Agenda item

Considered – Report of Jos Holmes, Climate Change Strategy Manager, to feed back on the development of the draft Climate Change Delivery Pathway.

Some of the key points highlighted in the report are as summarised below:

·         Following the approval of the North Yorkshire Council Climate Change Strategy back in July 2023, officers are now in the process of creating the Climate Change Delivery Pathway (CCDP), outlining the key short-term (to March 2025) tasks and indicate the medium-term (to 2030) actions which will need to be undertaken to deliver the Strategy.

·         Proposed metrics in the form of outcomes and outputs are included under each section of the Strategy, as well as the potential return on investment. Most of the activities are following a business plan approach and run on an invest to save basis.

·         The development of Directorate Action Plans will support the identification of project sponsors for each task to ensure they are embedded within services, and ownership is taken.

·         The CCDP is a dynamic document. It will be constantly updated and reviewed to ensure that new opportunities presented by future political, economic, technical, and social changes are embraced.

·         Work on the adaptation section is ongoing and progress will be reported at a future stage.

·         Following the review by this committee, a community-based workshop will be undertaken to further engage our residents in developing the actions to be undertaken. It will then be reviewed by Management Board and the Executive.

Following this, comments and questions raised by the committee included:

·         It is good to see we are working with partners, such as the Yorkshire Marine Partnership to support projects such as the ‘Great Yorkshire Kelp Forest’.

·         In response to a question regarding plans for home insultation and how these would be funded, it was noted that we have legislative responsibilities as the landlord for a large number of domestic and non-domestic properties and are required to bring them up to particular energy performance standards. For most of operations, an invest to save approach is to be taken with regard to our property and fleet, such as property decarbonisation plans. Projects to combat poor insulation are taking place, such as a LEP study to look at hard to heat properties, e.g. Victorian terrace and also stone built properties in rural areas. The council has successfully applied for Home Upgrade Grant (HUG) funds to incentivise private households to apply to put in various energy efficiency measures. The council is also involved in a consultation exercise around the next round of HUG and the Local Authority Delivery (LAD) scheme, and will be advocating more flexibility with the grants and to feed back the difficulties faced in administering the scheme in a rural area such as North Yorkshire.

·         Further to this, work around listed buildings is taking place in conjunction with National Parks, to help support our Building Conservation Officers to give good advice on these matters.

·         It was understood that we cannot work in isolation on this, and it will be important to collaborate with other agencies to deliver on projects in the most effective and efficient way to have the most impact in local communities.

·         Plans for tree planting in urban areas was raised as a priority and ensuring that any trees removed are replanted. In response, the creation of the new verge management groups was explained and by working with the Parks and Grounds department as a unitary council, this would help to look at how to best we can utilise public open space for tree planting and adaptation work across North Yorkshire. It was noted that the council has recently appointed an officer to specifically look at all public spaces and develop accelerated tree planting in those areas.

·         The inclusion of an acronym list in future versions was suggested.

·         Future training requirements for home retrofitting projects and link to stock condition surveys.

·         The inclusion of hedges within the tree planting section was to be added.

·         It was commented that new housing developments sometimes gain planning permission despite not having adequate active travel infrastructure. Is there walking and cycling data to show how children travel to school across the county and how they feel about travelling to school? This suggestion will be fed into the schools wraparound group to consider further, particularly the idea of a survey that takes place on a specified day.

·         Is there a way of parish and town councils contacting officers for help to identify potential areas for tree planting, as knowing who owns a piece of land is sometimes difficult. It was advised that this can now be done through the climate change officer team.

·         It was asked what investment is the council putting into net zero and climate change measures to lead the way as North Yorkshire, and how much reliance is on grant funding from external partners? It was felt that there are private sector funding opportunities that can be tapped into accelerate progress. In response, the officer noted that grant funding has been the traditional route for local authorities to access funding, but officers are looking at more innovative funding mechanisms for investing in the various activities we want to undertake. For example, two of the Devolution Deal Net Zero projects involve large infrastructure projects, such as feasibility studies regarding decarbonisation at Allerton Waste Recovery Park and developing a green energy park at Seamer Carr. These involve new technologies and require more commercial, private sector investment. There is recognition that there isn’t enough grant funding to do everything in the new delivery pathway, so a business plan approach is required to create a more commercial approach.

Resolved - That the draft Climate Change Delivery Pathway be noted and the feedback on the structure and content be incorporated into future versions.