Attendees
Emily Reed Devon Climate Emergency
Sally Basker Exeter Science Park
Polly Frost Devon County Council (Economy and Enterprise)
Claire Gibson University of Plymouth
Jason Ball Mid Devon District Council
Donna Sibley North Devon and Torridge District Councils
Sophie Goodall-Smith Environment Agency
Sara Gibbs Public Health Devon County Council
David Bartram Exeter City Council
Mark Burton Devon County Council (Economy and Enterprise)
Victoria Hatfield Exeter City Council
Apologies
Doug Eltham Devon County Council (Environment Group)
Meg Booth Devon County Council (Chair)
John Amosford Public Health Devon
Bobby Hughes Devon County Council (Waste Management)
Helen Vines Resource Futures
Matthew Blythe East Devon District Council
Eileen Russell Wales and West Utilities
Adam Williams South Hams and West Devon Councils
Fiona Rew National Farmers Union
Matt O’Dowd National Grid ED
Isobel Fardon Dartmoor National Park Authority
Mark Kentell North Devon Council
David Eaton Teignbridge District Council
John Green Plymouth City Council
Penny Tranter Met Office
Drew Powell South Hams and West Devon District Councils
Stephen Walford Mid Devon District Council
David Rose South West Water
Claire Reid Exmoor National Park Authority
Keir Duffin Devon County Council (Economy and Enterprise)
David Edmondson Torbay Council
Chris Clarke Wales and West Utilities
Lewis Garvey Wales and West Utilities
Matt Dodd University of Exeter
Nick Bruce-White Devon Wildlife Trust
Carrie Piper Exeter Science Park
1. Minutes of previous meeting
The minutes were accepted to be a true record. No further questions asked.
2. South Devon Freeport (Polly Frost)
Polly Frost, Net-Zero Lead Officer at the Freeport, presented an update on the Plymouth and South Devon Freeport.
The Plymouth and South Devon (PASD) Freeport can be considered as an investment zone, a driver for regeneration and growth. The PASD can advise HMRC that businesses benefit from tax and custom benefits, for example tax relief on plant and machinery.
There are three tax sites within the Freeport area where businesses can benefit from tax and custom benefits, these are South Yard, Langage and Sherford. Tax sites are still bound by all other law, including environmental, employment and planning law.
Plymouth City Council has received £25 million of seed capital to support the development of the Freeport.
The PASD Freeport outer boundary area includes Totnes and Okehampton, in practice the benefit of this is limited to the ability to apply for custom status to make importing and exporting easier.
PASD is the only English Freeport to have a designated net-zero lead. PASD has ambitions to be net-zero ahead of 2050, utilising the PAS 2080 framework to monitor and guide operations, including the development of a carbon toolkit and baselining.
The Freeport is a public private partnership but has input from elected members at Plymouth, South Hams and West Devon.
Polly has engaged a range of stakeholders to inform plans to support businesses in the freeport to decarbonise. Her role also entails reviewing proposals of projects within the Freeport regarding how they have considered their carbon footprint.
Polly highlighted the Langage green hydrogen plant being developed within the Freeport, which is due to be operational in 2025, though it needs to secure further off-takers.
WSP has developed a Net Zero Road Map for the Freeport which is due to be considered for adoption by the board imminently.
The PASD is also partnering with educational organisations in the area to support skills development for the Freeport.
3.    Progress Reports
3.1 General Progress Report
The progress reported appended to these minutes was considered. No further questions were asked.
3.2 Energy Supply and Cross Cutting Themes Progress Report
Emily highlighted a number of actions in the thematic progress report.
Action C6, resourcing within planning departments, their ability to recruit planners and the resource intensity of reviewing local plans continue to restrain the capacity of teams to develop novel approaches to respond to the climate emergency. However, Doug is scheduled to meet with the Devon and Cornwall Planning Officers Group on the 6th of June to revisit conversations about supporting the needs of planning teams to enable greater action through planning to address the climate emergency.
E1.4, the site for the Appledore clean maritime centre has been cleared and Torridge hope to submit a planning application in June.
E1.6, North Devon and Torridge will be procuring work on a green hydrogen map for the area in June 2024, with £100K funding from the Southwest Net Zero Hub.
E1.7, The government will designate heat networks for development from 2025 onwards. Greater clarity regarding heat networks will not be possible until the government publishes their maps, which is causing some uncertainty.
Victoria questioned if there is a Devon wide plan for hydrogen underway.
ACTION: Emily to ask the Energy Planning Group if there is a Devon wide plan for hydrogen underway.
Sally commented that we need better regulatory oversight for heat networks, for instance regarding billing. Sally is discussing this issue with Andy Wood at East Devon.
Claire questioned if Devon is ready to take up any opportunities for onshore wind which might arise in the near future should changes to legislation materialise. Donna responded that North Devon need to consider opportunities and constraints regarding onshore wind in their Local Plan.
Jason informed the group that Mid Devon are reviewing their local plan and are assessing site allocations for renewables. He shared that Essex has a climate and planning group, which may be a good example to learn from. They have developed policies and evidence to support plan development.
ACTION: Emily and Doug to find out more about Essex’s climate and planning group, in case there are learnings for Devon.
3.3 Net-Zero Delivery Problems and Successes
Sophie Goodall-Smith shared that the Environment Agency (EA) has been trialling battery powered tools, such as hedge trimers etc. They’ve found lots of co-benefits such as for health and safety. However, some tools are not proving up to the job of replacing petrol counterparts yet. Nevertheless, the EA are requiring contractors to use low carbon tools where possible.
