Agenda item

(Report of the Leader of the Council)

The Chair invited the Leader of the Council and the Assistant Director, Regeneration and Growth to introduce the Net Zero Carbon – baseline report.

The Assistant Director highlighted that the baseline report had been commissioned following a competitive tender around a year ago and the Consultants were in attendance to provide an overview of the findings of the report to the meeting.

The Consultants explained the following aspects from the baseline report:

1.    Key definitions used;

2.    An overview of the declarations of net zero emissions made by local authorities across the United Kingdom

3.    The Declaration made by Tamworth Borough Council to make the Council’s activities net-zero carbon by 2050 with aspiration to achieve that by 2030 should the council be financially able to do so;

4.    The process followed by the Consultants to compile the evidence base;

5.    The areas of emissions within scope, which included council owned operational buildings, the communal areas of council owned property, relevant streetlighting, waste, the council fleet and other forms of council travel and direct emissions from specific suppliers;

6.    The process undertaken to collect the relevant data;

7.    The baseline data for 2019/20 where the two key areas identified as the largest sources of emissions were building related and related to the council waste collection service;

8.    Recommendations for improving the evidence base, in terms of collecting data from missing sources, for example working from home emissions and better seeking improved data from procurement activities.

9.    In terms of Housing, energy efficiency and decarbonisation of housing stocks was reported to be a thread of housing management over a 30 year plan, and it would be important to have projects ready to move as funding became available from central Government

10.In terms of non-domestic council building, the importance of undertaking an energy audit of the estate and to explore the building stock required.

11.In terms of business transport and travel where the core objective would be to  reduce the number and distance of such journeys and replacing short journeys with alternative methods of travel; cycle and walking and use of public transport.

12.In terms of leisure and street lighting, the programme to replace street lights with LED lights would positively impact, and whilst the council did not operate leisure services currently if it did this would tend to be a large contributor to emissions and would need to be accounted for.

13.In terms of waste this was a significant part of the carbon baseline and a shared service with Lichfield District Council and therefore recommendations would be to work jointly.  Areas to consider; the transport side looking at ultra low vehicles and ensuring any depot had the ability to charge those vehicles and to look at the location of the depot to minimise emissions to the joint service, and also to consider other areas of waste recycling which could be available.

14.In terms of procurement, to look at working with neighbouring authorities to increase purchasing power in procuring low carbon goods and services, and look at national frameworks, such as the National Social Value Taskforce framework and also directly engaging with suppliers.

15.Consideration had also been given to methods for embedding low carbon in policies and decision making, and suggestions included building carbon literacy throughout the organisation and using tools to raise the visibility of climate considerations into decision making, and working in partnerships across other councils and also the health and voluntary sectors.

The Chair thanked the Consultants on behalf of the Committee for their report and attendance and the Consultants left the meeting at 7.10pm.

The Committee commented and sought clarifications in the following areas:

1.    How this authority compared with other authorities where it was reported that it was very difficult to compare, and different council’s included different areas of activities within their methodologies for compiling their baseline data.

2.    The date of finalisation of the report given some data sets were estimated and the request to include a note to reflect the date of finalisation within the report.

3.    Further information on the methodology for collecting better data on procured activities, where it was reported that for the Council to receive better data in this area would require significant additional data from contractors and there was a recommendation on how the council could start to collect that.

4.    The importance of embedding in the Council’s decision making process not just cost and delivering requirements but also climate aspects.

5.    The importance of waste disposal in terms of the council’s carbon footprint and the need to look at the disposal service not just from a cost neutral or profiting making aspect, but also from a climate aspect, and considering waste disposal from a carbon neutral perspective. The Leader agreed that there needed to be a fundamental review of waste at a national level, and there was expected to be new requirements in terms of food waste, and there was flexibility to respond to that.

6.    That Tamworth Climate Action had been in contact with the Assistant Director, who had assisted with signposting to the relevant county council officer for some aspects and to officers within this council for others.

7.    It was confirmed that whilst most streetlight was a county council responsibility, Tamworth Borough Council had streetlighting in our estates and in the Castle Grounds.

8.    Whether any work had yet been started on the costings of the recommendations where it was reported that this would be the focus of the next phase of work to create the Action Plans.

9.    The Committee sought clarification on the timescales for the next piece of work for the delivery of the Action Plans, where it was reported that this would depend upon the procurement process for this piece of work.  However the Leader confirmed that there were aspects which could be addressed now in terms of our procurement processes and which could contribute without having an Action Plan. 

The Committee considered the Report and RESOLVED that:

1.    The baseline assessment was endorsed.

2.    It recommended to Cabinet that an Action Plan be prepared by 31 December 2024.

(Moved by Councillor S Goodall and seconded by Councillor S Peaple)

The Chair thanked the Leader and Assistant Director for their report.