Agenda item

The Chairman of the Impact of Heatwaves Task Group, Councillor M. Marshall, presented the group’s final report for Members’ consideration.

Cabinet was informed that the Task Group had been established by the Overview and Scrutiny Board following referral of a Motion on Notice on this subject from Council.  The review had been launched in a context in which the UK had been experiencing increasingly intense heatwaves, particularly in 2022, which had had a negative impact on the health and wellbeing of many people.  A number of key lessons had been learned from the heatwave experienced in 2022 and the Council and partner organisations could learn from these.  Locally, key lessons included the need to improve communications and a requirement to improve co-ordination between relevant agencies.

Bromsgrove District Council, as a first-tier responder, had a number of responsibilities in this space.  There were several contexts in which Council services could be impacted by heatwaves, from environmental protection to supporting people at risk of homelessness.  There was a traffic light system in the region in place to trigger warnings about heatwaves. 

The Task Group had been informed about the work of Worcestershire Prepared and Applied Resilience in relation to preparing for and handling the impact of heatwaves.  Worcestershire Prepared consisted of a range of partner organisations working together to engage with local communities and to sense check that local measures were working.  Applied Resilience, meanwhile, was in the process of undertaking an audit of potential rest centres that could be used in the county.

A key finding of the Task Group had been that, whilst people were aware of climate change and how this had impacted on weather patterns in the UK, there appeared to be less familiarity with some of the risks to people arising from hotter weather.  For example, there were some people who were not aware of the risks associated with having barbecues during heatwaves.

At the end of the review, the Task Group had proposed that there should be an annual report to the Overview and Scrutiny Board updating Members on areas of change in relation to heatwaves, the impact of this on the local community and action being taken to address this.  The Overview and Scrutiny Board had approved this recommendation in July.  As the Board could determine items for consideration on the Overview and Scrutiny Work Programme, the Cabinet was being asked to note the content of the Task Group’s final report.

In concluding his presentation, Councillor Marshall thanked the other members of the Impact of Heatwaves Task Group for their hard work.  The Officers who had contributed to the review were also thanked for their support, with particular thanks extended to the Senior Democratic Services Officer, who had written the report detailing the group’s findings.

Members welcomed the report from the Impact of Heatwaves Task Group and thanked the group for their hard work.  Questions were raised about the timing of the annual update to the Overview and Scrutiny Board.  Councillor Marshall confirmed that the aim would be to provide an annual update in the spring.  This would provide time to learn lessons from the previous summer in preparation for the heatwaves that might occur in the forthcoming summer that year.

RESOLVED that the Impact of Heatwaves Task Group’s final report be noted.