Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from County Councillors Tim Ashton and Janice Hanson.

Members are asked to consider any Personal / Prejudicial Interests they may have to disclose to the meeting in relation to matters under consideration on the Agenda.

None disclosed.

The minutes of the meeting held on 15 March 2011 were agreed as an accurate record.

Verbal Report (Anne Selby)

Anne Selby, Lancashire Wildlife Trust, gave a verbal update on a recent Government White Paper on the Environment (The Natural Choice: securing the value of nature)

Anne reported that it was the first White Paper on the environment for 20 years and outlines the Government's vision for the natural environment over the next 50 years and is backed up with practical action to deliver that ambition.

Part of the proposals contained in the White Paper are to create new Nature Improvement Areas (NIAs) to enhance and reconnect people to nature on a significant scale.  Local partnerships will come together to form NIAs.  A competition will be set up to identify 12 initial areas and will provide £7.5million to support this.

The White Paper also focuses on protecting and improving our natural environment, growing a green economy and international and EU leadership.  The White paper also make provision for monitoring and reporting and a set of key indicators will be developed by spring 2012 to track progress of the White Paper.

It was noted that the Government do not intend to follow through with legislation.

The Committee discussed the White Paper and the impact on Lancashire and the implications of how the White Paper could be implemented within Lancashire's two tier council structure.

Resolved:  County Councillor Michael Green, Chair of the Cabinet Committee on Climate Change and the Environment, welcomed the White Paper and the Committee agreed to note verbal update provided.

Presentation (Fiona Cruchley)

Fiona Cruchley gave a presentation (circulated) on the reporting requirements on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.  Fiona reported that the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) requests that once each Local Authority has published its local GHG report the Local Authority must provide with information which includes totals for Scope 1, Scope 2 and Scope 3 emissions in CO₂e.  Details are placed on the DEEC website sot that visitors can contact Local Authorities if they have any additional queries.

Fiona reported the details provided within each scope area as follows:

 Scope 1 – direct energy emissions

•  Gas used in Lancashire County Council (LCC) premises (schools and corporate buildings)

•  Heating Oil used in LCC premises (schools and corporate buildings)

•  Fuel used in LCC owned vehicles

•  Exclusion – fugitive emissions from air conditioning and refrigeration (due to cost of data collection

Scope 2 – Energy Indirect Emissions

•  Electricity used in street-lighting

•  Electricity used in LCC premises (schools and corporate buildings)

Scope 3 – Other Indirect Emissions

Reporting on scope 3 emissions is discretionary

•  Business travel by car

Fiona explained that once all figures are available a final report will be presented to the Committee at a future meeting.

Resolved: The Committee agreed to note the presentation and noted that it will receive a final report, when available, at a future Committee meeting.

Verbal Report (Fiona Cruchley)

Fiona Cruchley gave a verbal update on the Schools Energy Award and progress made. 

The final and awards ceremony for this award was held on 15^th June and was attended by 5 schools. 

In future years, the Chairman's Challenge will include a theme of "go green" in addition to the existing "be healthy" and "stay safe" themes. The schools energy awards will therefore not be run as a separate event in 2012.

Resolved: The Committee discussed the Schools Energy Award and agreed to note the verbal update provided on progress made to date.

Verbal Report (Matthew Tidmarsh)

Matthew Tidmarsh gave a verbal update on the Schools Energy Strategy.

Matthew explained that the strategy would shortly be launched and that there is over £4.1million in payback measures which will be for the Schools Forum to determine how to allocate the funding to schools in order to get best results.  It is likely that a report will go forward to recommend commission based programmes and part of the programme will look at installing new heating systems in schools to improve efficiency.

With schools accounting for 50% of the County Council's energy consumption, improvements in schools efficiency will have a major effect on the County Council's overall energy use. 

Resolved: The Committee agreed to note the verbal update regarding the Schools Energy Strategy.

(Andrew Coombe)

Andrew Coombe presented the report (circulated) and explained that there is significant central government interest in the potential for energy generation through renewable sources across the UK, with a national target for 15% of all energy generated in the UK to come from such sources by 2020. 

Andrew explained that the Department for Communities and Local Government (CLG) made £1,085,000 available to the North West Improvement & Efficiency Partnership (NWIEP) for 2010/2011 to develop a programme to increase local authority capacity to tackle the causes and effects of climate change in the North West of England.  This funding was split into 2 streams, 1 to carry out work at a regional basis (circa £500,000) and 1 to carry out projects at a sub regional level (circa £100,000 per sub region). 

The sub regional funding offered 100% support for proposed projects and bids were submitted through the Team Lancashire Programme.  The feedback from partners on what Lancashire should bid for was to increase understanding and knowledge around potential renewable energy sources at a local level.  To meet this aspiration, Lancashire County Council submitted a bid on behalf of partners to the fund from which £65,000 was secured to carry out the work.  Lancashire County Council is acting as lead body and working in conjunction with Team Lancashire to submit claims.

As well as collating District level information, the work on this project has produced an overall estimate for the potential renewable energy for the whole of Lancashire.  This gives a total potential energy from all sources of 10,613 megawatts (MW) of energy, which can be split into 7,416 MW of electricity and 3210 MW of heat.  Within these figures the 2 biggest areas are large scale wind generation and micro-generation.  The micro-generation figure would include small scale wind power, solar energy and the use of heat pumps.  The figure of 10,613 MW is equivalent to five large coal fired power stations.

All district councils, including the two unitary councils, have welcomed the research and the value it brings.

The Committee discussed the viability of various renewable energy sources including wind turbines, tidal power and solar panels.

Resolved: The Committee agreed to note the report.

(Debbie King)

Debbie King presented the report (circulated) on the Lancashire Insulation Fund.  Debbie explained that the report provided an update on where the project is up to currently.

The Lancashire Insulation Fund seeks to maximise for the residents of the county Lancashire's share of funding from the Government's Carbon Emissions Reduction Target (CERT) initiative.  Securing a partnership with a CERT provider to invest their funding in the county secures a consistent level of investment enabling a single price for the installation of standard energy measures (loft and cavity wall insulation) to be negotiated.

Debbie described the selection process used to choose contractors, interested contractors were asked to submit expressions of interest and complete a Pre Qualifying Questionnaire (PQQ) which was then used to form a scoring matrix and an interview process followed from which two successful contractors were chosen.

The contractors will charge a fixed price for installation which will be fixed until December 2012 at which point the CERT scheme is to be abolished in and is to be replaced by the Government's 'pay as you save' Green Deal scheme.

Debbie also explained that a co-ordinated marketing campaign would be carried out.

Resolved: The Committee commended the progress made to date on the project and agreed to note the report.

An item of Urgent Business may only be considered under this heading where, by reason of special circumstances to be recorded in the minutes, the Chairman of the meeting is of the opinion that the item should be considered at the meeting as a matter of urgency.  Wherever possible, the Chief Executive should be given advance warning of any Members' intention to raise a matter under this heading.

None

The next meeting of the Committee will be held on Tuesday, 11 October 2011, at 2pm, in Cabinet Room 'B', County Hall, Preston.

It was noted that the next Committee meeting would be held on Tuesday 11 October 2011, 2pm at County Hall, Preston.