Agenda item

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A public statement was received from the North Yorkshire Climate Coalition in relation to Minute 519 – North Yorkshire Council Climate Change Strategy Delivery Pathway.  Bridget Holmstrom attended the meeting to read out the statement, as follows:

I am speaking as a member of the Steering Group of the North Yorkshire Climate Coalition, which represents 25 local climate and environmental groups across the county.  I’d like to make some observations about the report and the climate change delivery pathway being presented today for adoption.

Firstly, we’d like to welcome the renewed affirmation in this report of the Council’s commitment to play a net zero leadership role in line with its adoption of the Yorkshire & Humber Climate Commission pledge.  We fully agree with the report’s emphasis on the co-benefits of climate action, e.g. in terms of health, skills development and energy and food security.

With regard to pathway actions, we remain most concerned by the lack of top-level, specific metrics against which progress will be measured and monitored, and therefore included in future quarterly performance reports to the Executive.  We hope that this shortcoming can be speedily rectified.  We are also concerned at the lack of progress on local climate resilience.  We must quickly adapt to live with climate change. 

Today’s report includes a proposal in para 8.3 to involve NY Climate Coalition as an ‘external reference body’ in overseeing the delivery of the pathway.  We welcome this proposal and can confirm that we are keen to partner with the Council in delivering the aim of being operational net zero by 2030.  While we may not always agree on the best way of achieving this goal, we are committed to playing a constructive role.  We hope that the Executive will endorse this proposal.

To this end, we will also engage with key members of the Council, including Councillor Greg White in his role as the relevant portfolio owner.  We want to pay tribute to the committed efforts of Councillor Paul Haslam as the Council’s former Climate Champion, and we look forward very much to working in as productive a manner with his successor, Councillor David Hugill.  

At the same time, we will endeavour to bring local climate groups together, share good practice and help the community sector across the county to play a full part in the enormous task of decarbonisation by all households, businesses, and communities over the coming years.

Councillor Greg White, Executive Member for Managing our Environment, thanked the Climate Coalition for their continued engagement, their support on actions on climate change, and also their statement to Executive. The Council is keen to continue working with all stakeholders in helping to tackle this important issue.  Whilst I note and welcome the overall support nature of the statement; I do want to respond to a few points that you have raised.  By doing so I can address the items you raised in your statement, and introduce this item for further consideration.

Given the overall challenge in bringing together the Unitary Council, there are competing calls on council resources and that climate change necessarily has to form part of that. I am pleased with the progress Officers have made to date although we all recognise there is a lot more to do. We need additional progress on several points.  Firstly, we need stronger data and emission reporting – we cannot claim to be tackling an issue if we cannot track progress; secondly, the actions in the Delivery Pathway do need more precision and focus. I’ve been speaking with relevant Officers, there is agreement on these two points and I am assured that we will see progress in future update reports.

As for your point on local climate resilience, this is an issue that affects all residents in North Yorkshire cutting across all aspects of life from extreme weather events to helping restore nature. In addition to the obvious proactive initiatives, like facilitating the rollout of battery powered cars, by investing in a network of public charging points, the Council can also help play a part in tackling the impact of climate change when they happen, and anticipating them happening, by investing in infrastructure projects.  I can draw attention to two current examples – the A59 Kex Gill Realignment, costing around £68.5m and Filey Coastal Defence repair scheme which is underway, costing around £3m. These are just some examples that sit amongst many – hopefully it reassures that again, we recognise the issue and the need to take action.