Issue - meetings

To deal with any questions on notice from Members of the Council, in the order in which they have been received.

A period of up to 15 minutes is allocated for the asking and answering of questions.  This may be extended at the discretion of the Chairman with the agreement of the majority of those present.

The Chairman explained that four Questions on Notice had been received for consideration at the meeting and would be taken in the order in which they had been included on the agenda.  A maximum of 15 minutes had been allocated to the consideration of Questions on Notice and the answers provided to those questions and no supplementary questions would be permitted.

Question Submitted by Councillor R. Hunter

“What actions are the Cabinet taking to lobby Government to provide a much needed longer term financial settlement for councils such as BDC?”

The Leader responded by explaining that the Council continued to work through the Local Government Association (LGA) and District Councils’ Network (DCN) to add the authority’s voice to the sector’s request for a multi-year financial settlement. On the Council’s behalf, the LGA were campaigning for local services to be provided with a long-term, sustainable future which gave Councils clarity and certainty over their funding. In the recent collective response to the one-year settlement, the DCN also called on the Government to deliver a multi-year financial settlement for district Councils.

In addition, Members were advised that the Leader continually raised this issue in discussions with the Bromsgrove MP, who then reported these concerns on to central government.

Question Submitted by Councillor J. King

“In 2019 this Council declared a climate emergency and set up a working group to drive efforts to decarbonise our activities. Yet despite all the work that has been done, a recent scorecard of UK local authorities’ climate change progress, compiled by Climate Emergency UK, put Bromsgrove very close to the bottom of our peer group, with a 10% achievement score. What are you doing to restore our reputation and ensure Bromsgrove is recognised as a leader in tackling climate change?”

In response to the question, the Portfolio Holder for Leisure, Culture and Climate Change advised that the scorecard rating referred to, was undertaken by Climate Emergency UK using a methodology of only scoring local authorities’ climate change strategies and action plans.  This did not consider any actions the Council was already undertaking in tackling climate change. The Council fully appreciated that it had a great deal to do and would use the tools and data arising from this survey and that of Sustainability West Midlands to learn and inform the authority’s Climate Change Strategy and action plan. This would ensure that a strong and robust strategy and action plan was developed and regularly reviewed to demonstrate the authority’s progress.

The Council was in the process of developing its Climate Change Strategy and a detailed Action to Reduce Carbon (ARC) Plan to have progressive longer-term plans in place and address the areas where improvements were needed.

There were nine identified themes for the ARC.

·            Theme 1: Sustainable Buildings and Workplaces

·            Theme 2: Renewable Energy

·            Theme 3: Transport and Travel

·            Theme 4: Planning / Building Control and Retrofit

·            Theme 5: Community

·            Theme 6: Waste

·            Theme 7: Biodiversity

·            Theme 8: The Low Carbon and Circular Economy and Resources

·            Theme 9:  ...  view the full minutes text for item 95