Attendees
| Catherine Causley | East Devon District Council |
| John Amosford | Public Health Devon |
| Louise Sawyer | Devon and Cornwall Police |
| William Elliot | Teignbridge District Council |
| Adam Williams | South Hams and West Devon Councils |
| Jacqui Warren | Torbay Council |
| Emily Reed | Devon Climate Emergency |
| William Jackson-Nichols | Devon Climate Emergency |
| Doug Eltham | Devon County Council |
| Mark Burton | Southwest Net Zero Hub |
| Aaron Harverson | Active Devon |
| Amy Brett-Schneider | Exeter City Council |
1. Minutes of the Previous Meeting
Doug led the review of the minutes.
An amendment was requested regarding the detail of Torbay’s electrification of its fleet.
2. Project Progress Report
The progress report appended to these minutes was considered. Data from X has been removed and Will adjusted the graph accordingly.
Emily and Doug praised Will for his excellent work, noting that the communications felt more active and vibrant, and mentioned the ongoing climate adaptation communications calendar.
Doug also explained to newer members that they could share updates with Will and Emily for the website, where they would be tagged by actions in the plan they contribute to.
Economy and Resource Progress Update:
Emily led the discussion, highlighting these points:
- Action R1 Emily Reed asked the group if the issue logged about the increased threat of disruptive and potentially aggressive protesters at events still feels relevant? A discussion followed which concluded that it should remain on the progress report as an ongoing issue, but that partners have found solutions to this by working with local providers, such as community groups, who can directly deliver grass roots engagement in a way that is better received and is community driven. For example, South Hams have been funding Sustainable South Hams, who propose a list of projects they want to do each year and the Council selects projects to fund, typically up to £40,000 a year.
- Action R2 Emily questioned if the issue logged regarding greater funding being needed remained, given commitments in 24/25 to fund the Community Action Group network? The group thought there were good levels of funding being put into community groups, though this needs to be sustained, but they agreed to remove the issue on the progress report.
ACTION: Emily to work with the Tactical Group to collate the funding partners have distributed to community groups for climate action in 2024/25 and collate any impact reporting which is happening in relation to this spend.
- Action R7 It remains an issue that clearer guidance from the government is needed on whether a three weekly residual waste collection is allowed, following guidance from the previous government that collections should be fortnightly as a minimum. The group also noted that unitisation of local authorities may lead to greater harmonisation of collections.
ACTION: Emily to look into whether any further clarity has been given by government as to the recommended frequency of collection.
- Action R8 Emily highlighted that Simpler Recycling legislation is coming in for businesses over 10 employees in March 2025, after which they are obliged to separate waste for collection. This is likely to spur commercial waste services into collecting a wider range of materials for recycling. Doug noted that the commercial waste sector is raising awareness of the new requirements through offering webinars etc.
- Action R9 Emily asked the group if there were any updates on the commercial waste services being offered by local authorities. Jacqui shared that Torbay is adding food waste collection to their commercial waste offer.
ACTION: All local authorities who offer commercial waste services to update Emily of any changes of offer.
- Action R10 It was noted that Okehampton now have a Business Improvement District.
ACTION: Will to clarify if Newton Abbot has a Business Improvement District.
- R19 Louise shared that Devon and Cornwall Policy are developing an anchor institution framework for policing, working with the NHS and other stakeholders. It is about to be launched. One of the pillars within the framework is on sustainable procurement.
Doug highlighted that the Devon County Council supply chain strategy was finally approved by cabinet in December. The role of Low Carbon Supply Chain Officer will be filled this year.
ACTION: Louise to share further information about the new anchor institution framework with the group.
- R21 Devon Waste Education Programme is having to turn schools away because they are fully booked with school visits. Devon County Council is running a Sustainable Schools conference in November, to help education settings understand support available for developing climate action plans. Resource pages have also been set up. Additionally, Devon County Council has a small contract with Resource Futures to raise awareness of climate action plans in Devon, as well as supporting the Network of Environmental Educators Devon (NEED). This has resulted in NEED membership doubling in seven months.
Aaron offered Active Devon’s support for the conference to help empower schools to shift to sustainable travel.
