 Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. My name is Councillor Jeff Harvey and I'm one of the two vice-chairs of the committee, and I'm chairing this committee in place of Councillor Pippa Haling's who is unable to make it today. Gundi archydig, fel y Cymru, o'r cadnod ar y cyfnod yma i gydag iawn i gael gweithgawdd Cysyfforddolbarth, ac mae'r planning yn cael sy'n cael ei weld y lleol, hisbyddiannau hynny o'r caddorol a'u gweithgawdd ar y teimlo? Felly athletes i wych yn cyfrifio trefwynt yn y llyffbeth gyda'r cyfnod, sydd angen i'w gwriadu sydd ar gyfer gweithio'r gwasanaeth cyflwynu'n gydag eu chyfrwng i'w meddwliau. Camera follows a microphone being switched on so counsellors and officers are advised to wait a couple of seconds before speaking to allow the camera to catch up. For those participating in meetings via the live stream, indicate if you wish to speak via the chat column and please do not use the chat column for any other purpose. Make sure that your device is fully charged and you switch off your microphone unless you are invited to do otherwise. Pwysgaid yw'r maes adegau o'r gwaith o'r cydnod o bobl o ymarfer i eich ddweud hynny yw y pwysig cydnod fel ddynau'r edynig. Gwyddo i'r edrych awr, byddai'n baut yn dweud ac yn rhan i'ch bod yn ei wneud yn cwestiynau y cwestiynau. Pan gwaholwch ei wneud gwaith y cydnod, cofnwch yn yw'n bwysig a'ch ddim yn cwestiynau y cydnod, ac â bros ar gyfer cydnod yma, byddai'n cwestiynau'r cwestiynau cydnod i'n gweithio. i'w clywed i, ac yn ardu i chi nynt y gallwn yn ddweud o'r petbwyll. Yna ydych yn y g oath. Patrick, rydyn ni eisieit o angen? Mae'n ysgrifennu hefyd. Rydym ni'n rhesymdu cyffredinol o'r cael eu cyd-dwynaeth a'r eich llwyth. Dziw i, cwrin ni'n gweld i'n amlwgion chi'n ddeddydd o gyd-dwynebu, sy'n cael eu cyfroydau o angen a'r llwythau? If an interest subsequently comes apparent during the course of meeting, would they please raise it at that point? So, has anyone got any active interest? No, I think it's a no. So, item three of the agenda, the minutes of the previous meeting on the 4th of October, 2022. Are members happy for me to approve the minutes or should I briefly go through them on page one of the agenda? So, page one, page two, page three, and page four. Okay, so I think I can take it that those minutes are approved. Okay, so the first substantive item on the agenda is the Shared Way Services Circular Resource Plan. I think that's going to be Alex's selling day. You're presenting that to us, of course. So, if you'd like to proceed, thank you very much. Thank you, Chair. Yes, so this paper sets out a Greater Cambridge Shared Way Services approach to that circular resource and how we encourage communities, people, individuals and businesses across the area to adopt that approach. So this is all about reducing waste in the first instance, not getting that into the stream and needing to be collected and disposed of. And the paper sets out five key areas around how we'll work with partners in order to deliver specific schemes that help people to repair, reuse and think about alternatives from generating waste. It also focuses a particular area that focuses on food waste because that's a particular issue in terms of making up a proportion of waste that's within the black bin at the moment. So there's a focus on that. There's also our comms and engagement programmes around recycling. So that's working with schools and other partners locally to deliver recycling education, community events. It's also the work that we've done focusing in on waste electrical and electronic equipment as well. So the recent rollout of the pink bins that you might have seen, collection banks across South Cams and other areas. And I'll work with repair cafes to limit the amount of that type of waste that's generated in the first place. So hopefully the paper gives you an indication of what's been done today and also an indication of what will be done in subsequent years as we look forward to the next cycle of events next year. And this is in the context of the waste and recycling partnership across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough as well. Sorry about that. So where I was saying, yes, so that's in the context of the strategy that we've got for the whole of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough as well. So I'm working with partners to respond to kind of government guidance that's coming out from DEFRA around how we further implement these strategies that help us reduce waste. So happy to take any questions or comments that the committee has. John Lopluck, is it possible to put any indicators on these various activities? Is it possible to indicate either how they are progressing in terms of actual figures, values, and is it actually possible to enumerate what the goal is long term and is this a substantial change to our carbon footprint or is this really relatively minor? You know what I'm trying to get at, just how do we quantify the value and success of these various activities in terms of the ultimate goal which is carbon reduction? Yes, so there's two aspects to that question and my response is around how we, so corporately we have KPIs that we report on quarterly around our performance around recycling rates and the amount of waste that's collected so we can monitor it in that respect in terms of our carbon footprint associated with that activity. Again that's reported through our greenhouse gas reporting so you know a big proportion of our corporate emissions is around the collection activity of waste and recycling. So another item on this agenda will kind of come on to how we're addressing the decarbonisation of that collection aspect of it. There will be a piece of work that's being done to look at how we're working towards our carbon reduction targets and part of that will be how all of these pieces of work, so this particular aspect of collection and how that works into