Issue - meetings

This report will be the subject of pre-scrutiny at a meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee due to take place on Monday 25^th November 2024.  Any recommendations arising from that meeting on this subject will be reported to the Executive Committee in a supplementary pack.

The Strategic Housing and Business Support Manager presented the Carbon Reduction Strategy and Implementation Plan Annual Review for the Executive Committee’s consideration.

Members were reminded that the Carbon Reduction Strategy had been introduced two years’ previously.  At the time that the strategy was introduced, Members had agreed that progress should be monitored on an annual basis and that a new strategy should be presented every three years.  The next new strategy was due to be presented for Members’ consideration in 2025/26.

Following the presentation of the report, Members discussed the targets detailed in the action plan and in doing so noted that financial costs and timelines had not been incorporated into the plan in many places.  The suggestion was made that this information would be useful, where known, as this would help the Council in terms of long-range forecasting for the Council’s budget.  Officers explained that for many of the targets, the financial costs would not become apparent until specific business cases were drawn up and presented for the consideration of Members.

Reference was also made to the information that had been provided in the report in respect of Electric Vehicle charging points and the projected income that the Council would receive through an agreement with Zest EV Charging.  Questions were raised about the extent to which the Council would receive this income for car parks serving facilities operated by Rubicon Leisure Limited.  Concerns were also raised about the extent to which the Council would be required to cover the utilities costs for the charging points.  The Committee was informed that the Council would receive income in relation to the authority’s assets and it was noted that Rubicon Leisure Limited used Council assets.  In respect of the electricity costs, Members were advised that Zest would cover the electricity costs, which would be recharged to the customer when they were charging their vehicle. 

During consideration of this item, Members noted that one of the targets in the action plan referred to reducing the amount of paper used for Council business.  Questions were raised as to whether Members would be forced to go paperless for Council and Committee meetings in order to meet this target.  Officers clarified that Members continued to be consulted as to whether they required paper or electronic access to agenda packs and paper copies were provided when requested.  However, the modern.gov app could also be used to access and annotate agenda packs electronically and the Democratic Services team could provide training on how to use the app to Members who wanted to go paperless or reduce their use of paper.

RECOMMENDED that

the Council endorse the findings of this annual review of the Carbon Reduction Strategy.