Climate and Community Action Working Group (CCAWG)

Climate & Community Action Working Group

Meeting with BHCC Councillors

Date: 18th March 2024, 5pm, Hove Town Hall

Attended: Cllr Maureen Winder, Cllr Theresa Fowler, Cllr Tim Rowkins, Cllr Trevor Muten Max Woodford, Assistant Director City Development & Regeneration, also joined the meeting.

CCWG Attendees: Athol Halle -TDC, Cat Fletcher & Les Gunbie - Community Works Reps, Dave Allen – B&H Friends of the Earth, David Greenfield – SOENECS, Julie Harris & Mita Patel - BHCC Sustainability Team,Kayla Ente - BHESCO, Mark Earthey - Saltdean Climate Action Network, Neil Younger – Brighton & Hove Climate Alliance, Simon Maxwell - Climate:Change

Notes

Everyone introduced themselves – the councillors cover the following areas:

• Councillor Winder – lead for parks and green spaces
• Councillor Rowkins, chair of the Environment, South Downs and the Sea Committee*
• Councillor Fowler, lead for South Downs National Park, marine/fisheries and deputy chair of the Environment, South Downs and the Sea Committee*
• Councillor Muten, chair of the Transport & Sustainability Committee (External link)

*May not be any more of these as the council moves to a cabinet system of decision-making

CCWAG Overview (Athol/Julie)

We stressed the value of having a knowledgeable and supportive group to work with on the biggest challenge of our time – climate change, and how it has the potential to grow and build involvement.

Athol introduced how TDC works to tackle inequality and how focus on climate is an equality issue. People in poverty create the least emissions but are most impacted by climate change. If we want to tackle inequality, we need to tackle climate too.

The introduction highlighted the range of expertise held by the members of the group and how this can act as a bridge between the council, community groups and excluded communities.

Council Climate Priorities (councillors)

Cllr Rowkins – Recognised importance of working with the city as council responsible for less than 2% of emissions. Most of the work needs to be done by the big emitters.

Cllr Muten – Noted the Decarbonisation Pathways Study and how the council will use it to get the city to net zero. We will look at the risks, what we need to do to reach different points and what it will cost. Also picking up on climate adaptation assessments and stressed that the council is committed to partnerships with the city.

Cllr Fowler – Would like to see all council homes retrofitted and get recycling up - more talking to businesses about what they can do. Would like to see less plastic. Support for expansion of undersea kelp forests as carbon capture.

Cllr Winder – Need a co-ordinated network of green spaces. Lack of green space or access to them reveals inequalities in the city. Awareness of and involvement with nature important for wellbeing.

Substantive Issues: Economic Strategy, Decarbonisation Strategy & Waste

Minimisation (Simon, Kayla, Les)

Simon: (Climate:Change) Congratulated the councillors on having a strong group and stressed this group wants to be there helping and supporting them to succeed. Explained how the Climate:Change think tank is bringing people together people to look at issues around food, energy, housing and transport. Stressed the importance of looking at consumption as a whole, not just the territorial factors – focus on the big picture and work down. Council has done some fantastic work on strategies, but could they be joined up into one climate strategy? Also, some modelling to vision what the city is going to be like in future years.

Mita: the sustainability team works to embed sustainable thinking and climate actions across the council: to join up policies, strategies and actions and to identify the gaps and challenges.

David: the circular economy routemap brought together 130 council officers and had a practical impact on the way the council works – eg into housing tenders.

Other areas of the UK have stakeholder groups who take responsibility for delivering on actions, such as circular economy, not leaving it all up to the council.

Les: (Voluntary Sector Rep) Brought the councillors up to date on how a sub-group had been formed to contribute to waste minimisation actions/strategy and how they had looked at the report that went to the Environment Committee in the autumn and recently published Government guidance. Stressed the importance of finding tangible things to get involved with and visible initiatives. How can we get recycling right? How can we take it further? How do we connect into community groups, businesses and households? The sub-group can help with practical ways to engage, discussing problems, finding solutions and an inclusive vision. It’s important people buy into it and see how they fit in. Cat added how she is working well with Juliet, the waste minimisation officer, on projects, and asked the councillors to think about the growth conundrum – changing business models to more hiring & renting. She highlighted Ljubljana as a best practice case study (External link)

Kayla: (BHESCO) In her role at BHESCO has seen how Brighton & Hove is a progressive city where people want climate action. Inviting businesses to help solve the crisis is an opportunity to boost the economy. There’s an opportunity to collaborate with existing skills. Trialling community energy in 4 Hove streets, could be a breakthrough project. Could we exploit some of the land identified in the Waste & Minerals Plan and get the city heat pump ready? Kingsway to the Sea project a missed opportunity to install low-cost renewable heat infrastructure. Project to decarbonise the Grace Eyre Foundation building was turned down by planning; need national legislation.

David highlighted an Energy Stewardship Programme that looked at heating in churches – where WSCC collaborated with the Diocese of Chichester. How can we make our own estate more energy efficient? Facilitation through the planning process is essential and feasible.

Process Issues: Community Engagement and Climate Action Centre (Neil/Athol)

Neil: (BHCA) Highlighted the need for some real-time infrastructure and that his organisation had some experience of running buildings on meantime leases. Have been working collaboratively with Revaluit on short-term space and talking to Chenine Bhathena, Assistant Director for Culture, Tourism and Sport about long term provision of affordable space for local groups. Circular Economy plan endorses the need for circular economy hubs. Neil also raised the suggestion of Net Zero information points that people could access in person.

David added that they also work with Men In Sheds and Freegle to provide physical spaces and that a significant amount of social value results from circular projects, eg a project on reusing tech that took 450 people out of digital exclusion.

Athol: (TDC) Community groups can bring resource into the city by making bids that are ringfenced to communities (and unavailable to councils) – eg National Lottery Climate Action Fund (External link). He also highlighted the Public Sector Decarbonisation Fund (External link)  which the council itself can bring in extra money from central government, to retrofit council housing – this would have multiple wins – improved heating to improve health, saving money for some of the city’s poorer residents, improving the housing stock, providing employment – could train people unemployment or exclusion into these roles, and reducing emissions. BHESCO have offered to support the council with such a bid.

Hopefully today has showcased the climate expertise in the city and we encourage the council to engage with communities as early as possible, then we can use this expertise to support the council more effectively. This group can be one of the vehicles to deliver on climate ambitions for the city.

Actions

• Cllr Rowkins offered to set up ongoing meetings.
• Kayla Ente offered to support a bid to the Public Sector Decarbonisation Fund.