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There is no summary of this meeting yet. Summaries are written once the council publishes the minutes, which are its official record of what a meeting decided. They usually appear a few weeks after the meeting.
1.1 Chair welcomed Members and Officers to the meeting. Apologies were received from Councillors Alfie Best, Liam Cowles, Giles Davies, Janet Jones, Colette Thomas & Nathan Yeowell.
2.1 Councillor Elizabeth Haynes declared a prejudicial interest for Workstream 3 as she owns a food business. Councillor Catherine Bonera also declared a prejudicial interest as Councillor Haynes is her sister.
3.1 The minutes of the meeting held on 25 January 2023 were confirmed as an accurate record.
4.1 There were no outstanding actions.
5.1 The DCOH&CC gave a brief overview of the report and welcomed any questions from Members. 5.2 Officers responded to Members’ questions and comments as follows:- · E&CRM – a graph was not provided in the report for the 22/23 figures due to COVID skewing the results. Subsequent reporting will contain these figures though. · E&CRM – There has been no definitive decision as of yet on biodiesel, but most commercial procurement is doing a blended mix. He did however state that the preferred approach would be for electrification first and then once the infrastructure was in place to move to hydrogen for heavy goods vehicles. When further questioned he clarified that current work was focused on EV’s due to the abundance of diverse vehicles available, in regards the use of hydrogen he explained that this would need to be looked at from a regional level, as there is currently no infrastructure in place but that it was TCBC’s understanding that heavier vehicles are more suited to hydrogen as the electric batteries required to run these would be so heavy they would result in a decrease in efficiency. · E&CRM – There were currently 18 charging points for EV’s, and it was hoped this number would be increased to 50 over the next two financial years. · SDE&E – TCBC need to work with our Regional Partners, such as the Cardiff Capital Region (CCR), to stimulate research & development within the energy sector and to drive the infrastructure. · SDE&E – Work has already been done to map out the potential locations of EV charge points within the borough. She also clarified that all the current charge points were privately owned so there was no need to look at commercial sponsorship. · E&CRM – TCBC are currently taking 3 approaches in regards its Net Zero goals. Firstly, by looking to improve the public charge network, which is currently being worked on by the CCR on a regional basis. Secondly by working on the Councils own fleet of vehicles charge points, and finally by looking at work which could be done for commuters in terms of charge point locations, adding to this that discussions were taking place with Transport for Wales (TfW) around developing an ultra-rapid charge network to allow residents to charge EV’s quicker which could benefit residents without driveways. · SDE&E – It was important to maximise available grant funding, work was being done with the CCR to support the EV charge community and ensure that a joined-up approach was being taken. Although for residents with multiple EV’s there was work that was still needed to be done, ensuring that cables aren’t going across pavements and hindering walking or cycling in the borough. · DCOH&CC – Storage and parking for E-Bikes was being looked at and it was his belief that TCBC were working hard to provide quality storage and parking. He went on to add that the hope was that Pontypool could have a Central Hub for parking and storage of E-bikes for commuters into Pontypool and to do similar in Cwmbran. · SDE&E – There have been press-releases encouraging more food waste collection from schools, the free school meal scheme was being promoted to schools to improve uptake. · DCOH&CC – additional capital is being put in to expand the current active travel network, its important that TCBC look at the national approach, additional funding is being provided by WG to help with these objectives and also help maintain the existing network. · DCOH&CC – It is a balancing act between making sure pathways and cycle areas are well-lit for residents but not impacting negatively on biodiversity. · DCOH&CC – Cycle parking is being looked at as an option to encourage and increase active travel. Work is being done to identify the demand when it comes to active travel on a data-led basis. · E&CRM – There are a number of grants available to support households in regard to renewable energy and through the Shared Prosperity Fund we have been able to employ an Officer within Environmental Health to map out and provide information on the grants available to residents. · E&CRM – Alternative energy networks were being looked at but current options were very expensive and so it would need to be looked at efficiency before a decision was taken regarding energy networks. · E&SM – There were lots of ways in which we are adapting our Climate response, for example using rock salt to stop tarmac from melting. Its important to risk assess service areas to see how best to ensure they adapt and this gets factored into planning. · SDE&E – Information will be provided to evidence changes being made intending to improve food sustainability and resilience. · TLE – It is important to manage green space and progress has been made taking a blended approach. Need to look at having a unified approach within TCBC and how we can assist Bron Afon and other partners to integrate this themselves. · TLE – There is currently no figures available in terms of trees that have been lost in the borough and the way in which this information is recorded needs to be looked at. · TLE – It was considered highly beneficial to partner with local agencies and work