Agenda item

(Indicative timing 2.45pm – 3.30pm)

The Chairman welcomed the Cabinet Member with Responsibility (CMR) for the Environment and also the Head of Planning and Transport Planning. The CMR had accepted an invite to share the priorities for the year ahead and beyond with the Panel.

The CMR advised that whilst it was very early days, he was excited to have taken on this new role and he was looking forward to building on the momentum that his predecessor Councillor Miller had established with the work that he had carried out. There were a lot of threads to the Environment portfolio which interlinked with a number of the other Cabinet positions.

In terms of priorities, which were linked to the Corporate Plan, there were 4 key areas of focus:

·       Net Zero Challenge (including biodiversity)

·       Waste

·       Flooding

·       Partnership Approach

Net Zero Challenge – it had been a year since a Climate emergency was declared in Worcestershire, and to mark that date  the CMR was chairing his first meeting of Carbon Reduction Advisory Group session which had been established last year to move matters froward. The target of net zero by 2050 was a great challenge which would involve a lot of work for the Council working with partners, but it was vitally important that it was achieved.

The Environment Act 2021 underpinned much of the Council’s work in this area, with its key aims to improve air and water quality, tackle waste and improve biodiversity. There had already been significant achievements towards the net zero challenge, for instance with emissions being halved in the last decade, and there were a number of plans to support and guide the Council in this work. Further areas of focus included waste disposal, street lighting and biodiversity. One requirement of the Act was that applicants were now required to demonstrate biodiversity net gains on planning applications. There was also now a Local Nature Recovery Strategy with a tree planting goal, of 150,000 trees in 5 years, which was included in the Corporate Plan.

Waste – the details of the key legislation and national strategy changes relevant to this area were set out, including the requirement for weekly food waste collections to be set up by 2025, which therefore meant as a Waste Disposal Authority, the requirement for the Council to set up infrastructure to treat this waste. Other key changes included from 2024 food producers would be responsible for their packaging waste, which would hopefully encourage them to reduce waste or become carbon neutral. The introduction of a deposit return scheme for plastic and cans was also a new initiative arising from the 2021 Act. The CMR highlighted that part of this role was that of Chairman of the Strategic Waste Management Board, working with a variety of partners and building those relationships in that capacity.

Flooding – The Panel was reminded of the flood alleviation schemes which were in the pipeline. The work on surface water drainage plans on new developments was also referred to. The CMR advised that he was now a member of the Regional Flood and Coastal Committee and the River Severn partnership, which looked at strategies for the future and worked in liaison with DEFRA.

Partnership Approach – The CMR explained the wide-ranging, pragmatic approach he would be adopting to taking forward his environment portfolio. This would include working closely with Cabinet colleagues, the Member Advisory Group, and this Panel. Partnership working was key and the CMR would be working with a variety of external partners including statutory bodies and was keen to set up a regular dialogue with the District Council portfolio holders as part of One Worcestershire. He intended to engage with schools and link in with their initiatives and ideas in the environment field.  He was also keen to develop a stakeholder map of key people across the county who had influence over environmental issues and seek to harness their activity and identify best practice to be shared for the good of the county as a whole. 

In response to a Members request, it was agreed that some additional Performance Indicators on environmental issues would be added to the Panel’s quarterly monitoring information. This would enable the Panel to be more aware of the activity being carried out and to scrutinise that activity, as well as promoting it to a wider audience.