Agenda and draft minutes

To receive any apologies for absence.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Downes.

To disclose or draw attention to any interests in accordance with Leeds City Council’s ‘Councillor Code of Conduct’.

Minute 42 Directors Update from the Director of Adults and Health – Councillor Foster wished it to be recorded that he undertook outreach work for a number of care providers.

To receive the meeting notes of the Consultative Meeting of Members of the Climate Emergency Advisory Committee held 22^nd January 2024.

RECOMMENDED - To agree the meeting notes of the Consultative Meeting of Members of the Climate Emergency Advisory Committee held 22nd January 2024.

At the discretion of the Chair, a period of up to 15 minutes may be allocated at each ordinary meeting for members of the public to make representations or to ask questions on matters within the terms of reference of the Committee. No member of the public shall speak for more than five minutes in the Open Forum, except by permission of the Chair.

Please note: Members of the public are asked to submit a video of their question or statement to climate.emergency@leeds.gov.uk by 5 p.m. on Wednesday 14^th February 2024

There were no Open Form items for consideration, however work was ongoing to secure submissions for the March meeting.

To receive a verbal update from the Director of Adults and Health.

The Director of Adults and Health, Caroline Baria, provided the Committee with a verbal update and presentation on the work of the five service areas covered by the Directorate.

Social Work and Social Care Services -

In-house services are reviewed and refurbished regularly, with buildings being fitted with energy efficient adaptions including air source heat pumps, solar photovoltaic panels to roofs and LED lighting.

The Community Equipment Service fleet includes Electric Vehicles (EVs) to deliver equipment to service users at home, and the service recycles equipment which is no longer needed to provide to new users.

The Telecare Service is now 100% digital and old telecare equipment is recycled for use in Care Homes.

The Directorate seeks to reduce travel by encouraging staff to undertake service user reviews/assessments by phone where it is appropriate to do so.

Social Work teams are based in and serve geographical patches which has reduced the need to travel. The Service employs a rostering system to ensure routes are efficient and walking routes are built in so that staff can travel to an area and walk between scheduled visits.

The Directorate has reduced its footprint from 4 buildings to 2 and 13 operational teams are co-located with Leeds Community Heath.

Commissioning –

The Team is working with City Development to develop new provision for adults with complex needs, to be located in Leeds, so that service users and their carers/families remain in the city and have less far to travel.

Care providers are actively encouraged to be carbon neutral and the Directorate offers training/support on measures to achieve it.

Care provision contracts include a carbon neutral requirement. The Directorate seeks a small number of providers to fulfil the contracts to operate in a specific geographical area which enables care workers to walk between appointments.

The Home Plus team receive carbon literacy training and the Green Doctors are trained energy efficient experts within that Team.

Resources -

There was increased use of e-communications and the Finance team had ceased doing home visits as the default offer for financial assessments. The billing process includes collection of email addresses and direct debit payments were encouraged.

Staff primarily worked from home since the Coronavirus pandemic and were office based for team work/meetings – this had assisted the Directorate to reduce its office space requirements.

The workforce development team introduced on-line training during the pandemic and this approach had been retained. 

Providers were encouraged to do local leaflet drops in the localities where they have vacancies as this helps to encourage a local workforce who can walk to work.

Service Transformation –

The team is working on the use of digital, AI and assistive technology to support the assessment and review processes and is developing on-line tools to enable service users to self-assess.

Health Partnerships –

The team supports the Leeds Health and Wellbeing Board and looks at how to work effectively across the Integrated Care Board, NHS and Third Sector partnership.

The Team facilitates a focus on climate change  ...  view the full minutes text for item 42.

To receive a verbal update on the progress of the Committees’ working groups to date

Biodiversity, Food and Waste on the 29^th January 2024 – Councillor Anderson provided a brief overview of the discussions on the Leeds Food Strategy held at the meeting, which covered the three missions to improve health and wellbeing, eat well, all have access to affordable and nutritious food. With focus on the redistribution of food and reducing food waste, the WG considered the following actions:

-  Community composting - work with FoodWise to signpost funding and the creation of an updated list of funding streams to support the initiative to share with CEAC and all 99 Members. Additionally, Members representing rural/semi-rural wards with agricultural operators were requested to consider whether they knew someone from their ward who could work with officers.

-  Right to Grow - the work being done by Scrutiny at Hull City Council which the WG will review once complete.

-  School composting - Members were requested to advise officers of any schools operating a school composting scheme.

