Report of the Strategic Director (Neighbourhoods)

The report summarises progress since the 3 Climate Neighbourhood Officers were appointed in March and April 2021, how they are approaching their roles and initial areas which they have identified for development.

The Committee considered the report of the Strategic Director (Neighbourhoods) that provided a summary of the progress since the three Climate Neighbourhood Officers were appointed in March and April 2021, how they were approaching their roles and initial areas which they had identified for development.

The main points and themes within the report included: -

·                Providing and introduction and background, noting that the posts had been established on a 2-year fixed term basis;

·                The Climate Change Officers would give advice and direction and ensure that both Councillors and communities had support and information to develop locally based climate change initiatives;

·                Describing their key tasks and their approach to work with local Neighbourhood Teams;

·                Noting the commitemnt to strong partnership working and building upon extensive relationships with internal and external stakeholders and residents on the climate change agenda; and

·                Identified areas for development.

Some of the key points that arose from the Committee’s discussions were: -

·                Welcoming the new Climate Change Officers and wishing them well in their new role;

·                Officers needed to engage with local schools to promote and support climate change projects, ideally with a Climate Change Officer allocated to each ward;

·                The need to engage with businesses to develop plans and targets to tackle their own emissions and this should be incorporated and reported via the Cliamte Change Action Plan as this was key to delviering the city’s emissions target;

·                Were all of the individual ward climate change action plans established;

·                There was a need to meaningfully measure the outcomes and impact of the individual ward claimate change action plans;

·                An update was sought in relation to Carbon Literacy training and could this be brought inhouse to progress and deliver as quickly as possible;

·                Was the Neighbourhood Investment Fund sufficient to drive forward this important area of work, noting that the Lottery Fund was significanlty higher however complex to access; and

·                Examples of good practive and local inititives related to climate change should be shared across all wards via ward coordination.

The Head of Neighbourhoods stated that the climate change officers would be working with local schools and were members of the Schools Network. She advised that the officers would also progress this work by engaging with local businesses, especially those operating at a neighbourhood level and would seek to establish links with local trader organisations to progress this agenda.

The Chair stated that following discussions at the May 2021 meeting she would be meeting with the Chair of Children and Young People Scrutiny Committee to agree the options for ensuring that climate change and young people was adequately addressed through the scrutiny process.

The Head of Neighbourhoods advised that it was recognised that working with a range of partners across the city was vital to deliver the climate change ambitions for the city. She said that these new posts would seek to compliment existing programmes rather than duplicate any existing work. She advised that the work to deliver ward climate change action plans continued to be progressed, noting that some wards had progressed further than others and the Strategic Lead (South) commented that work was underway with the Tyndall Centre to establish metrics by which the impact of each ward plan could be measured and reported. He advised that Members would be kept informed as that work progressed.

The Executive Member for Neighbourhoods commented that the Neighbourhood Investment Fund was important to help raise awareness and deliver claimte change and environemntal projects in wards and he encourged community groups to apply to this. 

The Executive Member for Environment stated that the work of the local Neighbourhood Teams was important to establish relationships and dialogue with a range of partners to progress the actions required to address climate change. She commented that Carbon Literact had been offered to all Members and encouraged all who had not undertaken this training to do so at the earliest opportunty. A member commented that all members of this Committee should be offered the Carbon Literacy Traing in advance of the next meeting of the Committee. The Committee were also informed that the delviery of Carbon Literacy Trainging would be reported in the Climate Change Action Plan updates. 

Decisions

The Committee recommend that Carbon Literacy Training should be offered to all Members of the Committee in advance of the next meeting.