ACTION: Emily to circulate the link to Climate Ambassadors, a scheme which connects volunteers with schools to help with their climate action plans.
R22 Emily noted that whilst there is lots of good training available around new green technologies such as heat pumps, there are still reports of developers experiencing shortages of skilled labour, deterring them from installing heat pumps.
3. Any Other Business
Aaron highlighted that Active Devon has put an article in the Devon and Plymouth Chamber newsletter about cycle training. This initiative aims to encourage workplaces in Devon (excluding Plymouth and Torbay) to promote cycling over driving.
Action: All to direct interested workplaces to Active Devon’s active travel support service.
Doug discussed ongoing issues with fleet charge posts, due to internet connection at the County Council, which have been temporarily resolved by setting them to a “plug and play” mode.
Additionally, Doug noted the first meeting of the core team for the Local Area Energy Plan, with further discussions planned to engage wider stakeholders in creating an energy baseline for Devon.
The group also noted that many of them were continuing to put a lot of energy into Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme applications and queries.
ACTION: Doug to feedback to the ADEPT group how time consuming the application process is for PSDS funding, in terms of the time it takes in proportion to the level of funding.
Appendix 1 – Project Progress Report
Period: January to February 2025
Partnership Update
General Communications
X was removed due to changes to the culture of the channel. This meant, without X, the overall number of followers increased, in January this was by 0.38%. In relation to growth, all channels were positive with the highest being 1.46% on LinkedIn and the lowest 0.00% on YouTube. This included passing 2000 followers on Instagram. There is now greater capacity due to the addition of the new Climate Emergency Support Officer who started on the 13th of January and the team hope for greater growth going forward.
Partners’ Notable Activity
Activity is recorded centrally on the Taking Action pages of the Devon Climate Emergency website.
- Babcock International has introduced Electric Assisted Vehicles (EAVs) at their Plymouth dockyard, aiming for net-zero emissions.
- This year, Plymouth will welcome 50 zero-emission electric double-decker buses as part of a major £31.87 million investment in the city’s public transport.
- South West Water has invested £260,000 to mitigate storm overflow spills at the Stibb Cross and Langtree wastewater treatment works in North Devon.
- The Exmoor National Park Authority (ENPA) has unveiled its draft ambitions for the Exmoor Partnership Plan.
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.
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
- Uncertainty regarding the implications of a written ministerial statement on Local Plans.
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:
- 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 monitoring indicators are online. The University of Exeter has helped to expand the indicator set, which will be added to the web page early this year.
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. No change to the RAG ratings this month.
Feedback from the Climate Task Force
The Devon Climate Task Force held its latest quarterly meeting in December and made the following recommendations to the Response Group:
- Use the Local Resilience Forum emergency response trigger to ensure sufficiently senior leaders, as well as personnel who will implement actions, attend the Carbon Trust workshop.
- Ensure the workshop focuses on practical, high-impact actions, and addressing barriers to success.
- Ensure the Carbon Trust workshop includes a focus on broadening outreach to businesses and community groups.
- Secure or provide funding to research business resilience and understand what businesses are doing around climate resilience.
- Develop a project to capture and share peer-to-peer learning about climate adaptation through resilience stories from businesses.
- Engage with Defra regarding options for environmental management and regulatory issues affecting farmers’ adaptation efforts e.g. water abstraction licencing.
Devolution Update
The Devon and Torbay Combined County Authority (CCA) has officially been established, allowing local decision-makers to take control over key issues such as housing, jobs, skills, transport, and the economy. This follows the signing of the necessary legislation by the Minister of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, Jim McMahon, under the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023. The inaugural meeting of the CCA members, which include representatives from Devon County Council, Torbay Council, Devon’s District/City/Borough Councils, the Police and Crime Commissioner, and the business community, will take place on 19 March 2025.
In addition, the Government’s Devolution White Paper has introduced a programme for local government reorganisation in two-tier areas, inviting councils to propose new unitary councils. This reorganisation is expected to have significant implications for local authorities in Devon, creating uncertainty and potentially reducing the capacity of partner organisations. The risk register has been updated to reflect these risks as the transition to unitary status progresses.
