Agenda and minutes

Councillor Wilkinson was subsitute member for Councillor Martin and Councillor Cawley substituted for Councillor Swindlehurst.

There were no urgent items of business.

·         Disclosable Pecuniary Interests

·         Other Interests

Councillor Porter – Portfolio Holder for Climate Change and Biodiversity, introduced a report which presented the Council’s approach to tackling the climate change emergency.

Staffordshire Moorlands District Council recognised the global climate emergency and was committed to keeping global heating below the 1.5°Celsius goal of the Paris Agreement.

The District Council could not solve the problem on its own, but could take a lead role in the district and use its powers and influence to support wider local action to reduce emissions and prepare for a changing climate.

The national Climate Change Committee estimated that local authorities had powers or influence over roughly a third of emissions in their local areas and are believed to be responsible for between 2 and 5% of local emissions. The Committee recognised that more than half of the cut in emissions required to meet national reduction targets rely on people and businesses taking up low-carbon solutions.

When developing its plan for reducing district-wide emissions, the Council drew upon three main sources of information: Information gathered by Working Groups, Data Analysis and a Climate Change Attitude Survey.

The plan, which can be found at Appendix D of the report, was intended to provide a clear vision and strategy for achieving net zero emissions from the district by 2030.

Councillor Aberley – Chair of the Climate Change Working Group, gave thanks to all of those involved with the various sub-group meetings and it was still possible for comments to be submitted by the Chairs of these groups.

Cllr Yates – Vice Chair of the Climate Change Working Group, also commented on the high quality of presentations received by the groups, the positive nature of the meetings and the importance of working together. In future, when specific climate change projects were scoped, he requested that a more inclusive approach was taken.

Other members commented that it had been a long journey to arrive at this point, with frustrations along the way. However, they were delighted that the Council could now move forward with a plan based on sound research.

The following comments and suggestions were made by members:-

·      For further face-to-face consultation to take place.

·      Timescales to be reviewed and the plan to be monitored.

·      In relation to the target around fuel poverty, further action was needed for vulnerable private sector tenants.

·      The EPC ratings could be more ambitious.

·      The reference to the re-opening of the Local Plan was welcomed and it was important for supplementary planning documents to be produced. However, it was felt that work should commence on this earlier than 2025. Development of zero carbon buildings would only happen if robust polices were in place.

·      There was a laudable commitment to fuel poverty. However, the Warmer Home Scheme had provided subsidised installation of gas boilers which shouldn’t be encouraged.

·      A query as to the reason ‘Eat Well’ was included in the documents as it had no relevance to carbon reduction.

·      An opinion that The Green Homes grant was a failure, as only 15,000 properties  ...  view the full minutes text for item 69.

Mark Trillo – Executive Director (People), introduced a report which contained the feedback provided by the Centre for Governance and Scrutiny (CfGS) following completion of their recent review of the Council’s Scrutiny arrangements.

CfGS were commissioned to conduct a ‘step back’ review of the Council’s Overview & Scrutiny arrangements. The review was conducted earlier this year and the conclusions were reported back to the Council in April. Their report was attached at Appendix A..

An all member workshop was held in September to enable CfGS to share their findings and to provide an opportunity for councillors to give some initial feedback. The notes from the discussions at the workshop were attached at Appendix B. It was suggested and agreed at the workshop that each of the Council’s Overview & Scrutiny Panels should be given the opportunity to discuss the findings further and consider how the Council should take the recommendations forward.  

        CfGS made 12 recommendations for improvement. In order to assist members of the Panel with their considerations attached at Appendix C was a summary of CfGS’s recommendations within a suggested response.

Following the consideration of this report by all of the Council’s Overview & Scrutiny Panels a final report would be prepared for consideration by a meeting of the Full Council.

DECIDED: The Panel considered the:

·       feedback from CfGS as detailed in Appendix A of the report; and

·       suggested response to the recommendations set out in Appendix C. 

(At least two clear days notice required, in writing, to the Proper Officer in accordance with Procedure Rule 15).

There were no questions.

Any additional items to be added to the Work Programme:

·         Chair’s Items

·         Members’ Items

Due to a number complaints, particularly around communication with Your Housing Group (YHG), a request was made for the YHG report to be received by the Panel well in advance of the meeting in January.

DECIDED: That the Work Programme for 2021-22 be agreed.

DECIDED:    That the minutes of the meeting of the Panel held on the 6^th September 2021 be approved as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

DECIDED: That the report of the Chairman of the Police and Crime Panel be noted.

The Chair to move:-

“That, pursuant to Section 100A(2) and (4) of the Local Government Act, 1972, the public be excluded from the meeting in view of the nature of the business to be transacted or the nature of the proceedings whereby it is likely that confidential information as defined in Section 100A (3) of the Act would be disclosed to the public in breach of the obligation of confidence or exempt information as defined in Section 10 I (1) of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act would be disclosed to the public by virtue of the Paragraphs indicated.”

“That, pursuant to Section 100A(2) and (4) of the Local Government Act, 1972, the public be excluded from the meeting in view of the nature of the business to be transacted or the nature of the proceedings whereby it is likely that confidential information as defined in Section 100A (3) of the Act would be disclosed to the public in breach of the obligation of confidence or exempt information as defined in Section 10 I (1) of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act would be disclosed to the public by virtue of the Paragraphs indicated.”

Members discussed CCTV in Cheadle.