The Climate Change Officer introduced the report which set out the progress made by the Council in achieving its targets for net zero carbon by 2025 and net zero carbon across the Borough by 2030.  She explained that Council had declared a Climate and Ecological Emergency in June 2019, and a clause within the declaration required an annual progress report to be submitted to Full Council in January each year.  The Climate Change Officer emphasised that this was a draft report for consideration by the Environment Committee, prior to it being submitted to Full Council in January 2023.  A steering group met every six weeks, and she drew attention to the progress highlights outlined in paragraph 3 of the report. 

The Chair invited Members to ask questions and make comments and these included:

·         In relation to renewable energy set out on page 19 of the report, suggested total consumption be included as well;

·         sought clarification that household waste had increased, but the level of recycling had plateaued;

·         what legal standing did planning conditions on a development have?;

·         concerned with the Local Plan delay and whether the delay had a detrimental impact on the council achieving its net zero carbon targets;

·         welcomed the draft report and considered it was well laid out, with a lot of information;

·         considered more financial implications and costs and benefits of projects to achieve net zero carbon targets should be included within the report;

·         more detail needed on the refurbishment of Swale House;

·         considered the ten high priority key actions set out on pages 23 and 24 of the report needed refining prior to January 2024 and were they set out in order of importance?;

·         considered paper use should be reduced, i.e. printing agendas etc.;

·         if there were less demands on the Council’s print room, this would enable them to tender for more outside business; and

·         further information sought on what happened to green waste.

In response, the Climate Change Officer explained that more information could be included on the total consumption of energy, and added that the BEIS (Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy) figures were always three years old, but she would have a look at this.  She said she was working with Planning Policy in ensuring there were high environmental standards within the Council’s policies.  The Climate Change Officer said that more financial information could be included in the final report on individual projects.  She explained that the ten high priority key actions set out on pages 23 and 24 of the report were not set out in order of importance, and would be refined as usual at the start of each year.

The Head of Environment and Leisure explained that recycling had plateaued across the country and ways of tackling this were being investigated as part of the Government review of legislation.  This included providing smaller refuse waste bins, but this was not always practicable.  He explained that in Swale, there was room for improvement.  An audit indicated that 50% of green refuse bins had items in that could be recycled and 20% of that was food waste.  The Head of Environment and Leisure said that education in changing residents’ habits could be beneficial in improving recycling in the Borough and this was something that costed residents very little to do, but would make a massive impact.  He added that developers were willing to add measures to reduce carbon impact on their developments.  He explained that garden waste was sold on, with Kent County Council being the waste disposal authority, and Swale Borough Council (SBC) being the waste collection authority.  A lot of the green waste went to local agriculture.  He acknowledged the success of the compost giveaway held in previous years and hoped that this could be replicated.

The Vice-Chair responded to some of the issues raised.  He explained that some refuse green bins were being reduced in size.  Planning policies and planning conditions, and improvements in building regulations, were helping to reduce carbon emissions.

Councillor Tim Valentine proposed the recommendations, which were seconded by Councillor David Simmons.

Resolved:

(1)      That the format of the report and suggested changes be noted.

(2)      That progress on the targets be noted.