Attendees
Claire Pearce
Harriet Bell
Ian Bailey
Ian Hutchcroft
James Shorten
Rod Birtles
Hannah Lawrie
Richard Betts
Ashish Ghadiali
Tim Jones
Gill Westcott
Nik Bowyer
Peter Nickol
Lisseth Ring
George Middlemiss
Apologies
Patrick Devine-Wright
Laura Cardenas
Kalkidan Legesse
Lyndis Cole
Clark Denby
Paula Hewitt
Secretariat
Emily Reed
Doug Eltham
1. Introductions
The Group welcomed Lisseth Ring who is undertaking a PhD supervised by Ian Bailey looking at the extent to which climate plans and local climate governance results in action.
2. Minutes of the Previous Meeting
Emily ran through the actions from the previous meeting. These were accepted as a true record.
Matters arising and actions carried over:
Retrofit Summit
A funding application was submitted to the MCS Foundation to receive consultancy support to run four full-day workshops in the autumn to explore opportunities for retrofitting and to prepare a retrofit strategy. Unfortunately, this bid was not successful.
ACTION: Doug will speak further with Energy Saving Devon to find additional opportunities for funding for this project.
Planning
Gill said the checklist has already been helpful to feed in policy recommendations to the current Mid Devon Local Plan preparation process.
Waste Collection
Hannah reported that the government consultation on the frequency of bin collections has concluded, and government will implement guidance that expects a minimum waste collection of fortnightly. This is a shame because some local authorities have moved to three-weekly bin collection and we have seen the benefits of that. There will also be exemptions to simplify the collection of recyclable and compostable waste.
3. Review of Transport Actions
The Task Force considered Transport actions T6 to T19, focusing on how progress against the actions can best be assessed and monitored and what needs to happen for the rating of each action to progress to a ‘green’ status (progressing well across a wide geography of Devon).
Suggestions for monitoring indicators included the number of towns covered by a Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plan (Action T6); the percentage of schools being offered Bikeability sessions (T7) and the percentage of the population with access to a bike rental scheme (T8) etc.
The discussion was documented on a Teams Whiteboard and the suggestions will be fed into the development of monitoring indicators by the Secretariat.
4. Review of Food, Land and Sea Actions
The Task Force considered Food, Land and Sea actions F7 to F12, focusing on how progress against the actions can best be assessed and monitored and what needs to happen for the rating of each action to progress to a ‘green’ status (progressing well across a wide geography of Devon), if they are not already.
Suggestions were made for gathering information on activity occurring against the actions and potential monitoring indicators. Suggestions included using data on the uptake of Sustainable Farming Incentive options (F9); surveying farmers and large landowners, potentially in collaboration with the Rural Land Business Survey or through Mole Valley Farmers and using data from a farm accreditation body such as the Soil Association Exchange (F9).
Hannah Lawrie highlighted an opportunity to engage with Defra regarding gaps in advice to farmers, so that they could incorporate this into their farming advice service which Ricardo runs (F7).
The importance of sharing and disseminating best practice was explored, with Clinton Devon identified as a good example of best practice (action F9), and the County Farm Estate as a key opportunity to demonstrate practices (F9 and F10). The Task Force also recognised that informal peer to peer networks provide important advice, so ought to be accounted for when assessing progress against action F7 (Look to set up a Devon Farm Advice Service).
The discussion was documented on a Teams Whiteboard and the suggestions will be fed into the development of monitoring indicators by the Secretariat.
5. Update on the development of the Monitoring Indicators
Emily has commissioned the Centre for Energy and Environment at the University of Exeter to update the existing monitoring indicators and propose additional indicators that align with the 62 milestones in the Devon Carbon Plan. Useful data is available for the majority of the milestones. These will be shared publicly.
There’ll be a methodology paper to accompany the dataset.
These will be presented at the September meeting of the Task Force and shared ahead of the meeting.
6. Questions regarding the overview progress report
Gill noted that resourcing in planning teams is mentioned as a barrier to making faster progress on net-zero related planning reforms, and asked what this really meant. Doug said planning teams are overwhelmed with development management casework and so are struggling to prioritise resource on policy development.
James added that there is a potential opportunity to influence future revisions to the NPPF depending on the outcome of the election.
Richard asked whether there is updated carbon footprint data for Devon. Emily said there isn’t as the data is published two-years behind schedule by government, so the latest data is 2021. The 2022 data will be published this summer. The projection of the state of the five-year carbon budget indicates that it will be about 9% overshot.
7. Recommendations to the Response Group
The Task Force agreed the following recommendations for the Response Group:
- The Task Force considers the recent decision by the Exeter Highways and Traffic Orders Committee (HATOC) to end the Active Streets Trial in Heavitree and Whipton as a major setback to providing safe infrastructure for walking, wheeling, and cycling, contrary to the Devon Carbon Plan. The Task Force recommends that the Response Group give urgent attention to updating plans for achieving Action T11 (Reallocate road capacity to sustainable modes), to avoid further delays on progress towards Goal TB (Using active, shared and public transport is safe, efficient and affordable). They urge the Response Group to consider the national evidence of the effectiveness of Low Traffic Neighbourhood measures in future schemes, which demonstrate benefits for active travel and air quality in the areas.
- The Task Force would like to see further progress on action F10 (Explore how the County Farms estate could be used to demonstrate low-carbon agriculture.) They also encourage other partners that own land that is farmed to do the same.
- Housebuilders have mandatory requirements to put in electric vehicle chargers. But in Devon some housebuilders are being told by National Grid there will be significant delays before the chargers can be connected – some as late as 2027. The partnership should consider how this situation can be improved.
8. AOB
Tim said the Task Force should be ready to interact with the new government on climate.
Harriet noted that the timetable for review of the actions is now extended, is that an issue? Emily welcomed suggestions on how to cover themes within the resource available to do this.
Richard advised that the University is considering holding a community-focussed event ahead of the next COP.
9. Date of Next Meeting
Next meeting date is the 18th September.
