Meeting documents

To approve as a correct record the Minutes of the meeting held on 1 November, 2016, copy attached as an appendix.

RESOLVED –

That the Minutes of the meeting held on 1 November, 2016, be approved as a correct record.

To consider the attached report.

Contact Officer:  Alan Asbury (01296) 585112

The Committee received a report updating Members on progress made on carbon, renewables and energy in the four years since the previous report of 14 November 2012.  It detailed the Council’s achievements in terms of savings delivered, discussed the commencement of the Council’s consultancy deliveries through it trading arm Novae Consulting Limited and later Incgen Ltd and introduced the Bucks Energy Strategy.

The report was also timely as the UK Government had reaffirmed its commitment to carbon reduction targets and would launch new plans to address weakness in transport and the housing sector low-carbon policy in the New Year.  Local Government would have an important role to play in these areas.

Members were informed that carbon reduction aimed at reducing the effects of climate change had two major strands, specifically Mitigation and Adaptation.

Adaptation (often termed climate resilience) concerned itself with adapting to a world with a changing climate. This area of work tended to look at actions that can be pre-planned to allow for business as usual in a future with more frequently occurring and extreme weather conditions and events caused by the increases in global average temperatures. More detail on adaptation was provided at Appendix 2 to the Committee report.

Mitigation was the act of installing measures and changing behaviours towards reducing energy use and consequently the amount of carbon emitted.

An update piece of work on adaption was awaiting completion in early January 2017 following research and interviews in August and September  2016. This had been conducted for AVDC by a University of Manchester student at no cost and would cover the period from the point at which the last LCLIP ended (March 2008) to date.

AlthoughCentral Government policy had recently stalled, the role of energy efficiency continued to be recognised, "reducing emissions and energy bills, improving competitiveness and asset values for business and make buildings more suitable for low-carbon heating in future" – Committee on Climate Change October 2016.  The Committee report detailed in tabular form the energy reduction/generation projects delivered by class leading AVDC, demonstrating in-house activity in this area since the last report.  In total, 19 projects over the 4 years period had cost £375,000 to implement and were producing savings of £115,000 per annum (average return on investment of 3.27 years)

Taken alongside other measures installed and managed since 2008, the savings to the council amount to over two million kilogrammes of carbon dioxide reduced alongside a financial saving in 2016 of over £200,000.  Overall, this represented class-leading cost reduction performance within the public sector.

The Council operated a Salix Finance Plan setting out the next four years of projects. Salix was a 0% loan agreed by the Council in 2008 which the Council matched to create a ring-fenced fund for energy efficiency measures amounting to £280,000.  A regularly updated four year plan ensured that projects were managed proactively and avoided the need for reactive responses to plant failure and asset management. Available spend in any one year depended on committed project  ...  view the full minutes text for item 2.

To consider the attached report.

Contact Officer:  Isabel Edgar Briancon (01296) 585862

The Committee received a presentation from the Service Manager, Recycling, Waste and Community Spaces on the waste strategy for Buckinghamshire including information on household waste and combined recycling rates.

The Bucks Waste Strategy sought, as a partnership, to work together to deliver the best value, most customer-focused waste and recycling service, incorporating prevention, reuse, collection and disposal.  Some of the key data presented included:-

·                    Total household waste arising was increasing at 0.4% above housing growth and equated to every household in Bucks producing an extra 4.5kgs of waste (1129.80kgs per household in 2013/14 to 1134.09 per household in 2015/16).  This was 4,056 tonnes extra total waste.

·                    District-wide, 56.5% of waste was now composted or recycled.  This compared to 45% in 2010/11.  (The UK average recycling rate was 44.9%, against a UK target of 50% and a Bucks Waste Partnership (BWP) target of 60%).

·                    For AVDC, approximately 53% of waste was recycled or composted which compared to 20% in 2011/12.

·                    that fly-tipping continued to be an issue.  Following illegal dumping in Slapton and Aston Clinton, one main group had been summonsed by the police for 8 offences.  (Similar data on flytipping on the other Districts was also provided).

·                    that residual waste tonnage trends were increasing by 1.3% over the last 2 years, while food waste tonnage trends were decreasing by 7% over the same period.

·                    an explanation of how dry recycling and food waste was collected and then disposed of.  It was explained that it cost four times the price to send food waste to the EfW facility compared to sending it for anaerobic digestion (AD).

·                    that residents could assist with rubbish disposal by placing the correct rubbish in the correct bins (e.g. 47% of households placed recyclable items in the general rubbish bin, 47% placed non-recyclable items in their recycling, 35-41% did not take food out of its wrapping before placing it in the food waste collection or used the general rubbish bin.)

Fly-tipping clearances from public land were usually done by Districts and disposal was paid by the County.  There had been significant spikes in clearances total noted and combatted during 2016 by massively increasing surveillance work.  Work would continue to promote deterrence against dumping including through the media and to encourage witnesses to report instances.

Members were informed that DCLG had awarded the BWP £889,000 and funding for a recycling reward scheme.  A new Project Manager was overseeing the Recycling project implementation over a two year period (September 2016 to August 2018) and would be working with commercial partners, members of the partnership and residents.

It was also explained that the average UK household disposed of £700 of food each year that could have been eaten but was thrown away.  The Fighting Food Waste Programme aimed to reduce this waste through:-

·                    identifying and setting our food waste recycling.

·                    increasing food waste participation in Buckinghamshire County households from 25% to 40%.

·                    reducing food waste tonnage per head by 15%.

·                    increasing awareness of various ways of food preparation and preservation,  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.

To consider the future work programme.  Meetings are scheduled as follows:-

·                    15 February 2017: Community Safety Update / Strategy 2017-2020, Assessment of Open Space, Sport and Recreation needs in Aylesbury Vale, VAHT Annual Update

·                    22 March 2017: No items as yet

·                    13 June 2017: No items as yet

The Committee considered their future work programme as submitted to the meeting.  In addition to the scheduled agenda items Member commented that they would also like to review the operation of the Horticultural / Street Cleansing contract and to receive a report regarding littering.

RESOLVED –

That the current work programme be noted.