-  Mapping the city - to identify usable land to maximise the opportunity for residents to compost and grow their own.

-  Community windfall - the WG considered whether windfall fruit can be gathered legally, as windfall could be some peoples first or only access to fruit. The WG noted that gathering windfall could potentially be an issue although the landowner would be unlikely to pursue the matter.

-  Allotments and how to address the need - the WG considered that Members of the Development Plan Panel could seek to ensure that planning policy sets aside land for allotment use.

The Chair encouraged Members to provide feedback on any of the issues to officers and agreed that the outcome of the Hull Scrutiny of the Right to Grow motion would be considered at a future WG.

RECOMMENDED – To note the update and to note the dates of future WG meetings:

Finance and Economy Monday 11^th March 2024 at 10.00 am

Planning and Buildings – Friday 15^th March at 1.30 pm

To consider the report of the Chief Officer Climate, Energy and Green Spaces which highlights the ongoing monitored improvements in air quality in Leeds and the key areas of work relevant to the alignment between decarbonisation and air pollution. 

The Committee received a report from the Chief Officer Climate, Energy and Green Spaces highlighting the ongoing monitored improvements in air quality in Leeds and the key areas of work relevant to the alignment between decarbonisation and air pollution.

Andy Hickford, Senior Project Manager, Climate, Energy & Green Spaces team presented the report and highlighted the following:

-  Leeds air quality is consistently improving and remains compliant with national air quality standards - historical analysis demonstrates the annual improvements in air quality and shows compliance on both NO2 and PM 2.5. targets.

-  The 2023 Annual Status Report submitted to DEFRA provides the full detail of all data collection points in the city. In Leeds, monitoring is installed where there may be cause for concern and when low levels have been recorded for a period of time, the monitoring is removed and utilised elsewhere.

-  Monthly monitoring in 2023 showed that NO2 levels remained below target last year, except at Bishopgate (the Dark Arches), which is not a residential area. Monitoring at Bishopgate paused whilst Connecting Leeds highways works were carried out, now that monitoring has resumed, the recorded levels are lower providing evidence of the benefits of the Connecting Leeds schemes. Connecting Leeds is important in terms of managing transport emissions as transport accounts for 30% of emissions. The Strategy has clear targets to increase bus use, encourage active travel choices and decrease the number of car journeys.

-  There are links between air quality and the aim for net zero, but equally there are differences between ‘greenhouse gasses’ and air pollution and as such measures should be considered with both local air quality and global decarbonisation outcomes in mind:

·  NO2 tends to be local pollutants – emissions are close to the source i.e. transport emissions are kerbside.

·  PM2.5 tends to have a greater/wider source i.e. industry, however there has broadly been a reduction in PN2.5 since 1990.

-  Domestic pollution – This is a new area of research but there is growing concern about domestic internal pollution. In homes there is exposure to dust, dust mites and bacteria etc but heating and cooking methods also bring exposure.

·  Cooking - Some research on cooking methods has shown a stark difference between the impact of electric oven cooking and gas oven cooking - pollution doubles in homes using gas cooking. Careful consideration should be given to how this pollution is publicised.

·  Heating – The cleanest forms of heating are electric heating, heat source pumps and gas fired boiler. Solid fuel heating is the worst polluter and poses the most risk to health, again the challenge is how to publicise this information. Additionally, although wood burning can be seen as sustainable as each tree felled for fuel can be replaced with new planting, over the long term it is not sustainable as the significant number of trees needed cannot be replenished to meet demand.

-  De-carbonisation and pollution links – The issues which cause the climate emergency may not be the same  ...  view the full minutes text for item 44.

To consider the report of the Director of Communities, Housing and Environment which provides details of the local authority pollution control permitting regime and it’s operation in Leeds. 

Paul Spandler, Environmental Health Manager, Communities, Housing and Environment provided the Committee with details of the local authority pollution control permitting regime and it’s operation in Leeds. He highlighted that there is an acknowledgement that industrial sources contribute to the overall emissions of pollutants to air and these are subject to an environmental permitting regime which sets emission limits and other conditions to minimise pollution.

-  The Environment Agency regulates larger sites, such as Peckfield within the Leeds boundary.

-  The Local Authority, through the Environmental Health (EH) team, issues approximately 200 permits for other, including operators such as Allied Glass, brickworks and ferrous and non-ferrous foundries, as well as for any dust emitters such as crematoria and for petrol stations and dry cleaners. The cost of the permit depends on the complexity of the manufacturing process.

