Agenda, decisions and minutes

www.swansea.gov.uk/disclosuresofinterests

None.

In accordance with the Code of Conduct adopted by the City & County of Swansea, no interests were declared.

To approve & sign the Minutes of the previous meeting(s) as a correct record.

Approved.

Resolved that the Minutes of the Climate Change Corporate Delivery Committee held on 21 November 2022 be approved and signed as a correct record.

Approved.

Geoff Bacon, Head of Property Services provided the Committee with a progress update report. 

It was outlined that to date the projects that officers were currently, actively working on included the following:-

·       Retro-fitting - investigating reducing emissions with improved technology and on-site renewables. Specifically referenced in the NZ delivery plan with the aim of reducing emissions by 4,438 tCO2(2030).

·       Solar Farm - development of 2.4MW solar farm at Tir John plus investigation of other potential development opportunities (2050).

·       Blue Eden - integrated renewables project which incorporates the tidal lagoon (2050).

·       Wind farm - investigating potential for major developments within the constraints of ownership and planning policy (2050).

·       Housing pilot retrofit project to decarbonise Council owned homes in line with the likely requirements of the Welsh Government’s revised Welsh Housing Quality Standard by upgrading insulation and fitting renewable technologies.

It was added that with the exception of the Tidal Lagoon and housing pilot, all of the projects listed were being undertaken with the support of Welsh Government Energy Services, who assisted community and public sector organisations in Wales to reduce energy use, generate locally owned renewable energy and cut carbon emissions.

The next major step for the Council would be the formulation of a Local Area Energy Plan (LAEP), which is a strategic plan, within a defined geographic area, for how the energy systems would be decarbonised. It would result in a fully costed and spatial plan that identified the change needed to the local energy system and built environment, detailing ‘what, where and when and by whom’. 

Details regarding the issues the LAEP would address, the regional stakeholders, including the appointment of a specialist company to support each region were provided.  City Science had been appointed to work with the South West Wales region and the Committee would form part of the stakeholder engagement once they had commenced.

The Committee discussed the following: -

·       Opportunities for special planning guidance in terms of energy.

·       Opportunities for micro-generation being considered in relation to Council property matters.

·       Looking at more modern technology surrounding solar batteries.

·       Refitting Council assets, e.g. schools, community centres, libraries to make them more energy efficient.

·       Insulating homes effectively during summer and winter months.

·       Regional mobilisation of the LAEP, the positive approach to the issue within the south west region.

·       Governance of the region and timeframe going forward, including the involvement of the Committee as a stakeholder.

·       Specifics of who would be involved as stakeholders and bring them together going forward.

·       Future improvement works to Council houses also being offered to owners of former Council houses that had been purchased, giving them the opportunity to ‘buy into’ schemes, particularly in the same location of planned improvement works.

·       Effective consultation with communities regarding micro-generation, particularly the issue of community benefit from proposals and money from such proposals being provided to the local community directly affected.

·       Issues that will be identified in the LAEP and the challenges to Swansea as a whole.

·       Research that had been completed by other sources on Swansea, e.g. Warwick University.

·       Energy efficiency, incentivising it to encourage people to change and the importance of educating / training people on the issues.

Resolved that the Committee endorses the direction of travel of the work completed to date.

For information.

The Chair presented ‘for information’ the updated Work Plan 2022-23.