Issue - decisions

Matter for Decision:  

              i.      The new Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan replaces the previous strategy which covered the period 2008-12, and would set the framework for action by the Council to address climate change over the next five years.

            ii.      The Carbon Management Plan forms part of the Strategy and details how the Council would further reduce carbon emissions from its own operations and estate over the five year life of the strategy.

          iii.      The Climate Change Fund criteria needed to be revised if the Fund is to support the projects that will deliver these reductions in emissions.

         iv.      The Climate Change Fund Annual Status Report provides financial details of the projects supported by the Fund to date.

Decision of Executive Councillor for Planning and Climate Change:

              i.      Approved the draft Climate Change Strategy (Appendix A of the report) for public consultation from May to September.

            ii.      Approved the draft Carbon Management Plan (Appendix B of the report).

          iii.      Approved the revised Operational Guidelines for the Climate Change (Appendix C of the report).

         iv.      Approved the Annual Climate Change Fund Status Report (Appendix D of the report).

Reason for the Decision:

As set out in the Officer’s report.

Any Alternative Options Considered and Rejected:

Not applicable.

Scrutiny Considerations:

The committee received a report from the Head of Corporate Strategy regarding Cambridge City Council’s Climate Strategy and Carbon Management Plan.

Members made the following comments:

              i.      All committee reports contain an Environmental Impact Assessment and members would like to see officers using this to explain how any adverse environmental impacts of a proposal or decision could be mitigated.

            ii.      Concern was raised that the tone of the report was self-congratulatory when the reality is that little successes had been achieved on the council’s own emissions.

          iii.      Concerns were raised about the how robust the figures were.

         iv.      The number of positive press releases over the last year had put pressure on officers to suggest they were achieving good results.

           v.      Members were concerned that human error had resulted in two large omissions in the data and that once those elements had been taken into account, the results were less positive than initially thought.

         vi.      Transitions Cambridge held a recent event looking at best practice in this area and members expressed the opinion that officers should consult such groups.

The Head of Corporate Strategy responded and expressed regret for the error. Members were assured that the baseline figure was now as robust as it could be, bearing in mind that some of the data for some sites was based on estimated bills. Officers had a invested lot of time into checking the figures after the errors had come to light.  Considerable successes had been achieved in certain areas such as planning policy and the council’s housing stock; for example, achieving building Code Level 5 at the North West Cambridge site.

The committee resolved by 4 vote to 0 to endorse the recommendations.

The Executive Councillor approved the recommendations.