Venue: Conference Room 2 - Herefordshire Council, Plough Lane Offices, Hereford, HR4 0LE. View directions
Contact: Simon Cann, Democratic Services Officer
Link: Watch this meeting live on the Herefordshire Council Youtube Channel
Items
| No. |
Item |
121. |
Apologies for absence
To receive apologies for absence.
Minutes:
Apologies had been
received from Cllr Rob Owens.
|
122. |
Named substitutes
To receive details of
members nominated to attend the meeting in place of a member of the
committee.
Minutes:
Cllr Ben Proctor was the named substitute for
Cllr Rob Owens.
|
123. |
Declarations of interest
To receive
declarations of Interests from members of the committee in respect
of items on the agenda.
Minutes:
There were no declarations of interest.
|
124. |
Minutes  PDF 198 KB
To receive the minutes of the meeting held on
Monday 20 January 2025.
Minutes:
The minutes of the previous meeting were
received.
Resolved: That the
minutes of the meeting held on 20 January 2025 be confirmed as a
correct record and be signed by the Chairperson.
|
125. |
Questions from members of the public
To
receive any written questions from members of the
public.
Minutes:
No questions had been
received from members of the public.
|
126. |
Questions from members of the council
To receive any written questions from members
of the council.
Minutes:
No questions had been
received from members of the council.
|
127. |
Energy Efficiency and Retrofitting PDF 411 KB
For the committee to consider the impact of
strategies and regulations in relation to energy, efficiency and
retrofitting.
Additional documents:
Minutes:
The report was taken as read
and the committee Chair outlined the three main objective around
the item.
-
Understand the outcomes of the building retrofit and
supply chain development funded by Climate Reserve fund.
-
Evaluate progress on Keep Herefordshire Warm and HUG
initiatives.
-
Consider an update on the impact of the new rented
property sector energy efficiency regulations.
It was noted that the third
objective around the Renters’ Rights Bill went much wider
than the committee’s remit for the meeting and it was advised
that the committee should constrain itself to the living conditions
element of the topic.
- The committee noted
that one of the main drivers of the push for retrofitting was the
council’s net zero ambition across the county.
- The committee noted
that nationally and internationally there had been increased
pessimism around achieving net zero targets and asked the Cabinet
Member Environment if Herefordshire Council was still aiming for
Net zero across the county by 2030 and how achievable the ambition
was.
- The Cabinet Member
Environment stated that the executive hadn’t changed its
target on et zero and was confident that it could be achieved at a
council level by 2030, however achieving the target on a county
wide level would be more challenging due to the lack of direct
influence the council had over all the emitters within the
county.
- The Cabinet Member
expressed doubts as to whether net zero across the county would be
achieved by 2030, but stressed that this should not discourage
ongoing and future activity related to achieving that target and
that everything possible should be done to try and meet the
objective.
- A committee member
stressed the need for sequestration and finding ways of removing
warming gas from the atmosphere.
- The Cabinet Member
for Environment said it would be a challenge to meet net zero with
over 14000 households in fuel poverty, although the committee said
retrofitting was also about the well-being and comfort of some of
the County’s poorest residents.
- The committee noted
the problems arising from labour shortages and skill gaps in
specialised retrofitting work and the expenses involved converting
older buildings.
- The committee noted
regulatory hurdles causing approval delays and the outright refusal
to provide funding/grants for certain projects based on means
testing around property size. It was asked whether an alternative
capping system could be used to allow for partial funding of larger
property conversions.
- The Head of
Environment Climate Emergency and Waste Services explained that the
authority did not set the criteria of the grant/funding schemes,
but it did try to lobby and work closely with the government
departments involved to try and help shape them.
Herefordshire’s housing stock presented unique challenges
that didn’t always align with national schemes. These were
typically one or two year programmes, which hampered funding for
longer-term projects as the criteria of obtaining funding was
regularly changing before progress could be made.
|
128. |
Waste contract PDF 143 KB
To review the operation of the council’s
new waste contract.
