To approve as a correct record the minutes of the Climate Change Ward Action Plans Task and Finish Group meeting held on 23 February 2023.

Decision

To approve the minutes of the meeting held on 23 February 2023 as a correct record.

Report of the Head of Neighbourhoods and the Strategic Lead Neighbourhoods South

This report considers options for reporting approaches that record the outcomes, impact, and activity of Climate Ward Action Plans. Suggestions of best practise from other work and future aspirations for the monitoring and evaluation of Climate Ward Action Plans.

The Task and Finish Group considered the report of the Head of Neighbourhoods and the Strategic Lead (Neighbourhoods South) which considered the options for reporting approaches that recorded the outcomes, impact, and activity of Climate Ward Action Plans.

Key points and themes in the report included:

·         Providing an introduction and background;

·         Consideration of the opportunities for the development of performance measures; and

·         Other considerations.

The Chair reported that, while other Members of the Task and Finish Group had been unable to attend today’s meeting, they had discussed their final recommendations ahead of the meeting and these were mainly reflected in the list of recommendations at the front of the report.

In response to a question from the Chair, it was confirmed that the next update from Neighbourhood Teams is due to go to the Environment and Climate Change Scrutiny Committee in December 2023.  In response to a further question, the Head of Neighbourhoods advised that there was an opportunity to strengthen the plans following these Task and Finish Group meetings and that the strengthened plans would include a common set of metrics, for example, in relation to recycling but that officers would also be considering setting bespoke measures for specific plans.  She advised that officers would be able to provide an update at the December Scrutiny meeting in relation to this.  The report will be presented alongside other related pieces of work including communications and carbon literacy. The Chair requested that when this report came to Scrutiny that it included some key performance indicators.

Referring to the recommendation in the report that “a consistent structure for all plans should be maintained with the addition of broader partner action and place-based initiatives section”, the Chair reported that it needed to be clear that these plans mainly provided targets for Council officers. She highlighted that, in a report submitted to the previous meeting, the action plan for Miles Platting and Newton Heath had included a separate section which was specific to that ward and reported that other Councillors would like similar in their ward and to have input into the content of this.  She advised that this section and any aims within it could be agreed locally with Ward Councillors and residents and that these aims could be included in the action plan.  The chair noted that for some measures, it would not be easy to include meaningful measures but recognised the ambition to make an impact should be recognised.

The Executive Member for Vibrant Neighbourhoods highlighted that there were only three Climate Change Officers so, while they would be undertaking work across all wards, it was important to be realistic about what they could do, and that Ward Councillors needed to be aware of this and understand their role. The Chair advised that the Task and Finish Group wanted to ensure that there was a clear understanding of the role of the Climate Change Officers. The Strategic Lead (Neighbourhoods South) reported that the Climate Change Officers acted as expert advisors and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

Report of the Governance and Scrutiny Support Unit

Members are invited to review the Terms of Reference and agree the Work Programme of the Subgroup.

The Task and Finish Group considered the terms of reference and future work programme and were invited to make any amendments.

The Chair stated that this would be the final meeting of the Task and Finish Group and that the Group’s final report would be submitted to the next meeting of the Environment and Climate Change Scrutiny Committee.

Decision

That this will be the final meeting of the Task and Finish Group and that the Group’s final report will be submitted to the next meeting of the Environment and Climate Change Scrutiny Committee.