Draft Minutes
Attendees
Emily Reed, Devon Climate Emergency
Doug Eltham, Devon County Council
John Amosford, Public Health Devon
Louise Sawyer, Devon and Cornwall Police
Lucinda Brook, Plymouth City Council
Collette Germon, Devon Partnership NHS Trust
William Elliott, Teignbridge District Council
Donna Sibley, North Devon and Torridge District Councils
Jacqui Warren, Torbay Council
Jason Ball, Mid Devon District Council
Apologies
Alice Gent, Exeter City Council
Clare Jones, Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
Alex Mitchell, East Devon District Council
Adam Williams, South Hams and West Devon Councils
Catherine Causley, East Devon District Council
Helen Hicks, University of Exeter
Morag Aiken, South West Water
Andy Seaman, University of Exeter
David Rose, South West Water
Matthew Blythe, East Devon District Council
Luke Mitchell, Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
Julia Wordley, Devon and Cornwall Police
Tracy Hendren, East Devon District Council
- Minutes of the Previous Meeting
The minutes were AGREED to be a true record of the discussion.
Doug reported that the Devon and Cornwall Planning Officers Group are going to establish a sub-group to prepare a best practice guide showing examples of how policies have been used locally and elsewhere to implement the expectations of the Devon Carbon Plan and Adaptation Strategy.
Phil Baker added that Plymouth’s Climate Emergency Planning Statement SPD is worth a look https://www.plymouth.gov.uk/climate-emergency-planning-statement
- Project Progress Report
The progress reported appended to these minutes was considered. No questions asked.
- Adaptation Progress Report
Emily highlighted some actions in the thematic Progress Report.
The discussion noted that there is a delay to the preparation of the regional water strategy due to the general election.
Jacqui added that the ARSINOE project will be working with communities over the next 9 months in Torbay.
Lucinda added the Building Resilience in Communities project to the record, which has a focus on flood risk.
- Future Opportunities for Partnership Working
The group considered where opportunities are for partnership delivery. Ideas included:
- Spatial planning
ACTION: Jacqui, Donna and Jason will meet to discuss shared evidence bases for energy and embodied carbon policies
- Green building leases – Louise will report back to the group when more is known
- Carbon flux of land assets
- Community Action Groups
- Funding bid for a retrofit strategy
- Coordination of business support offers
- Fleet decarbonisation and rationalisation.
ACTION: Lu and Jacqui to setup a fleet sub-group
- Shared comm’s plan to involve videos and case studies.
ACTION: Emily to engage Betty on a shared comm’s plan.
- Schools liaison.
- Just and fair transition.
The group liked the idea of making meetings thematic to dive into these opportunities.
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 advicefrom 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 routebetween 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
| Economy and Resources
|
Common Issues – Finance required to expand geography – Finance required for more people resource, particularly spatial planning
| Common Issues – Clearer guidance from government on aspects of waste management needed – Finance required for more people resource
|
Energy Supply
| Food, Land and Sea |
Common Issues – Government appetite to address issues e.g. grid capacity, planning for wind – Availability of capital finance
| Common Issues – Complexity of agendas, e.g. Land Use Framework and Local Nature Recovery Strategy – Finance required to expand geography and scope
|
Transport
| Cross-Cutting Themes
|
Common Issues – Public concern about EVs and reallocating highway space for sustainable modes – Grid capacity – Availability of capital finance
| 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.
