Rushmoor Borough Council Policy and Project Advisory Board Meeting

The minutes of the meeting held on 24th September, 2024 were agreed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

The Chairman welcomed Ms Sophie Rogers and Ms Emma Lamb from the Council’s Community and Partnerships team, who presented the Council’s Climate Change Action Plan. Also present was Cllr Jules Crossley, Policy, Climate & Sustainability Portfolio Holder, who had been invited to attend for this item.

The Board was reminded that the Council had declared a Climate Emergency in 2019 and had set a target of the Council’s operational emissions being carbon neutral by 2030. To monitor progress towards this target, the latest version of the Climate Change Action Plan covered the period 2023 – 2026. The current action plan had twelve actions of focus, namely:

Action 1: Transition electricity across the Council’s sites to 100% renewable tariffs.

Action 2: Switch the Council’s car fleet to electric alternatives and investigate options for other Council vehicles.

Action 3: Achieve a 5% annual reduction in overall travel from employee-owned vehicles for business purposes and refresh the Council’s Workplace Travel Plan.

Action 4: Consider opportunities arising from a relocation of the Council’s offices to reduce gas consumption and/or increase renewable energy generation on site.

Action 5: To continue to engage young people on climate change through the schools’ programme which is now running in four junior schools within Rushmoor.

Action 6: To use the Council’s communications channels (including through Member engagement) to promote opportunities for residents and local businesses to reduce their own carbon footprint, including promoting schemes to the improve energy efficiency of their home or business.

Action 7: To hold an eco-fair in September 2023 at Southwood Country Park and Field Centre to allow residents to find out more about climate change and opportunities to reduce their own carbon footprint and to hold an event for local businesses on low carbon opportunities.

Action 8: To work with Hampshire County Council to improve access to EV charging facilities across Rushmoor.

Action 9: To refresh the Council’s procurement strategy to ensure that the goods and services that the Council buys support the aim of the Council being carbon neutral by 2030.

Action 10: To review processes for the Council’s capital programme so that environmental impacts are incorporated into business case development and whole life cycle carbon assessments are undertaken.

Action 11: To develop the Council’s offsetting approach with a view to ensuring that any offsetting undertaken by the Council has a local impact.

Action 12: To review, update and publish the Council’s carbon footprint on an annual basis, publish an annual report detailing all that the Council has achieved in relation to its climate action plan and associated strategies (e.g. Green Infrastructure Plan).

The update paper that had been circulated with the agenda proposed a number of changes to the existing actions and the addition of three new actions around the development and use of Climate Change Impact Assessments, the reduction of the use of single-use plastics across Council sites and measures around Active Travel.

In considering the presentation and the proposal in the update paper, Members made the following comments and observations:

·                    Action 4 in respect of the relocation of the Council Offices should be removed/merged due to the uncertainty over the timescales/logistics of this move

·                    Insurance costs in respect of electric vehicles can be prohibitive

·                    Consider scheme to use people’s drives to charge electric vehicles

·                    Encourage establishment of more ‘school buses’

·                    Instead of reducing the use of single-use plastic – can we remove the use of it completely?

·                    Action 12 – can the report be more often than annually? Confirmed some measures can be reported quarterly but other measures, such as charting emissions, too resource intensive to be reported that frequently

·                    Can we publicise community grants better re; green initiatives?

·                    Action 5 – can this be extended to more schools? School travel plans – can we help more local schools?

·                    Twelve actions seem too many – not clear which are likely to have the most impact

·                    Within actions, do we need to categorise ‘must do’, ‘could do’ and ‘should do’?

·                    Good we are branching out to secondary schools as well as primary schools

·                    Action 7 – events come and go – can we do something more permanent for businesses, such as a business network?

·                    Good to involve infant-aged children in the process as well as older children

·                    Action 7 – Eco Fair is a good initiative – could we hold more? Confirmed that a Eco and Sustainability Fair being planned for Princes Hall, Aldershot in July, 2025

·                    Active Travel – to be included in action plan

The Chairman encouraged Members to provide any further comments or questions by email and thanked Ms Rogers and Ms Lamb for their contributions to the meeting.

It was agreed that the Board would receive a further, written update on the redraft of the action plan.

The Board noted the current Work Plan.

It was agreed that the agenda for the January Board meeting would be discussed at the next Progress Group meeting on 3rd December, 2024.