Agenda item

To consider a report of the Director of City Development on a progress report on climate change.

The Director of City Development submitted a progress report on climate change.

The following representatives were in attendance and responded to Members’ queries and comments:-

Councillor J Monaghan, Executive Board Member for Environment and Neighbourhoods

Jean Dent, Director of City Development

Steve Speak, Chief Strategy and Policy Officer, City Development

Jon Andrews, EMAS Officer, City Development

Helen Miller, Principal Planning Officer, City Development

Peter Lynes, Group Manager, Energy Unit, City Development

At the request of the Chair, Councillor J Monaghan provided the Board with a brief overview of the action being taken within the authority regarding climate change, with specific reference to the following key issues:-

·  officer support arrangements in relation to climate change

·  Climate Change Strategy/Climate Change Partnership, including the inaugural meeting and composition

·  a broad acknowledgement of the need to reduce carbon omissions by 80% by 2050 worldwide

·  the need for the Board to support a more realistic target of reducing carbon omissions by 40% by 2020 throughout the city and within the Council in order to work towards the 2050 target

In summary, specific reference was made to the following issues:-

·  the need for the Board to acknowledge a previous White Paper on climate change which recommended the Council taking a lead on the possibility of putting micro-generation into Council buildings, in particular the Civic Hall, in view of the flat roof space availability

(The Executive Member for Environment and Neighbourhoods responded and agreed to look into this issue but stressed the need to reduce omissions on a much wider scale across the city)

·  clarification of the amount of carbon dioxide produced in 2006 within the city and the reasons why total omissions had only declined by 1% in the past four years

·  the need to recognise that it was the Council’s partners who were responsible for the majority of emissions and for a better system to be introduced to enable the Council to work strategically with those partners and to monitor and scrutinise progress

(The Director of City Development responded and outlined the major challenges facing the city in terms of reducing omissions.  She stressed that tackling climate change was not just a linear strategy, and that a whole matrix of activity needed to be taken into account, including transport, planning and traffic policy )

·  reference to the incentives and penalties use to reduce omissions (the ‘carrot and stick’ approach)

(The Director of City Development responded and provided the Board with a number of examples i.e. national schemes for home insulation and better public transport systems)

·  the suggestion that the Council implement high occupancy vehicle lanes on every arterial road in Leeds; introduce work place charges on parking places in central Leeds to discourage people from commuting by car and consider implementing congestion charges

(The Director of City Development responded and informed the meeting that the funding for the Next Generation Transport (NGT) had now been secured.  She also outlined the proposals in relation to a  major piece of research being undertaken in Leeds, funded through the Transport Innovation Fund, on transport issues within the city)

·  clarification of the process in relation to publishing a clear strategic framework with parts of the city zoned as suitable for different renewable energy technologies which would minimise the number of speculative or inappropriately located planning applications

(The Chief Strategy and Policy Officer responded and outlined the process via the Local Development Framework)

·  the need for the Board to address low zero carbon energy and renewable energy, with a focus on large scale projects

·  the suggestion that the Council trial solar energy panels on civic buildings to promote this technology to the citizens of Leeds and to businesses

·  the need to encourage more car sharing within the business community in Leeds and to look at re-regulating the buses

·  clarification as to whether there were any developments in the pipeline regarding the use of water as a means of generating electricity

(The Group Manager, Energy Unit responded and outlined the current proposals in relation to hydro-electricity)

·  clarification as to why the department was experiencing increased applications from private developers for renewables, particularly for large scale wind projects

(The Chief Strategy and Policy Officer responded and outlined the provisions and priorities within the Regional Spatial Strategy)

·  whether or not the 2.1% target for reductions from local authority operations was acceptable

RESOLVED –

a)  That the content of the report be noted.

b)  That this Board concentrates on the following key issues in relation to climate change in order of priority:-

·  evaluating options for installing LZC (Low/Zero Carbon) energy as part of the corporate estate, with a focus on small, medium and large scale projects

·  development of control processes to ensure that developments of over 10 dwellings or 1000 m² have at least 10% on-site LZC technologies

·  the appropriate delivery structure to ensure that LZC energy, particularly large grid connected or on-site in major regeneration areas, was delivered

c)  That, in relation to the item on progress in planning policy to strategically plan for large-scale grid renewables, this issue be discussed at a future meeting of the Board.

(Councillor N Taggart joined the meeting at 11.25 am during discussion of the above item)