Zoom meeting with Gedling Climate Officer

Meeting 

Date: 31-1-22

Burton Joyce Climate Action Group 

Sim and Sam from Gedling Borough Council  

Minutes

Present:

 Sim D. Gedling Borough Council Climate Officer

 Sam P. Food, Health and housing manager at Gedling Borough Council (GBC)

Group members: 

Helen M

Alison C 

Gill N

Bobbie P

Julia D

Justin U 

Phil C

Apologies: 

Paul S

1.     Introductions:

Sam is involved in food hygiene, private sector housing. He is Sim’s line manager.

Sim previously worked for Sustrans, greening the national cycle network, seconded to an active travel project for a large new estate in Newark, a Waste in Schools education programme for Notts City Council, a community energy project for Derby City Council, Southwark council to promote a schools environment award, Nottingham City Council as a recycling officer and the Environment Agency.
 

2.     Gedling Carbon Strategy report

     The report was written by Melvyn C (Head of Environmental Services at GBC). Sam reported there was broadly strong support for the Carbon management plan from the head and deputy council leaders.
It is an 8-year strategy.

They are lobbying for more funding. So far Sam has funding for retrofitting external wall insulation and solar panels for housing in Netherfield.

Only 10% of Council tax goes to the borough so funding sources are important.
It’s been estimated that 26,000 homes in Gedling need improving to get a C rating for energy efficiency.

Gedling comes under the Midlands Net-zero Hub. This is a source of funding distribution.

 

3.     Follow up on Carbon Strategy

     The consultation period was Nov 5^th 2021 to Jan 4^th 2022. 

Sim is planning on doing a SWAT analysis on the information from the consultation and then will put together an action plan which will be a live document.
There were 38 respondents online, about 6 from Community organisations and the rest from individuals.

60% agreed that the strategy would be positive, 5% disagreed.
Sim has written a communication and marketing plan aimed at reaching hard to reach people in the community.

She has planned a calendar of events including:
Earth Day, Against Food waste day, Bike week, Plastic Free July, Allotment week, Recycle week, COP 27 in November, national tree week, National fuel poverty day.
 

Further information following the next cabinet meeting on 17/3/22.

 

4.     Marches Energy agency.

GBC subscribes to a Climate Change Communication package and as part of it there is a web page “Everyone’s talking about climate change”, access for GBC to 3 days of consultancy work, use of an Energy Trailer to go out in the community to educate the public.

 

5.     Green Rewards. 

      An app that the Notts councils have been asking the community to sign up to, designed to encourage environmental awareness using small tasks to win points and possibly £20 prize. So far 1690 across the whole of Notts has signed up, 154 in Gedling.

 

6.     Recycling. 

      Brief discussion about the frustrations around recycling in Gedling as many items are not recycled in the house hold collections due to the Veolia contract. Sim suggested that the group could apply for a grant to produce their own leaflet to help the community understand the rules. Sim offered to come to a future meeting to talk about recycling further

 

7.     Grants

UK cycling offer up to £3000 for groups starting community cycling initiatives, e.g. Dr Bike surgeries.

GBC councillors offer grants to community sustainability projects-deadline March 14^th.

 

Ideas examples:

- Tetrapak recycling bin for community

- improving biodiversity along the river

 

8.     Climate emergency UK. 

     Council climate score card has recently ranked all the councils. GBC had a score of 46%.

Sim also mentioned that there is a Carbon Officers group and the officers from Notts and Derbys recently met up to share practice.

 

9. Carbon literacy training     

      There was a discussion about carbon literacy training. Sam is involved in training council leaders. There was a discussion about making it available to community groups.

 

10.  AOB.

Sam and Sim offered to raise awareness of our group on the Council web page.

Sim recommended a podcast by Caroline Norbury called “The owl hoots”

 

Sim will email details of the Marches energy agency website and grants we may be interested in.

 

Sam and Sim left the meeting.

 

Plan:

Group members decided on a face-to-face meeting: 
Bobbie’s house 
Monday 21-2-22 at 7pm in order to:
- map out the direction for the group
 - look at a potential project to apply for funding for (improving biodiversity at the river was discussed)
- arrange community meetings.
  