that. So that should be coming in the next coming months in terms of that annual review. So we can make that a bit clearer in terms of how this activity or how these activities in this programme directly feed into that. And I should say as well there's quite a list of KPIs that we have for this particular work area and they all feed up to that kind of quarterly report. So we can make sure that when we're doing this annual report to this group we'll make that really clear about how that all feeds up together. Yes thank you Alex for that. I mean I think I suppose what I'm really asking is a question outside the immediate bailiwick of the waste services. I'm totally committed to the idea that reducing consumption in general is a route towards carbon reduction globally but that's obviously outside our scope in a way. But in the end that's what we're looking for isn't it? General reduction in unnecessary consumption. Many many things. I'm not saying you haven't answered that. No no that's going to say. We do have our internal carbon reduction. We also have our commitments to those emissions in the district as well. So again this links into that piece about how are we doing as an organisation but also how are we doing as a district as well. So we'll kind of bring that information back to this committee because that will help feed into that piece about the wider emissions. Oh councillor, Peter Sanford. Thank you chair. I used the pink bin in Morrison's car park a couple of weeks after it was rolled out and it was pretty much full so I would say on an arbitrary sampling it was very successful to begin with. I'm interested to know whether they continue to be used. I'm actually monitoring how full they are, how often they're emptied. Are they getting used? Yes so as you can imagine some areas are more successful than others in terms of those bins so we're definitely monitoring that and making sure that the collections are reflecting where we have an increased popularity of those bins. I think we're coming up to a year and a half point so we have done some information around that performance so we can share that with this committee as well in terms of that particular project so we can share some of that information with you afterwards. In terms of food waste, this has been trialled and I can see the desirability of it aesthetically that people don't like to think about food being wasted. I just wondered what the impact, when you've looked at the impact in carbon terms because basically you're next to a collection service which requires at least a moment until we've completely electrified our fleet or implies carbon emissions and quite a lot of additional carbon emissions compared with collecting just the black bin. Since you can't use food waste to feed animals any more presumably it will be either recycled by digester or something like this if it's waste food. What's the carbon balance on that and what's the cost? How does it affect our emissions? Have you looked at it? I don't think we have balance to hand here but as a whole the carbon balance is positive if you collect food waste and treat it separately either through composting or through digestion and that's why central governments is about to actually direct councils to collect food waste separately. So the overall carbon balance is positive and as you know we have a food waste trial that's been going on for quite a while that's been very successful in diverting food waste away from the black bin and putting it to potential use. So it's another question, it's definitely a positive carbon balance once the food waste is treated appropriately, i.e. through composting where it can capture some gas or through digestion. But in terms of the long term we're still waiting for direction from central government because like you rightly said it involves quite a bit of additional cost because of a separate connection in terms of direction of travel but there is definitely a positive carbon balance overall. Councillor Paul Berthock. Thank you chair. I was just going to make a follow up comment on that really in terms of the benefits of the food waste collection. I seem to remember when the presentation was given on this about a year ago was part of the reason for it was to make it more apparent to people how much food waste was being thrown away because I think someone, there was a study done where they looked at black bin waste and 43% of black bin waste was food waste which was surprisingly high given to them. That we've got green waste bins that also take food waste. So obviously as well as the carbon balance aspect as well there's the potential to make it more transparent to people how much food they are wasting. I mean I wouldn't really know in volume terms how much food I'm wasting for instance because it will go in the green bin. I'm not measuring it so I think there's another benefit to it as well. Thank you chair. I just had a question about the behavioural change campaigns that says the waste policy team are designing. I just wondered what issues they were being designed for at the moment. So some of them focus on particular aspects of waste and recycling so we've just mentioned food waste and the barriers of which why people are still putting their food waste in the black bin and not the green bin. That's around a whole host of things around the actual method of separating your waste within your kitchens. Around do you need a caddy? Have you got the right setup in order to do that? Have you got that information around the costs of some of that food waste as well? So campaigns obviously try and have that kind of co-benefit aspect to it. Are we helping people to both improve their sustainability and their impact on the environment but also has that got benefits around reducing cost in terms of that food waste and actually what they're spending and throwing into the bin. So campaigns are designed to look at those co-benefits as