Agenda and minutes

1.1      The Chair welcomed the group to the meeting and noted apologies sent from Cllr Filmer.

2.1       With regards to point 5.23 the Climate Response Team has now received a list of contacts, and the new Climate Response Engagement Officer will be picking this up in the next phase of work.

2.2       Officers updated that Katie Hargraves-Smith has been appointed as the new Climate Response Engagement Officer with further recruitment interviews to be held next week for a second position.

2.3       Applications on car clubs – the Climate Response Team has spoken to the planning team, there is further work needed to gain the information and will update at the next meeting.

Technically, Councillors are only required to declare interests at meetings of the Council, the Cabinet, or Committees and Sub Committees, Joint Committees or Joint Sub Committees. However, it is best practice to follow the rules on declaring interests at other informal meetings as well. Guidance on this is set out in agenda item 3.

3.1      The Chair declared that he is the Chairman and Director of Kyndi Ltd and Medway Development Company.

3.2      Cllr Gulvin declared his role as Director of Medway Development Company.

4.1       The Chair advised that there is continued engagement with KCC and the Kent District. When Government grants become available, strategic Kent and Medway bids will be looked at as joint strategic bids are more likely to command attention. A working group will be formed to work on this liaison for when grants become available.

4.2       The Chair advised that action 1.2 is due to be progressed in the coming quarter. We have a base and now need to measure against the base. The Chair asked if anyone had anything that they would like to raise with regards to the action plan.  The group highlighted that although the report format is excellent, as it is evolving, the list has grown longer with very varied actions.  Have officers thought of coming up with a different format which allows the plan to focus on the more significant actions?  Action: The Chair suggested that prior to the next meeting we take the eleven basic themes and give an overview report on each of those subjects while still keeping and attaching the original list as an appendix.

4.3       The group raised on point 1.2 regarding fuel cards, on the next report can it be specifically broken down into the type of fuel this refers to. Action: Officers to follow up.

4.4       The group raised on point 1.2 regarding monitoring annual carbon emissions data, as we will be consistently monitoring in the future at some point it may be worth devolving some of the work to universities and interns. This could be included in the action plan, how we will monitor and accumulate data over the longer term. Action: The Chair asked officers to take this up with the Head of Business Change to potentially look at as part of a transformation project.  The Director of Place and Deputy Chief Executive updated that linking to this, the University of Greenwich are compiling a dashboard (pulling together a number of metrics they will be monitoring) as part of a wider Medway endeavour. The Chair commented that the Communications Strategy provides for a technical committee which will be head up by a senior lecturer from Greenwich University.

4.5       The group highlighted that the carbon emissions assessment 19/20 would cover business as usual but have we had any assessment done for 20/21 carbon emissions and the impact of the pandemic.  Have we captured the potential changes that home working has covered as part of the assessment?  Officers confirmed that they have looked at emissions as part of air quality and the data confirmed that NOx levels have dropped.  With regards to specifically Medway Council (as a business) we will have the data for 20/21 available in September/October to see if there has been a reduction and will bring this to the next board meeting. Action: The Climate Response Team to discuss at next meeting.  With regards to collecting the data for working at home this is more difficult to assess but something that will be looked into in  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

5.1       The Head of Communications and Marketing did a presentation to attendees with regards to the Communications and Engagement Strategy Plan for Climate Change.

5.2       The Chair asked who will be leading from Comms on the strategy and it was confirmed that the Head of Communications and Marketing will have overall responsibility as lead supported by a Senior Account Manager and a small core group in Comms.

5.3       The Chair asked for regular meetings as a communications group to ensure that they have all the help needed and has also asked Cllr Potter to be involved in this group in the future.ACTION: Set up Communication group meetings

5.4       The Chair asked for another 2 or more Councillors to join the Comms group and Cllr Tranter and Cllr Curry have agreed to be part of this group.

Petition – Information Only 

6.1       None

7.1       To be confirmed