collectively on this project, as well as a need to look at what can be done on a strategic level. · SDE&E – Not able to leave material at site when cutting grass, once cut it was no longer classed as material and instead its classed as waste, so waste regulations would apply. · TLE – Education around grass management for residents needed, requires comms to assist with getting this message across. Public consultations can also assist with getting the information across. There would need to be a transition from grass to wildflowers which should combat the reduction in nutrients in the soil and should also over time mean that less material would need to be removed from site. · TLE – A role has been created through WG funding to look into many different things such as tree planting and community orchards. It is important to look at how we manage areas, particularly multi-functional areas where there could be conflicts between users, but we also need to look how we manage sustainability in areas. · TLE – There has been a recent change to WG legislation which will mean that TCBC would need to look at a nature recovery action plan. There could be a shared approach with Blaenau Gwent as due to the similarities within our landscapes we can take similar approaches. There would be a public consultation that would look to be held in the summer, but work was ongoing at the moment with this. · TLE – Work needs to be done to support the RDLP, particularly around the wider use within other green spaces. · E&SM – eLearning had been developed for all Council staff on areas covered within this report, this was rolled out as a trial in 2022 and the hope would be to get that rolled out and a higher staff completion rate. · E&SM – TCBC have embedded a lot of the information shown in the report and included it into the corporate plan such as wellbeing objectives. 5.3 The Chair thanked the Officers for their participation, and they then left the meeting. The B&DSSM, CSO and SBSO remained for the recommendations. 5.4 Recommendations On completion of their scrutiny activity, the Committee concluded by offering the following recommendations and comments for consideration:- Recommendation 1 MT1.2 With regards to the cycle to work scheme, members recommended that officers explore further opportunities for the provision of accessible and secure bicycle lockup facilities for those working at and visiting the Civic Centre. Recommendation 2 With regards to electric vehicle (EV) charging points, the committee recommended more visible signposting for members of the public regarding the locations of EV charging points currently available for public use within Torfaen. Recommendation 3 EW6 and EW7 The committee noted that the new actions to support net zero initiatives for local business and across the community did not contain specific targets. Members therefore recommended that appropriate targets be attributed to EW6 and EW7. Members also recommended that the Council reaches out to businesses and the community for examples of where they’ve taken net zero initiatives. Recommendation 4 Members were pleased to hear that a monthly Nifty Thrifty e-newsletter was being produced, containing updates on the latest benefits, grants and support available to help save money. Members recommended that wider promotion of the e-newsletter was required, as they were unaware of it until reading the report. Recommendation 5 The committee recommended that all available data and information regarding the variety of energy support schemes be pulled together into one place, to support citizens in Torfaen. Recommendation 6 R3 Members considered the December 2024 target to bring together local stakeholders to support Torfaen to become a ‘Sustainable Food Place’ with healthy and sustainable food available for all, as being a long way ahead. Members recommended that the actions involved in achieving the above objective be set out to form a timeline working towards the December 2024 target. Recommendation 7 Members noted that a lot of communication had taken place in order to encourage members of the public to use active travel; however, its effectiveness required monitoring in terms of how well and how frequently the active travel routes were being used. Recommendation 8 BER4 Members recommended that the data available regarding how many trees the Council was losing and planting required further, focussed monitoring. Recommendation 9 BER5 & BER13 Members recommended that the Tree and Woodland Supplementary Planning Guidance (SPG) be shared with housing associations, community councils and other relevant partners. Members also recommended that opportunities be explored for partners to be included within the work with schools to encourage seed collecting and sapling growing within school grounds, as this would provide additional professional guidance and support. Recommendation 10 As acknowledged by officers during the meeting, members recommended that the canal be referenced within future annual reports. Recommendation 11 CC1 With regards to ‘supporting the change’, members recommended that priority be given to catching up with training for staff and elected members to reinforce the climate and nature emergency declaration and the impact they can have on achieving our objectives. Members also recommended that the potential be explored for a training package to be offered to schools in Torfaen, informing and educating children regarding the climate change and nature emergency specifically in Torfaen. Additional comments and observations from the Committee: Members noted the importance of the State of the Nature report and recommended that it was monitored and considered in a year’s time.
6.1 The date of the next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, 14 November 2023 at 2.00pm 6.2 The meeting ended at 4.35pm.
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