well as look at the barriers. Food waste is just one example. Electricals is another one around how people got access to repair cafes and other methods of avoiding needing to put materials like that straight into to get rid of those materials. So it's very much a kind of looking at what is a particular aspect of waste? What are those barriers that stop people from kind of engaging with a particular method of recycling or avoiding it? And then trialling them as well. So the food waste trial is an example of where we've supported, got that feedback from people around what's working, what doesn't work, what messages work and what messages don't work as well. So trying to devise campaigns that are specific to particular communities or particular areas as well. So there's a whole host of layers that go into making those campaigns and utilising expertise from national organisations, national charities that do this on a national basis and making them specific for our areas as well. That's great. Thank you. It seems like such an important area, so I'm glad to hear all of that. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Councillor Bunty Waters. Thank you, Chair. I've always felt that start them young with the information about recycling and getting our children to put things in their respective bins. I was just wondering, in your item D, how much do you go out to schools and community events? With these warm hubs that are starting up, is it worth visiting those and taking the caddies? Because I always advertise in my newsletter about the caddies and putting food in those caddies and saying to people, let me know if you want one and I'll get the bags from here and because they are so good. And just wondering if we could start doing that with the hubs, the warm hubs that are starting up. Thanks, Councillor Waters. I think that's a really great suggestion. I'll check that we're doing that. We get a lot of invites to lots of community events and community spaces as well and I think the community hubs are a great possible audition. We're probably already visiting some of those areas because by the nature of the work that we're doing, but I'll make sure that we're linked in and visiting at the hours when they're open because I know they're open for certain hours. I think the caddies is another really important point. We're actually just doing a review of what we've got and how we get some of that, more of those caddies out into different areas across South Cams as well. So, you know, since COVID, there's been a change in terms of what sites are open and where people are moving about and we just want to make sure that people have still got access to those materials that we've got. So, yes, there's going to be a push around getting more of that out for people to use. Thank you. I'm just thinking of the wastage. The thing of the wastage comes directly from the excess, right? So having excess, having anything excess will actually lead to the wastage. The campaign can also be to buy less or buy exactly what we need for the day, for the week. So this is a cultural change, a cultural shift of the change. We need to develop this, need to develop this insight from monthly shopping to the weekly shopping. A small need, a small need we will definitely reduce in wastage in anything in terms of the food or clothings or plastics or whatever the liquid. So that's a cultural thing I really, if council can help and also the recycling, the cereal, the food, the washing things, it need to be set up. This is, I think, the high time. A recycling centre should have in every village, town, wherever we go, we should go with our own container and we will just pick up that much amount of rice or pasta and we will come back home. So that simple living will actually save this planet. I think I wholeheartedly agree with your approach. I think it's, again, it comes back to the behavioural change side of things. This is not just talking about the waste when it's produced. It's about that initial upfront approach to how we live our lives and consume things within our lives. So yeah, I support that. I just follow a statement regarding the behavioural changes when we give them something and from that point public picks it up. But unless and until the local government is also acting, offering the resources to come and to come with their own container to pick up the right amount of pasta or wheat flour or rice, and this culture is not on them. This culture is on us. I mean, this action is on us, not on the public. Sorry, I didn't quite hear that. Yes, of course. I think just to add to what Alex was saying, we're very, very much supportive of that. In reality, it's a much bigger issue because, for instance, where we go to shop in morisyns or Tesco or Lidl, it's a national regional chain. But there is sort of direction coming from government. And I'm not sure that we've talked about this yet, but maybe we will do in later sessions. There's going to be directions to do with extended producer responsibility. So people that produce packaging, they will have an obligation to actually recycle that packaging. There's going to be new laws to do with deposit return schemes so that, for instance, going back to many, many years ago, where you buy a bottle of Coca-Cola. You actually can only buy it if you bring your empty bottle back and then you now take the new one. So those are two very big changes that have been finalized at government level. It's been delayed. It was meant to have come out this year. We're expecting final directions by end of the year or early next year. And then we, as local authorities, we then have to respond to that and develop systems to enable us to collect those packaging, the return scheme. So that's coming. But it's not something we can act on locally because, like I give the example, it's much, much bigger than just the local shops. But there is enabling regulations coming from such a government