SUSTAINABLE REGENERATION SCRUTINY COMMITTEE
6 June, 2011
Meeting commenced: 2.00 p.m.
“
ended: 4.15 p.m.
PRESENT: Councillor Dawson - in the Chair
Councillors R Garrido, S Ord, L Stone, L Drake, Humphreys, Lea, Jolley
and Lindley.
1.
OFFICERS: A. Cairns
N. Lowther
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Customer & Support Servises
Sustainable Regeneration
(Item 4)
L Sharples
-
Democratic Services
APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE
There were no apologies for absence.
2.
DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST
There were no declarations of interest.
3.
QUESTIONS FROM MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC
There were no questions from members of the public.
4.
CLIMATE CHANGE AND CARBON REDUCTION
N Lowther and A Cairns gave a presentation to members on Climate Change and
Carbon Reduction which covered the following areas of work. The presentation will
be circulated to members for information. Areas discussed are outlined below:
A number of national targets are in place to achieve an 80% reduction in C02 by
2050 with 15% of energy from renewables by 2020. A local area agreement has
been in place from 2008 - 2011 which looks at direct and non direct carbon
contribution. A Greater Manchester draft Climate Change Strategy has been
completed for 2011 to 2020 which aims for a C02 reduction of 30 - 50%. This is a
fairly ambitious target.
Copies of the Climate Change Strategy were circulated to members. It is not a
statutory requirement to produce a strategy, however Salford felt it was important to
do so. The areas addressed in this are Climate reduction, Climate adaptation and
Behavioural change. It is important that the Council looks at how to make the city
more resilient, open spaces play a significant part in this.
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SUSTAINABLE REGENERATION SCRUTINY COMMITTEE
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The Greater Manchester low carbon economic area for built environment covers
residential retrofit and commercial retrofit. In terms of the commercial sector if we do
not adapt to climate change then there could be a cost of £20 billion over the next 20
years to the area. Work has been underway in respect of residential retrofit such as
the offers to householders in respect of cavity wall and roof insulation. In the future
the finances for this will be part of the Green Deal.
Discussion took place around boiler efficiencies. The Green deal element will cover
boilers which will be part of the discussion when surveyors are looking at insulation.
The green deal is being piloted in Greater Manchester, 94% of properties in Salford
still have less than the recommended loft insulation.
Members raised the issue of boilers that are able to generate electricity- combined
heat and power. As there is a loss of some electricity through the national network it
would be better if power could be produced locally. Bury Council are looking at a
proposal to take methane from a quarry which could be piped to the town centre.
Salford have a possibility of using power from Carrington. However there would be a
cost to set up the required infrastructure.
The overall use of CO2 for Salford has fallen from 1453 kilo tonnes to 1371 kilo
tonnes which equates to a reduction from 6.6 tonnes per capita to 6.1. Discussion
took place on how this information was collected and how relevant it was to Salford.
This information is collected at a national and regional level and then applied using
The figures for Salford is based on information from 2005 - 2008. Although this data
may not be exact it is the only information that currently exists. Some discussions are
taking place with the Utilities to try and gather better metric information.
The data is normally 2 years out of date with the next update available some time this
year.
Scrutiny enquired about the Decent Homes programmes, the green deal funding will
be used to help improve homes.
The council's budget for the Carbon Management Programme is approximately
£300,000 per year to introduce energy efficiencies into the council.
Carbon Management Programme
Salford signed up to the Carbon Trust in 2009 which outlined various projects that
would lead to a reduction in the amount of CO2 that we use so far we have achieved
a 3.1% reduction in consumption between 2007 and 2010.
Members asked about street lighting in Salford. A PFI bid was submitted and was
unsuccessful resulting in replacements now being carried out on an ad hoc basis.
One councillor queried this as their community committee had received an update
from Urban Vision stating that the current lights are to be replaced with more efficient
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SUSTAINABLE REGENERATION SCRUTINY COMMITTEE
6th June, 2011
LED lights. The new lights would result in a reduction in energy usage. Further
investigation indicate that UV are investigating replacing the lights with LED’s but this
is still a proposal and no procurement exercise has yet started.
Scrutiny were informed that timers had been put in place to ensure that the
floodlighting around the town hall is used more efficiently. Members were surprised
that this had not been implemented previously. Officers are also looking at replacing
old oil fired boilers with gas. Overall the annual consumption of oil has decreased.
The council undertake a competitive procurement exercise to find the best deal for
gas and electricity and previously we have negotiated an excellent contract with
Manchester council. All projects will be itemised and analysed to show how much
money is invested against the savings to be made.
The council works on a 5 year pay back scheme. When officers looked at solar
panels for the roof, it indicated that it would take 25 yrs to get payback on the
scheme which is why this project has not gone ahead.
Scrutiny enquired about the Persimmon housing which was built with energy efficient
schemes in the city. It was suggested that officers could look at the impact of the
schemes with savings made.
Salford has signed up to the carbon reduction commitment energy efficiency scheme
CRC EES. The function of the scheme has changed while it has been in existence
and previously it had been a cap and trade scheme that was revenue neutral that
changed as part of the comprehensive spending review to mean that carbon
allowances would need to be purchased from 2012. Based on the current estimates
we will need to purchase 25,000 allowances at £12 per tonne this means we will
need to allocate £300K for this new carbon tax.
A league table will be produced in October 2011 listing the 2500 organisation taking
part in the CRC EES and initially organisation will be ranked on what measures that
have put in place in the past to reduce CO2
The council is responsible for schools and academies even though they have little
influence on them.
Members thanked the officers for their attendance at the meeting.
RESOLVED: (1) THAT the presentation be noted and circulated to members.
(2) THAT Nick would make enquiries as to how this data is gathered
and feed this information back to members.
(3) THAT Nick would make enquiries with Urban Vision regarding the
issue of lighting and report back to members.
(4) THAT Nick would follow up the energy saving schemes in respect
of housing in the city and look at the cost savings.
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SUSTAINABLE REGENERATION SCRUTINY COMMITTEE
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5
FORWARD PLAN
Discussion took place around the forward plan in relation to Item 17, 31 and 32.
Members raised the issue of ward boundaries and recommended that this is taken up
with Urban Vision.
RESOLVED THAT enquiries are made with Urban Vision around ward boundaries on
the forward plan to ensure that all communities affected by an issue are included.
6
REPORT FROM LAST MEETING
Members thanked the officer for the response to the enquiry on Demolition
Framework Partnerships. However scrutiny feel that the values set at between 2 and
4k are restrictive and would hope that these levels could be increased for smaller
companies. The council should be thinking about what is best for smaller companies
and do not feel that it is sufficient to have only one contract with a smaller company.
RESOLVED THAT the Demolition Framework Partnership is put on the work
programme and re-considered in approximately 6 months time to look at
improvements that can be made.
7
WORK PROGRAMME
RESOLVED: (1) THAT the work programme be noted.
(2) THAT (a) Flooding and (b) The Highways Revenue Budget
2011/2012 / Community Committee Funding and the Highway Maintenance Revenue
Budget 2011/2012, be included on the work programme for the meeting in July,
2011.
(3) THAT an item on Port Salford be included on the work programme
for the meeting in September, 2011.
(4) THAT a management structure for the sustainable regeneration
directorate with an outline of responsibilities and areas of work is brought to a future
meeting. (A link to the interactive website of Sustainable Regeneration has been
forwarded to members after the meeting)
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