Decision details

County Councillor David Goode introduced the report, and thanked all those who gave evidence in support of the review, the officers who supported the review and the members of the Task & Finish Group.

He acknowledged that climate change was a critical global problem affecting many of the Council’s services.  He suggested that the adoption of a revised Single Use Plastic programme as part of the Council’s comprehensive carbon reduction strategy would provide the Council with another opportunity to demonstrate its commitment and leadership in carbon reduction.

It was noted that the aim of the review had been to identify additional ways in which the County Council could reduce its use and reliance on singe use plastic, and what more it could do to influence behavioural change within the organisation, and to work in partnership with others to do the same. 

It was recognised that the Covid-19 had led to an unavoidable increase in the use of single use plastic but it was not expected to continue once the pandemic had passed, and should not delay action from being taken.

County Councillor David Goode went on to provide an overview of the work undertaken as part of the review and drew attention to the best practice progress made by other Councils and the progress made in the County Council’s procurement activities.  Finally, he drew attention to the conclusions and recommendations in the Review final report.

County Councillor Carl Les gave his thanks for the work on the review and for the presentation of a comprehensive report to the Executive.

Those thanks were reiterated by County Councillor Andrew Lee, who acknowledged the efforts and thoughts that had gone into the work.  He agreed to identify the best strategy to enable implementation of all of the 16 inventions recommended in the Review final report, and gave assurance that it would be possible to implement some of them in the next 12 months.  Finally he offered to provide updates on the implementation.

All members voted in favour of the recommendations in the report, and it was

Resolved – That:

i)     The findings of the Review be noted

ii)    The Executive Member for Open to Business take forward the recommendations in the Review final report.