Agenda item

To consider a report by the Director for Sustainability and Resources, copy attached as item 11

The Committee had a report before it attached as item 11, which had been circulated to all Members and is attached to a signed copy of these minutes. This report set out background information on the Portfolio of the Worthing Cabinet Member for Climate Emergency to enable the Committee to consider and question the Cabinet Member on issues within their portfolio and any other issues which the Cabinet Member was involved in connected with the work of the Council and the Worthing communities.

A Member asked, “What have been the pros and cons of having a dedicated Cabinet post for the Climate Emergency? Do you think it is the most effective way to ensure that the climate is, as you say, a golden thread, through council policy?”

Members were informed that the best parts had been looking at the best practices of other local authorities and working with the rest of the Cabinet to make sure net zero targets and carbon reduction were always priorities. The downside was some inevitable overlap with other Cabinet Members but the Cabinet Member was confident they all worked well as a team.

A Member asked, “In the briefing note of your portfolio you have a section on the challenges. You’ve identified that a lot of this is outside of direct control, reliance on government funding and engaging with external stakeholders. In the expected absence, and evidence of gaps, in funding - who are the external stakeholders this area of work will be reliant on and what engagement strategies are used to ensure year on year achievement towards net zero targets?”

Members were informed that a final list of stakeholders had not been defined yet, establishing that group would be the priority for the next 12 months.  

They wanted to work with residents and communities, businesses, and other public sector bodies including the county council, the NHS, the Environment Agency and educational establishments to name a few.  There would also be organisations and individuals in the communities that they were not yet aware of who would be able to make a valuable contribution to this work.  They also expected new organisations to be created who they would want to engage with as this agenda gained momentum locally and nationally.

The Cabinet Member expected to be using a range of engagement approaches, which would vary depending on the audience, and the nature of the work, which would vary over time as they progressed towards 2045.  The key partners, e.g. in the business and community sector would also have meaningful insights as to how to engage with their particular sectors and the Cabinet Member would be building this into the approach. 

A Member asked, “If councils like ourselves are to achieve 2045 targets, it requires cultural change across both the organisation and partners but also across our communities too. How do you plan to take the climate emergency discussion to the residents of this borough to activate individual and collective progress in this area?”

Members were informed the cultural and behavioural change to achieve 2045 targets across councils like Adur & Worthing was indeed very significant.  The Councils had a key role to play in bringing communities, residents, businesses and other stakeholders together to help drive this change. Discussions and engagement would need to take place at different levels and scales, ranging from individual households, to larger organisations and partnerships who played a key role in the agenda.  

To be successful, those involved would need to play to each other's strengths and the Cabinet Member did not anticipate leading all of the conversations.  In some cases the partners would be better placed to lead engagement with different groups because of their skills, connections, and relationships.  For example it was anticipated to be working closely with business organisations like the BID and the chamber of commerce, who would be best placed to engage with their members on the carbon agenda. The Council would play a key role in enabling conversations and developing partnerships.

Achieving the 2045 target was also dependent on this agenda being driven nationally and regionally, incentivising a transition to net zero.  They would continue to lobby for these changes and support any initiatives that would help achieve the target locally.

A Member asked, “On page 55 4.5 ‘Summary of the Carbon Neutral Plan’, it reads ‘Offsetting these residual emissions will be required in order to achieve carbon neutral status and the Carbon Management Plan recommends that this is achieved through the delivering (in-house and/or with a third-party) of new, renewable electricity generation assets.’

How are Worthing Borough Council working with developers to minimise the carbon footprint of new builds, and how much are we, as a council, able to influence the type of 3 materials used, and the sustainable energy solutions that are incorporated into new builds, such as Air Source Heat Pumps, Solar PVs and also sustainability in respect of travel solutions? At Paragraph 6.3 there is no mention of building and development as organisations included in the plan.”

Members were informed the Carbon Neutral Plan focused on the Councils' direct operational emissions from its consumption of gas and electricity within its buildings and fleet. The construction of new buildings and staff travel (excluding pool car usage) fell outside of this scope into 'scope 3' and this is why it was not included in the Carbon Management Plan. It was, however, an important area in which the councils had a greater degree of control and they had been making considerable progress, particularly in the new build housing programme, where they had committed to being wholly gas-free with air-source heat pumps installed in every new-build property. The 11-unit scheme being developed in Victoria Road was designed to passivhaus standards with electric heating and air-to-water heat pumps for domestic hot water.

Members also asked about how climate change used to be a responsibility of the Leader and ideal goals. Members were informed that having a separate post for climate change meant that the Cabinet Member was able to devote more time and room to focus on climate change importance being embedded in all other aspects and committees and that hitting the 2045 goal, while making it as cheap and easy as possible for residents to follow suit would be the ideal.