Agenda item

To receive a Climate Action Update.

RECEIVED a progress update on Climate Action in the Borough.

NOTED the preliminary summary of external engagement published with the agenda.

IN RESPONSE the following comments/questions were received:

Q.       How can people get involved? How can the Council make sure that residents are aware of what is going on?  There are many priorities to be considered and the public can decide if they are given access to the information easily.

A.       The Environment Forum is a good platform to share information.  Members of the Enfield Transport Users Group and other groups link into many areas of the Climate Action Plan, including sustainability and others. The main priority is spreading the word on what is being done.  Elected members are aware of many more community groups than officers and can help spread the information further.  It is everybody’s responsibility to involve as many people as possible.  The Council is open to working with the community groups to spread awareness. Outreach to communities comes from networking and further involvement can be sought through this forum.

Q.       How can the Council work with TFL to improve the area.

A.       Regular contact with TFL. Our views are very important to them as the Mayor of London’s commitment to providing sustainable transport facilities and sharing their financial business model highlighting passenger sales etc. In particular, the standard of buses at certain times of the day and Enfield are currently aligned with their objectives. Action: Doug Wilkinson to speak to TFL in respect of bus services.

Q.       Do we have wider groups so that we can proactively reach out?

A.       Internal engagement is progressing through the Council, landlord forums, community forums, Friends of Parks, resident groups and networking with existing forums is crucial to engagement, creating unions to increase interest.

Q.       How do you reach out to businesses in the Borough? Have you considered attending BNI group meetings, where local businesses meet and share information etc?  In respect of going green and solar panels – how much involvement do the planning department have to share advice on this. Islington Council have lime-green bikes, can Enfield look at bike hire schemes?

A.       It is difficult to increase interest.  Pan London wide is overseen by the GLA and this is being progressed by them.  It is not currently commercially viable in outer London, and London Councils are exploring that option.  Enfield does have the infrastructure but needs the volume of people to use it.

          In respect of connecting with the BNI groups, this will be explored. Action: Rafe Bertram

          In response to the ongoing green issue, each planning application is reviewed in line with the London Plan, and we are currently meeting zero carbon standards. Greenspace is being reviewed by the relevant teams, ensuring each planning application is resilient to flooding, green roots etc.

Q.       What is Enfield’s contribution to satisfy what the Mayor of London wants to do in terms of delivery of business etc compared to other London Boroughs? Is there a clear target?

A.       The UK central government needs to get to net zero by 2050 but the London Mayor has brought this forward to 2030 setting a target London wide. Enfield as a Company will be carbon neutral by 2030 but as a Borough by 2040. Timings are not aligned and the GLA are helping London Plan wide and all boroughs are dependent on this, there are 7 workstreams and Enfield is involved in all of these.

          There are clear targets and Enfield are working to deliver these with central government playing catch up to meet these targets. Mayor of London’s transport strategy has a clear target and Enfield are level with their active travel scheme.        Across London, Boroughs have declared a climate emergency and all other strategies feed in such as buildings, transport, and environment etc.

Q.       With only 135 responding with their views, this is a low number and the public have been slow to get involved with the recent pandemic being factored in. Do we have too many diverse decisions to take with the ambitions/actions being seen as excessive? For example, recycling, flats need to be looked at, together with the using local farms to provide foods. Are the Council looking to put in further charging points for vehicles?

A.       The Council are committed to installing 1000 vehicle charging points to be run on a commercial basis, facilitating installation over the next 2 years or so, although the prospect of engineering and final locations of these are proving challenging.

Q.       With a frustratingly low number of responses, how can the Council engagement with the groups who are not as interested in the issues as those who are active in the topic of climate change?

A.       The Council visited shopping centres and Ponders End Youth Centre and try to engage with those who were not interested or had no idea what was happening in respect of climate change and its importance to future generations. Some useful discussions were received. Overall teenagers were critical.

          Other ways engagement can take place with those who are not as motivated in this respect is to perhaps pitch up at a petrol station, car park or supermarket to obtain further engagement. The Council do have a capacity issue at present with the number of these essential engagement opportunities, with the programmes often being too ambitious in terms of resources.

Q.       Are schools involved in climate change generally?  Young people from year 5 or 6 and secondary school age thereafter have a good understanding of the issues and can speak to their parents about their views, thus raising further awareness.

A.       A member of the Council’s Enforcement Team won an award for their collaboration with the Year 4 class of Prince of Wales School in respect of the climate change work that took place. Consultations with 28 out of the 96 schools in the borough have already taken place.  There is a handbook available online which gives more details regarding the School Climate Action Network, where mainly primary schools meet regularly, teachers also attend as well as Council officers. CAST (Climate Action & sustainability Team) will continue to work with colleagues to identify opportunities to increase secondary school representation at networks or alternative opportunities for engaging.

Q.       Regarding recycling targets, videos can help to increase recycling targets and raise awareness of the importance of this issue.

A.       There is a capacity issue with Officers developing videos which include officers from the website and networking and all service areas competing for website space. This can be combatted with good communications, marketing and currently available infrastructure, although there is not a simple answer to overcome all issues currently being faced although the Council are committed to doing as much as they can.

Q.       With the wish list of climate change actions being so high, this comes at a considerable cost to the Council.  Can the new housing stocks be insulated further by including this into the new revised Climate Change strategy?  What can the Council do now and what can wait?

A.       With the reduction of budgets received by each Council, there is not enough funding to achieve all challenges needed and creative thinking is essential, and work done in order of priority.

The Chair thanked the Officers for their presentation and comments.