Julia 

 

 

 

 

Next Group Meeting

 The next group meeting 

An opportunity to meet Sim Duhra

Climate Change Officer for Gedling Borough Council

Monday 31st January 2022

7.15pm 

Venue to be confirmed

Hopefully face-to-face depending on circumstances 

Please note: the date had been changed!

Please change your diary or calendar entries!

Comments re Gedling Carbon Plan

 Comments that can be used for the Gedling Borough Council Carbon Management Strategy-Closing Date 3-1-22.

If you want to, you can cut and paste these comments when you fill in the online form:

Climate Change Strategy Consultation - Gedling Borough Council

Are there any changes that you would suggest to the proposed strategy?

-Better community engagement-so far there doesn’t seem to have been much engagement for the consultation phase.

- It is vital that a strategy for change establishes base line data and then set targets that can measure success in terms of progress towards them. Friends of the Earth (FoE) “Near me” data, provides baseline data for Gedling and the government’s target for 2030. 

https://takeclimateaction.uk/near-you/gedling?_ga=2.168967009.1939090110.1638008471-693887943.1637656391

 

-An annual independent and audited public report should be published to measure progress, not only for the Council’s leadership team but also for the public. 

 

- Developers should be required to ensure that all new build is zero carbon.  

 

-I DO NOT support “incineration with energy recovery” as a means of getting rid of waste and generating energy (p24,25).  Burning municipal waste produces around 1 tonne of CO2 for each tonne of waste and so is not low carbon. Burning of waste also discourages recycling and reusing.

Are there any actions you would particularly like to see included in our detailed action plan?

 

-Work should include liaising with bus and train companies to improve services and timetables particularly to all the new developments.

-Walking infrastructure is needed where people feel safe and not alongside heavy traffic with poor air quality.

 -Tree species need to be considered carefully for resistance to changes in climate, with native trees being best.

-GBC should require a biodiversity net gain policy on all development. There is reference to a tree replacement policy on new development in your Strategy which is supported but should be at least at a ratio of 3:1 to reflect the loss of biodiversity and carbon soak from mature trees. 

-In view of the rural nature of parts of Gedling borough, Regenerative farming techniques should be included in discussions with farmers in your action plan as this builds soil health, helps biodiversity and helps to store carbon rather than releasing it.

-Gedling currently reuses, recycles and composts 34% of its household waste. Gedling should at least aim for the minimum targets set by the EU Circular Economy plan: 55% recycling by 2025 and 65% by 2035.

-The plan states that: By reducing waste and non-essential consumption, reusing, repairing and sharing existing goods, sourcing local and using more ethical and sustainable alternatives, we can significantly reduce the detrimental impacts that result from our consumption. But there are no real proposals are given as to how this will be achieved.

 

·       A new recycling facility is needed. There has been no replacement for the recycling centre at the old Gedling Colliery site that was closed years ago. Calverton recycling centre is extremely well organised and efficient, but is far away for many residents to reach. 

·       Clearer information needs to be given to residents as to what can and cannot be recycled in green bins.

·       Heavier fines are needed for anyone caught fly tipping

·       More pressure needs to be put on supermarkets and other commercial outlets to reduce unnecessary plastic packaging. A recent Greenpeace report shows that a large amount of plastic continues to be exported to other countries for dumping instead of being recycled.

·       There seems little evidence of emphasis on reducing water demand and improving efficiency of water use, including use of grey water systems. The treating of waste water also has a carbon footprint.

 

-I welcome plans to implement an Environmental Ethical Investment policy (p40) and that Gedling Borough Council will be making it clear to the Nottinghamshire County Council, that the Pension Fund should be included in this. We would go further and ask that NCCs pensions no longer invest in fossil fuel companies. 

-The Woodland Trust have asked for a minimum 30% tree canopy cover on all development land. 

