Agenda item

This annual report provides an account of the role of the Portfolio Holder for Climate Change and Strategic Regeneration. It details their ambitions for their areas of responsibility, how they have and will undertake political challenge and leadership and what their priorities and ambitions are for the year ahead.

Discussion:

The Portfolio Holder introduced the report, he commented that his work had primarily focused on frontline delivery, waste, Medway Norse, the local plan, climate change and public transport and active travel.

The following issues were discussed:

Electric Vehicles (EV) Charging – it was asked how many EV chargers would be installed using the £2.1m grant given to the Council and would the electricity grid cope with the additional demand. The Portfolio Holder stated that he could not provide a specific figure as the funding would also cover associated costs of installation, so it was dependent upon the costs of each project, however the grid would be able to cope with the additional electric chargers.

The Committee discussed EV charging and the Portfolio Holder acknowledged that not being able to run cables across pavements remained a difficulty. The required approach would need to consider solutions street by street. He added that it was an issue which affected many authorities across the country and the Council would take lessons from the work of others when developing their own programme.

It was asked whether there was enough focus on fast EV chargers, the Portfolio Holder stated that this would be for the Procurement Board to consider the most effective use of the monies available.

Household Waste – further information was requested regarding the new waste fleets environmental impact. The Portfolio Holder stated that the new waste fleet was much quieter and it reflected the speed of changing technology. He added that a new waste strategy was under development, however it would not affect weekly collection, which would continue until Local Government Reform took place.

A Member commented that many of Medway’s streets were not clean, reporting street cleaning was archaic and street cleaning disjointed. He asked how might this be improved. The Portfolio Holder stated that this had been an issue for as long as he had lived in Medway.

The Chief Information Officer added that the way reporting of litter to the Council was managed was under review as part of Medway 2.0. This review was scheduled to be completed by March 2026.

It was asked whether hourly appointments for the household waste centres was under consideration to provide an improved service. The Chief Information Officer stated that development of the service to include more appointments  was under active consideration as part of a proposed Medway 2.0 Task Group. The Portfolio Holder commented that an hourly appointment service would be a great development in his view and build on the excellent service already provided by the team.

Members commented that that the household waste centres were performing excellently, the Portfolio Holder undertook to pass on his thanks to the centres on behalf of the Members.

Bus Corridors – it was asked how bus corridors were chosen and their effectiveness measured. The Portfolio Holder stated that the Council worked in close collaboration with the bus companies, with meetings taking place monthly. The Bus Improvement Plan and Transport Plan for Medway would reflect the needs identified in the wider Local Plan with investment in new bus stations in Strood and the Hoo peninsula. Corridors were chosen to support major routes, connectivity between rail and bus services, population centres and where people want to go such as schools, shopping centres and the hospital.

It was commented that there was no regular service to Mid Kent College between 7.30am and 9.15am on a weekday and the service was ineffective for students. The Portfolio Holder acknowledged this difficulty, he stated there was a balance between commercialised and subsidised routes and undertook to raise the issue with bus companies at their next meeting.

Bus shelters – it was asked if existing bus shelters were repaired to a good standard prior to the installation of more expensive green shelters. The Portfolio Holder stated that the Council had a bus shelter replacement programme in place separate to the grant funding received to develop the green bus shelters. The Council planned to install 20 green bus shelters which would include real time services updates.

A Member asked the Portfolio Holder to comment on how the Council had supported the increase in the number of bus journeys. The Portfolio Holder stated that the active travel group had done good work in promoting bus journeys’ and other schemes such as capped fares and free bus weekends had also had a positive impact. For example one local school had one of the highest rates of walking to school in the country. He added that he would like to investigate further opportunities to promote large local employers using bus companies to enable to staff to travel to and from work.

Net Zero – in response to a question whether Council net zero policies prevented procurement contracts from being awarded to the provider at the cheapest price to the Council, the Portfolio Holder stated that this was not the case. There were a number of factors taken into consideration in procurement with principal considerations being the quality of service and value for money.

Green Flags Parks -  a Member commented on the poor condition of the footpath at Capstone Valley Park, he asked if the development at Capstone Valley had any impact on the green flag status of the park. The Portfolio Holder stated that he would pass on concerns regarding the footpath, in terms of the green flag status, that was determined on the merits of the park and would not be affected by the development taking place there.  He added that that development was a difficult situation as the Council had lost two planning enquiries regarding development of the area. This highlighted the importance of the Local Plan to enable the Council to plan a mixed development of brownfield, urban fringe and green field land.

Heating – it was asked what was being done to alleviate pensioners in heating poverty in support of the Council’s climate change objectives. The Portfolio Holder stated that the Council was working to ensure that those eligible for benefits received them, from a climate change perspective the Council was looking at schemes to reduce costs for its own properties, schemes such as Solar Together had run for a number of years and the Council needed to work with central government and private firms to consider the potential opportunities provided by heat pumps. MHS Homes was investing in renewables for their properties and the armed forces and many local organisations and community groups were invited onto the Climate Change Community Working Group meeting in January.

Budget -  in response to a question on whether the Climate Change Team had a sufficient budget, the Portfolio Holder stated that much of the work undertaken to advance the Council’s Climate Change goals were the responsibility of the relevant service and monies were often received from government in grants to a particular team rather than the Climate Change Team. The Climate Change team worked with services to secure those grants and was responsible for exploring grant opportunities across the Council. In addition the team was to promote climate change awareness and action across the community, so it had a smaller budget.

Investment Strategy -  it was asked whether the investment strategy would be informed by the Council’s climate change goals. The Portfolio Holder stated that the investment strategy would take account of those opportunities going forward such as the pension fund. A Member added that a sub committee of the Pension Fund was in the process of being set up to consider some of these approaches.

The Portfolio Holder was asked to provide examples climate change work had been undertaken by the Council, he pointed to the Cozenton Park project which was powered by renewable energy. In addition, electric buses were being trialled by private bus companies in Medway. In terms of policy, there was a new climate change action plan and a number of strategies had specifically considered climate change with all reports provided to Council and Cabinet outlining climate change implications.

Decision:

The Committee noted the report.