Agenda item

Joint report of the Head of Corporate Resources and Executive Director

The Committee considered the joint report of the Head of Corporate Resources and Executive Director that advised that at the Council, at its meeting held on 18 July 2019, agreed a motion to declare a Climate Emergency and this was attached as Appendix A to this report; that in accordance with the terms of the Council motion, work had progressed on developing a programme structure, strategy and initial implementation plan for delivery of the motion and its objectives; that in order to further inform this work, a baseline position was required across the Council of work that was currently underway or planned that could contribute to the Council achieving the aims of the motion; and that the report provided a summary of work undertaken to date and the exercise that was required to be led through each Overview and Scrutiny Committee in order to establish that baseline position.

The report also advised that each Overview and Scrutiny Committee was being asked to lead an immediate piece of work for completion by the next cycle of meetings that:

The report concluded that the output from the work referred to above should be reported back to Overview and Scrutiny Committees in March/April 2020 and be led by the respective Heads of Service in conjunction with the Committee members and Cabinet Member; and that necessary support would be available from the Cabinet Member - Regulatory, Compliance and Corporate Service, the Head of Corporate Resources and the Executive Director in addition to the Council wide officer working group.

The Committee also received a presentation from Stephanie Jukes, Section Manager Energy and Environmental Management, Corporate Resources and Andrew Walker, Head of Locality Services, on the background to climate change and the Council’s Climate Emergency Declaration which included information on:

·       Sefton’s target of net zero carbon by 2030; and the establishment of a working group and its commencement of work on a strategy, action plan and partnership working

·       How Sefton quantified its emissions using the scope of the “Greenhouse Gas Protocol”

·       Next steps which included most departments having now received information on the issues associated with the Climate Emergency Declaration, had been tasked with completing an initial scoping exercise and to consider further options

Mr. Walker advised the Committee that in order for the Council to meet the objectives within the Council motion each Overview and Scrutiny Committee was being asked to lead an immediate piece of work for completion by the next cycle of meetings (end of April 2020) that:

and that Heads of Service were on-going with this work on behalf of the Committee.

Members of the Committee asked questions/commented on the following issues:

·       The suspension of the food waste collection service

·       Methods to ensure that the Council’s vehicle fleet is efficient as possible to reduce carbon emissions

·       Sanctions that could be applied to road haulage companies using Sefton’s highways for the pollution that their vehicles produce; and how the introduction of Clean Air Zones in Sefton could help with this

·       The scope for obtaining energy from more green friendly, renewable sources

·       difficulties in assessing the Council wide carbon emission baseline position  

·       what government funding had been provided to help the Council in achieving its climate emergency targets; and the acknowledgement that the Council had been proactive in pursuing and self-funding this agenda 

RESOLVED: That