Minutes:
The report provided the committee with an
update regarding the delivery of the council’s new
recyclables and waste collection contract. The report was taken as
read.
- The committee expressed
disappointment that the recycling rate across the county remained
stubbornly low at 40%, but acknowledged that this figure would
potentially and hopefully rise in the near future, when gardening
and food recycling streams were turned on.
- The committee considered whether
progress was stagnating and if there was a potential opportunity to
increase the recycling rate through greater publicity, education
awareness and household recycling centre activity.
- The Cabinet Member Environment
shared the committee’s frustration and attributed some of the
problem as being down to the way funding had been delayed in coming
through.
- It was important to consider that
the waste hierarchy didn’t begin with recycling, and that
upstreaming and effective triaging of items going through household
recycling sites could have a positive impact. It was noted that
quite often what was called waste was actually resource and should
not end up in a waste stream.
- The current system was very
pragmatic and was relatively easy for everybody to engage with, but
certain elements were not being captured because they went into
residual and were not identified as doing anything by being
recycled. There were also problems with the contamination of waste
streams and items being mixed.
- The committee enquired if there was
a need for a circular economy strategy to set out what the council
was hoping to achieve in all of the related areas.
- The Head of Environment Climate
Emergency and Waste Services explained that there was a strategy in
place, which set out very ambitious targets aligning to the
government’s circular economy strategy and the Environment
Act. The council’s new contract had been a very significant
step in that journey and had laid a lot of the foundations for the
big changes to come. Progress was not stagnating and the service
would be bringing forward food waste and garden waste reports
imminently, which would hugely impact the recycling rate.
- It was pointed out that there had
been a lot of change in government strategy over the past 12
months, but the contract represented excellent value for money for
customers and provided the flexibility to drive continued
improvement and turn on big changes swiftly.
- The Waste Service Manager explained
that press releases were being finalised to communicate the news
that small electrical items such a hair dryers, toasters, kettles
and batteries could be left on top of either type of waste bin for
collection. These were items that would regularly end up in the bin
and posed a potential health and safety, and fire risk.
- The Waste Services Manager pointed
out that nationally the recycling rate was falling, but
Herefordshire had been able to stabilise its rate, which was
notable given that certain services and streams had not been turned
on yet.
- The committee enquired about the
visibility of resource that did not enter into the council’s
waste streams and ... view
the full minutes text for item 128.
|
129. |
Recommendations update PDF 218 KB
An update for the committee on responses to
its recommendations made in 2024.
Additional documents:
Minutes:
The committee agreed to consider a proposal
for standardising a process for dealing with recommendations and
the timing of responses which had already been discussed by other
scrutiny committees within the authority. Details of the proposal
would be circulated to members for comment via email after the
meeting.
The committee discussed the responses that had
been received on recommendations regarding the following
topics:
-
River Pollution
-
Environment Act 2021
-
Nutrient management Board
-
Net Zero
-
Active Travel Measures
The following outstanding actions were
identified:
River Pollution:
Action: That Simon Evans (The Chief Executive of the Wye
and Usk Foundation) be contacted to
provide a breakdown of the 124 partners in the whole catchment
process by governance area, for reference.
Nutrient Management
Board:
Action: That the
Asset Management Plan (AMP 8) be shared with the committee at the
earliest opportunity.
Action: The Diffuse
Water Pollution Plan (DWPP) be shared with the committee when it is
published in April 2025.
|
130. |
Work programme PDF 215 KB
To consider the work programme for the
committee.
Additional documents:
Minutes:
The Chair advised that the committee
would need to consider the findings
contained within the Statutory Scrutiny Officer’s Scrutiny
Review paper before mapping out a work programme for 2025/26.
The committee members and the Cabinet Member
Environment were invited to propose and forward any potential
topics for consideration to the Statutory Scrutiny Officer via
email.
Resolved: That the
committee consider the Scrutiny Review before mapping out a work
programme for 2025/26.
|
131. |
Date of the next meeting
Minutes:
|