( https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/publications/2020/01/emergency-tree-plan/)

 

In the FoE Near me data on woodland and rewilding for Gedling, it states that up to 171 hectares of land may be suitable for new woodlands and 32.71 hectares for rewilding. There is a significant opportunity to enhance Green Infrastructure in the Borough your target of 500 trees seems totally inadequate.

 

What other comments do you have about our proposed strategy and action plan?

I welcome the lead taken by Gedling Borough Council in consulting on the Carbon Management Strategy and broadly support the list of Actions set out in the Draft Plan.

For each Priority Area in the plan, a timetable is needed for implementation and who will be responsible. 

The initiative identified as the Green Lung Project is supported but doesn’t seem enough-especially because of the huge loss of mature trees to construct the Gedling Access Road which will increase vehicular movement and carbon emissions. How will the roll out of the Carbon Management Strategy affect the cost benefit analysis of such infrastructure projects in the future? 

-Resilience & Adaptation is not listed as a specific objective in the action plan; however, a full vulnerability assessment of the borough should be undertaken for extreme weather events and climate change with consideration for the most vulnerable citizens. This should then be incorporated into relevant policies.

October meeting minutes

Burton Joyce Climate Action Group Meeting 

18-10-2021

via Zoom

Present: Julia Devonport, Phil Colbourn, Bobbie Prime, Justin Udie, Gill Newman

Apologies: Paul Smith.

1.     Welcomed Gill Newman.

2.     Constitution-adjusted wording. All present agreed it was acceptable.

Plan: Phil to put on our website and Facebook page and to align our aims on the website with the constitution.

We discussed that roles in the group would be useful e.g. a treasurer, but no decisions made.

3.     Bank Account. Discussed asking for donations at live meetings versus a member ship fee. Gill mentioned that the local history society had less people coming to events when membership was required versus donations.

Julia to contact our regional FOE member of staff to get a letter of permission to open a bank account. 2 group members are needed to act as signatories

4.     Market Stall feedback. We felt it was a success and it was felt that a stall every quarter would be useful. Gill volunteered to take on the role as the stall coordinator with Karen who runs the market and will contact her to book a slot for January.

5.     Group email address. Justin has set up a gmail account for us so we can have a single source of email contact.  burtonjoyceclimateaction@gmail.com Ask Julia for the password.

6.     Gedling draft climate action plan. Bobbie has not yet heard from Melvyn Cryer at Gedling Borough council about when he can come and talk to our group about the draft climate action plan. Note: Let parish Council know so they can send a long a representative.

7.     Future meetings. We can continue monthly meetings for the group on zoom or hybrid meetings (zoom and live) and decided to aim for the 3^rd Monday of the month approximately.

A live meeting inviting the community to hear a speaker or participate in an activity could be every 2 to 3 months at a venue. We decided on Thursday January 20^th as a possible date for a first live meeting, we’ll need  a venue and a theme/speaker.

Plan: Julia to contact Howard, regional FOE staff about grant for initial meeting.

8.     Notts County Council Pension Divestment from Fossil Fuels. Group agreed that this was a worthwhile subject to campaign about. There is a meeting on 26^th October at Nottingham Climate Action group to discuss further and we’ve been invited, I will clarify if its in person or via Zoom.

9.     Parish Council. Julia went to the communities meeting today:

-Notts Bat Group were invited and put a detector up in the Grove and between 6 and 8 species were detected (there are 12 species in total found in Notts, so quite a good number). They made some recommendations which I’ve asked them to consider carrying out, including purchase of bat boxes.

-Environment Plan. They agreed to review it in the new year as a small working group.

-They agreed to have their carbon footprint calculated and Julia will email the parish clerk regarding setting up a small meeting to find out what will be involved, use of their data etc. for Justin to meet them.

10.  Carbon footprint consultation. Paul currently contacting local organisations regarding participation in this. Parish Council could be one of them.

 

11.  Severn Trent tour. Bobbie reported that about 12 had signed up for tour and she was planning to contact John Jackson about the final details this week.

 

Next meeting - Monday 22 November at 7pm Justin will send out the link.

 

 

Julia Devonport