Sophie also added that the EA has been encouraging staff to include an objective relating to their carbon footprint in their appraisal goal setting.
ACTION: Sophie to share the template they use to develop carbon footprint objectives with staff.
Mark Burton gave an update on projects being taken forward through the Innovate UK Fast Followers programme. He stressed that he was keen for the partnership to seize the opportunities of the County Combined Authority, which will result from devolution, to collaborate together more on projects.
Appendix 1: Project Progress Report
Period: May to June 2024
1. Partnership Update
1.1 General Communications
Consistent with previous months, the newsletter saw the strongest growth of followers, though only at 1.1%. No growth of followers was achieved on Facebook in May. Google Analytics is now functioning properly on the website and shows a continuing trend of website visits being dominated by new visitors rather than returning visitors.
Figure 1. DCE Online Following
The start date for the new support and engagement role is yet to be finalised, but is expected to be the second week of July.
1.2 Partners’ Notable Activity
Activity is recorded centrally on the Taking Action pages of the Devon Climate Emergency website.
- Businesses in the South Hams area are being offered free specialist advice from Libraries Unlimited, funded by South Hams District Council, to help them reduce their carbon footprint.
- The first phase of creating a safe and convenient walking, cycling, and wheeling route between Newton Abbot and Ogwell is nearly complete
- Climate Ambassadors are being recruited to support schools in their climate action journey
- Several Devon organisations have been granted funds from Phase 3c of the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme.
- Residents of Plymouth are encouraged to nominate individuals and businesses in the city who excel in environmental stewardship.
2. Oversight of the Devon Carbon Plan
The Progress Reports detailing known activity against each action are on the website. A summary of the number of actions categorised by each RAG status is provided below, split by theme.
Note that each theme of the carbon plan is reviewed every 6 months, which means the RAG status will not change significantly within the monthly periods of this progress report.
NO CHANGE IN STATUS THIS MONTH
Blue = Completed
Green = Generally progressing well
Amber = Progressing but geography or scope is limited
Red = Not started or activity significantly limited
Grey = Not yet assessed
Built Environment
Common Issues
- Finance required to expand geography.
- Finance required for more people resource, particularly spatial planning.
Economy and Resources
Common Issues
- Clearer guidance from government on aspects of waste management needed.
- Finance required for more people resource.
Energy Supply
Common Issues
- Government appetite to address issues e.g. grid capacity, planning for wind.
- Availability of capital finance.
Food, Land and Sea
Common Issues
- Complexity of agendas, e.g. Land Use Framework and Local Nature Recovery Strategy.
- Finance required to expand geography and scope.
Transport
Common Issues
- Public concern about EVs and reallocating highway space for sustainable modes.
- Grid capacity.
- Availability of capital finance.
Cross-Cutting Themes
Common Issues
- Finance required for more people resource, particularly spatial planning.
- Finance required to expand geography.
The first phase of publishing the monitoring indicators went live on 3rd April. The University of Exeter is helping to expand the indicator set, which will be added to the web page incrementally. This is ongoing.
3. Oversight of the Devon, Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Climate Adaptation Strategy
The Climate Impacts Group is continuing its programme to review all the risks and near-term actions each year.
The most common issue reported is needing to get better information about the extent to which communities are preparing for change. This is being explored with stakeholders. Discussions are underway with Devon Communities Together about how parishes can be better supported to develop resilience plans that consider a range of impacts that will be exacerbated by climate change.
4. Feedback from the Climate Task Force
The Devon Climate Task Force held its latest quarterly meeting in June and made the following recommendations, to be considered by the Response Group in July.
- The Task Force were disappointed with the decision to end the Active Streets Trial and are developing a recommendation for the Response Group.
- 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.
Updates on the Climate Task Force recommendations from March:
- Consider understanding what is needed to move each action from amber to green.
Update: No progress this month. Will be looked at following the appointment of the Climate Emergency Support Officer which will free-up some of Emily’s time.
- Mass-market retrofitting of buildings is still not happening quickly enough because the costs are high and the revenue savings are small in comparison. A retrofit summit should bring together key players to have a deep conversation about long-term solutions and to prepare a retrofit strategy.
Update: The Energy Saving Devon partnership submitted an expression of interest in response to an invitation from the MCS Foundation to pilot a support package for local areas to develop retrofit strategies. This would deliver a series of four full-day workshops. Unfortunately we were not successful. Further funding opportunities will be looked for to take this project forward.
Doug Eltham presented the issues with enabling mass-market retrofit to the Devon Housing Commission on the 24th May.
- The role of spatial planning in net-zero is not being delivered fully. Need to revisit conversations with the Devon and Cornwall Planning Officers Group (DCPOG) to refresh the needs of planning teams and subsequently reengage Team Devon.
Update: Doug attended the DCPOG on June 6th. It was agreed for a sub-group to prepare examples of how planning authorities have incorporated policies that implement the policy asks of the Devon Carbon Plan into Local Plans. These examples will be used as a checklist by planners when updating Local Plans.
5. Devolution Update
In the light of the announcement of the general election, Torbay Council and Devon CC are seeking clarity from Government officials on how the legislative process for setting up the Devon and Torbay Combined County Authority will be affected.
Discussions about how to prioritise the £16m capital spend in 2024/25 are continuing, much of which will contribute to net-zero.