-  Once a permit is issued, the team undertakes at least one visit per year depending on the type/size of operation and request monitoring data from the operator. If an operator does not comply with the terms of the permit, enforcement action can be taken, but liaison with an operator is the first step.

-  The team also actively look for any process which may need a permit, for example a printworks may start fulfilling larger orders over a period of time which may require a permit for the resultant increased pollutants involved in the process.

-  Over time there has been a move away from emission creating processes – between 2005 to 2021, greenhouse gas emissions from industrial sources in Leeds decreased 31%

During discussions with the Committee, the following matters were considered:

The planning process – The Committee heard that the EH team would be consulted as part of the planning process when relevant applications are submitted, such as for new petrol stations, and would propose mitigation measures where appropriate.

Reporting – Members were encouraged to report sites of concern, but to also access the interactive map which showed all the active regulated process sites in Leeds City Council Prescribed Processes (arcgis.com)

Monitoring – The type of monitoring depends on the type of process. Using Allied Glass as an example, the operator is permitted to emit a certain amount of pollutants and monitoring equipment is located on a chimney stack. The operator can see when the permitted level has been exceeded and the manager has a duty to flag it to the EH team. The EH team can also request monitoring data periodically. Should there be a period of non-compliance, action would be taken. There may be a fault or system breakdown which the operator has a duty to report and could explain the data. If there was a furnace breakdown which could be rectified in a few days, then no action would be taken, however if it could not be rectified in a reasonable time then the EH team would seek to shut that furnace down.

Incentives – Energy costs for industry uses are high so operators seek to use  ...  view the full minutes text for item 45.

To consider the report of the Chief Officer Climate, Energy and Green Spaces on the Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Strategy (EVCI). The EVCI Strategy identified the key actions and the role of the Council in facilitating and supporting the development of infrastructure required to support the transition to zero-tailpipe emission vehicles.

The Committee considered the report of the Chief Officer Climate, Energy and Green Spaces on the Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Strategy (EVCI). The EVCI Strategy identified the key actions and the role of the Council in facilitating and supporting the development of infrastructure required to support the transition to zero-tailpipe emission vehicles.

Andy Hickford, Senior Project Manager, Climate, Energy & Green Spaces team presented the report and highlighted the following:

-  The Strategy published in 2022 acknowledged the significant carbon emissions from transport and aimed to ensure that the infrastructure and facilities were in place to encourage people to change to EV travel. A shift to walking and cycling was also required to achieve zero carbon.

-  Leeds has already seen a significant transition to electric vehicle usage which will improve air quality and bring carbon savings. It should be noted that EV are not 100% emission free as there will be particulate matter caused by brake and tyre wear. 2

-  500 public charging points have been installed and 50,000 EVs have been registered in Leeds. Charging points have been installed in diverse locations across the city and increasingly, charging points are commercially led. The number of private charging points is unknown, but there are a number in schools who have successfully bid for funding to install them and some are installed as a condition on planning permissions.

-  Leeds City Council’s own vehicle fleet is significantly EV, one of the levers the local authority has to encourage others to use EV is to show their benefits. LCC has piloted and demonstrated the viability of EV vans to small and medium sized business to show how they work/capacity, and whilst the initial purchase of an EV may be more expensive than a petrol/diesel vehicle, over the length of ownership it will be cheaper.

-  Implementing the Strategy includes working with the Government and operators to secure funding to support installation on LCC owned land, to support residential charging and working with LCC Highways and Transportation on designs to facilitate on-street charging. Installation should consider other transport modes, accessibility and existing walking and cycling infrastructure and be mindful of other works ongoing in Connecting Leeds Strategy so that installation works do not undermine other highways work being done.

-  With funding secured, the next step is engagement to seek the views of Members, Directorates and businesses on plans to roll out additional charging points.

-  One of the challenges to installation is the capacity and suitability of the National Grid which will inform where points can be installed and costs. Consideration of site requirements is key, to ensure installation does not conflict with other development and to ensure the longevity of the site - is the place in a useful location, is it well used and demand led by all groups in the city (taxi & private hire, trade)

The Committee also heard about common misconceptions associated with EVs:

Life cycle emissions and the carbon debt created during the production process  ...  view the full minutes text for item 46.

To note the date and time of the next meeting as Monday 18^th March 2024 at 2.00pm

RECOMMENDED - To note the date and time of the next meeting as Monday 18th March 2024 at 2.00 pm