Agenda and draft minutes

To receive apologies for absence.

An apology for absence was received from Councillor Haynes.

To receive declarations of interest.

There were none.

To approve the minutes of the meeting held on 5 December 2024.

RESOLVED That the Minutes of the meeting held on 05 December 2024 were approved as a correct record.

The Chair of the Committee will answer questions from members of the public submitted in accordance with the Council’s procedures.

Public questions were submitted. They were answered by the Chair, Councillor Turner. Supplementary questions were also answered. Refer to the recording of the meeting and Agenda Item 4.

See Agenda Item 4 for deadlines for submission.

There were none.

To present the draft Council Plan which sets out the council’s priorities and objectives for the next four years.

The Chair, Councillor Turner, introduced the report and highlighted that the draft Council Plan 2025-2029 sets out the strategic direction for the Council over the next four years. The draft Plan included five overarching priorities, Environment, Climate & Nature, Communities & Wellbeing, Local Economy, Housing and Working for our Communities.

She highlighted some of the achievements that were specific to Environment Committee which were set out in section 2 of the report focussing on the below key achievements:

• The installation of the water source heat pumps at Ebley and Brimscombe Port Mills, with the pumps at the Ebley Mill site saving 78.5 tonnes of CO2e in 2023 compared to 2022. 

• 101 natural flood management interventions had been installed as part of the Stroud Rural SUDS project, which included working in partnership with the Environment Agency and closely with landowners and communities. 

• The council had funded almost £300,000 of improved and new strategic local walking and cycling schemes to support a shift towards active travel. 

• The collection of household batteries and vapes at the kerbside was approved in December 2024, therefore removing them from residual waste. 

The draft Council Plan was developed over several months, combining a review of the existing Council Plan with an exercise to reevaluate priorities and identify aims and objectives for the next four years.Once a draft was prepared, it was reviewed by each policy committee during the Autumn of 2024 and following this suggested changes were incorporated into the Plan.

The Plan was consulted on widely between October and December, with a public consultation running alongside stakeholder events which included workshops with the Stroud Local Strategic Partnership, Parish and Town Councils, and the Youth Council. The public consultation received 297 responses in total and the details were set out in section 4 of the report and in Appendices C and D. Some of the headline results were: 

• 77% of respondents agreed with the Environment, Climate & Nature priority. 

• Most agreement was received for the aim “Protect and enhance our environment”, with 86% of respondents agreeing.

• 79% of respondents said they thought the aims for the Environment priority clearly set out what the council were trying to achieve. 

Most of the qualitative comments received for the Environment priority related to the wording and structure of the Council Plan, with some comments saying the actions were not specific, measurable or timebound. The comments had been addressed by the Delivery Plan attached at Appendix B.  The Delivery Plan was an active and flexible document that would be kept under regular review and that would change over time.

Since the Council Plan had been developed, the Devolution White Paper had been released which outlined plans for Local Government Reorganisation, and therefore considering how this might impact the Council Plan and its delivery.

Once approved, the Council Plan would come into effect from 1^st April 2025 and would be built on the council’s performance and risk management system, Ideagen, to enable regular performance reporting and monitoring.

Proposed by Councillor Brown, seconded by  ...  view the full minutes text for item EC.037

Environment Committee is asked to review the draft air quality strategy appended to this report and consider accepting it for use for an initial two-year period, during which time baseline data will be established to inform a review of the strategy. The authority is required to have a local air quality strategy as set out in the National Air Quality Strategy.

The Head of Environmental Health introduced the report and explained that the Strategy would cover an initial 2 year period. Air pollution was one of the biggest environmental risks to face public health in the UK and it caused 26,000 – 38,000 deaths each year. She advised that there was a government expectation for a local Air Quality Strategy to be produced and implemented within areas that weren’t failing legal air quality standards.

She advised that the Strategy should be evidence based and include preventative measures as well as improvement actions. She highlighted the below key areas of the Strategy:

-       The aim was to monitor and improve local air quality to reduce the detrimental impacts that poor air quality can have on human health and the environment.

-       There were 5 air quality objectives had been proposed which could be found on page 153 of the report pack.

-       Section 5 of the Strategy showed the links between air quality and health throughout the human life cycle and the Health Foundations 2024 research.

-       Sections 6 and 7 set out the air quality law and standards.

-       The strategic links between air quality, the Local Plan and Council Plan were included in section 8.

-       Section 9 outlined how air quality intercepts with the National Planning Policy Framework.

-       Section 12 included how indoor air quality could be improved.

The Head of Environmental Health finally advised that there had been some suggested actions to deliver the Strategy on page 168 of the report pack. She stated that the council were reliant on funding sources in order to deliver the Strategy and confirmed that the council had been awarded £10,000 through Gloucestershire County Councils (GCC) air quality grant scheme for a particulate matter 2.5 (PM2.5) monitoring project in Autumn 2024.

The Chair, Councillor Turner, congratulated Officers for the successful bid and being awarded the full grant from GCC.

Councillor Hofmann asked whether the improvement plan would focus on specific areas or whether it would be district wide. The Head of Environmental Health confirmed that it would depend on the data collected. If it was behavioural, a focused plan would be created however it may be due to traffic or street architecture which would then be a local approach.

In response to Councillor Watson’s question the Head of Environmental Health confirmed that the council did have flexibility over what was measured however PM2.5 was the focus as there wasn’t any baseline data currently and the legal requirements were to be able to demonstrate that the council were contributing to a national reduction in PM2.5. She stressed that smaller particles were still a huge concern and suggested that they were investigated in the future once there was a good understanding of PM2.5 across the Stroud District.

Councillor Canning asked how the areas of the district needing to be monitored would be identified and how Councillors can feed into those. The Environmental Protection Manager specified that initially the council would focus on NO2  ...  view the full minutes text for item EC.038

A report was circulated prior to the Committee meeting, there were no comments.

Councillor Watson provided a verbal update and highlighted the below points:

-       Waste arisings and recycling rates continued to plateau across the County, which reflected a national trend.

-       Increased efforts were needed to be made to track carbon implications alongside weights to best meet carbon neutral/net zero pledges.

-       A Cross-District ambition made headway to be progressed by innovation focused subgroup.

-       Awaiting clarity from County on contractual implications of Emissions Trading Scheme, which left the council potentially exposed as budgets were finalised for upcoming year without the information.

-       The new owner operator of Javelin Park had not yet introduced themselves.

-       Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) allocations had been received, with a hope to deliver on some areas of the Council Plan, ahead of time using funds from the EPR.

-       Councillor Gill Thomas presented her Litter Champion role and work to date to much acclaim, other districts want to replicate.

Councillor Watson requested for Committee to formally thank Councillor Gill Thomas and acknowledge the incredible achievements already made in short time. She gave credit to her personal efforts for inspiring those within and beyond Stroud. The Chair, Councillor Turner, echoed Councillor Watson comments.

To consider the work programme.

The Chair advised that the 2030 Annual Report would no longer be coming to March Environment Committee due to the climate and nature strategy being reworked.

RESOLVED To note the above update to the Work Programme.