To consider the recommendations resulting from the Herefordshire Citizens’ Climate Assembly commissioned by the council.

The cabinet member environment and economy introduced the item. She thanked everyone who had participated in the citizens’ climate assembly.

Cabinet members noted that:

·       It was important to find new ways to engage with residents and stakeholders;

·       The bar charts produced in the report set out clearly under three broad headings the ideas that assembly members had come up with and voted on;

·       The next stage would be to develop project proposals to seek to deliver on the assembly’s recommendations and the new homes bonus money for this year had been allocated to the climate reserve to provide funding;

·       The assembly process had been rigorous in selecting a broad representation of the demography of the county and a spectrum of views.

Group leaders and representatives presented the comments and queries from their groups. It was noted that:

·       Additional engagement was generally welcomed;

·       The general scrutiny committee had considered recommendations from the climate change panel in January 2021 and these recommendations should be referred back to alongside the recommendations from the citizens’ climate assembly;

·       Some points raised by the climate assembly were challenged, for example the difficulties of rural areas needed to be recognised when seeking to avoid car dependency;

·       It was queried whether the cost of running the assembly represented good value for money, in response it was highlighted that councillors voted unanimously to establish the citizens’ climate assembly in 2019 and that the costs had come from existing consultation budgets;

·       A new supplementary planning document was in development for environmental building standards and all stakeholders would be able to participate in the consultation process;

·       It might not be possible for the council to take forward all of these recommendations but there was interest in seeing what would come forward.

It was resolved that:

a)             Receive and note with thanks the recommendations provided by the Citizens Climate Assembly;

b)             Delegate responsibility to Corporate Director Economy & Environment and S151 officer in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Economy and Environment to allocate funding from the Climate Reserve to consider next steps and provide recommendations to Cabinet by April 2022;

c)             Provide a progress report to the Citizens Climate Assembly in September 2022.