ms Ainslie replied that they had investigated charging points because a resident had asked them to. Officers could trial a rapid charge point here, with a one hour charge time, which would have to be paid for. The electricity would be gleamed from solar panels. Officers were still looking at setting up a trial. Mr Durrani added that facilities were involved in looking at this as it involved a council car park. It may need a policy change and we would need to find the money as we would need to provide a dedicated bay. It was in the pipeline and they were looking at this. Councillor Janet Whitehouse asked if the location of any chargers in the district could be put on our website.

RESOLVED:

1)    That the Committee considered and commented on the Environmental Charter and recommended it to the Cabinet accordingly; and

2)    That an item be put into the Committee’s work programme to receive an annual report on the progress of the Charter against its Action Plan.