Agenda item

(Report of the Leader of the Council)

The Leader of the Council introduced the report to adopt the draft Staffordshire Adaptation Strategy which has been developed in conjunction with the Staffordshire Sustainability Board.

The Assistant Director, Regeneration and Growth advised that the report is currently a draft as it is still waiting to go through Staffordshire’s Governance Process which is scheduled for October but that this is the final version other than an update to the foreword with the new Portfolio Holders details following elections in May. It was confirmed that there was a budget of £60,000 for an action plan looking at Climate Change mitigation for Council Operations in accordance with the Council Climate Change Declaration, however there is a possibility that the adaptation plans may be deliverable from this budget which may mean it could be delivered sooner.

It was highlighted that adaptation was around making us resilient to the changes that are expected to come rather pure mitigation.

The Committee made the following comments/observations and asked the following questions:

1.     Clarification around the acronym Suds used in the report. It was confirmed that this is Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems which is a component of any new development coming forward, not just looking at hard infrastructure, but natural solutions such as drainage ponds and swales.

2.     How many/what other steps had been taken since the Council made their Climate Change declaration. It was confirmed that the Council declared a Climate Change emergency in 2019 following a motion at Full Council relating to borough Council Operations with a target of delivery by 2050, with a view to delivering sooner if financial resources allowed. The Assistant Director confirmed that since taking over responsibility for Climate Change a couple of years ago, they had pulled together a baseline report which had come to the IS&G Committee in October 2022 which provides the operational carbon footprint and the starting to understand what we are trying to achieve with Net zero ambition. The second stage of which is the action plan which is just about to be commissioned and is on track to be completed as requested by the Committee by the end of 2024 which should set out the details of which services to focus on, what the Council can do to reduce it greenhouse gas emissions and how much that will cost the authority which will need to feed in to medium term financial strategy. The adaptation plan will sit alongside the action plan.

3.     The Chair commented that the impact of Climate Change cannot be looked at in isolation as it can impact other areas, such as damp and mould in homes, and that there is not a simple fix such as planting trees but about getting that right around location and maintenance. The Assistant Director confirmed that there is not a quick fix and that it is not just about planting trees but more about putting the right tree in the right and having a strategy around this. The Assistant Director confirmed that this does extend into many if not all service areas. It was acknowledged that there will also be fluctuations in greenhouse gas emmisionas as there are times that the Council may have infrastructure projects that will increase the carbon footprint their greenhouse gases and that is why it will take time to do this work properly.

4.     With reference to planting trees do the Council have the rights skills and expertise within the Council? It was confirmed that the Council do have an arboriculturist within Street Scene with knowledge around the management and maintenance of trees but would need to look in to whether the Council has the knowledge around the strategy needed, but that a tree policy would be necessary to meet this agenda.

The Leader of the Council left the meeting.