that we will then have to implement very soon. So hopefully, in the next 12, 18 months, when you go to buy a rice or pasta, you will have to bring your packaging and then just take the amount of pasta you need to get weighed out. So that's coming soon. Thank you. Councillor Lisa Redrop, you had another question, I think. Yes, thank you. As looking at the work on working with schools, which obviously seems really an important thing to do. And I just wondered if the schools that you're going to tend to have recycling facilities there and if not, if that's something that could be looked at. So it's like a stronger message if you're being told about recycling and recycling is also available. Thank you. Yes, sure. We can make sure that when we're delivering an education programme, we've also, they've got the means to follow up with that and have the actual, yeah, the process is in place to actually follow through with those messages in that particular site. So yeah, I'll make sure that the team are following that up. Thank you. Great, thank you very much. Thank you. I had a question. I just wondered, I'm looking at page seven and paragraph nine. So we've got a sort of three to five year sort of review cycle on waste collection, but on the circular source plan. And I just wondered how that sort of three to five year timescale fits in with our sort of longer horizon to 2050 an hour targets for reducing emissions. I mean, I suppose if you sort of fast forward 20 years from now, we'd really hope that there was virtually no plastic that wasn't being reused in some way because we know that or at least very efficiently recycled. So is the reduction of our total tonnage of waste being, have we got a sort of target that's on that sort of 20 or 30 year timescale? So there's quite a few different strategies and timelines that are overlaying and kind of at play here. We've got the kind of joint waste strategy that we have across a wider area and that will be revised over the coming coming year or so. So that will help us to look forward. So we've had a period of that strategy being in place. We're moving into a very different period that has those that will kind of encompass those 2030 2045 2050 targets that we are all familiar with from a carbon reduction perspective. So that kind of, we're at the point now where we are projecting what that looks like across the next period as well as Bode alluded to. We've got the kind of different schemes that are coming out of central government as well around different ways in which waste will be collected. It's going to be a very different arena for that happening. So I would say I would come back to this group when we've got more of that strategy kind of set out because I think it needs to be in context of what's happening across a wider area. If that's OK with that committee. Thank you very much. Well, thank you members for the questions and offices for this very informative replies. Can we now move on to the next agenda item? So that would be an update on the zero carbon carbon and doubling nature action. Which I think, Siobhan, are you going to present that? Thank you very much. Thank you. So as you say, this is the zero carbon doubling nature action plan for your review and comment. And you will remember that this was brought to the last meeting and there were many comments from the committee. Thank you for those. And the plan attached addresses most of the points raised. I won't go through all of these in detail, but I'll just pick up on one or two. There was some questions over the structure of the plan, which was in three parts. And when we thought this through, we actually thought it's better to present it as one integrated plan. The work on our own estate and operations is now incorporated into the into the into the one plan, which is in eight sections. And we will just reassure you that we will address the matter of meeting our carbon reduction targets on our own estate and operations more fully at the annual review in May or June, where we will have the latest set of greenhouse gas emissions accounts for our estate and operations. The question of adaptation to the impacts of climate change was raised at the last meeting. And we'll address this next year and incorporate a section into the plan also. Five actions relating to transport were left out in error. So thank you to Council Red Rock for pointing that out and we'll put those back in. The next update of the plan will be the annual review in May or June, where we'll put the work that the council is doing to support carbon reduction in the district in the context of the latest government data on on how we're doing as a as a district. And after that, we will bring the zero carbon doubling nature action plan annually to the committee. So happy to take any any questions. I have one if I may just just for starters. So I was looking at page 19 and paragraph 2.1 and I didn't know whether it's just an admission there because I was looking at the list of the seven policy statements in the emerging new local plan that relate to climate change. And I wondered whether that should include GP slash CC, which is the replacement for NH 15, I think, relating to energy efficiency improvements for heritage buildings. I think this is the republication copy of the proposals document, but we've got this policy GP slash CC adapting heritage assets to climate change. I did have some concerns over that at the time this was published in that it seems to be less ambitious than NH 15 in its ambition, if you like. And in particular, it talks about giving consideration to measures that will reduce climate change. And I think NH 15 says, you know, measures to reduce to address climate change will be permitted or something like that. So I'd be concerned that actually there's a kind of backward step there. So I think that that should definitely be put in the list. So the ones that are included there are the specific ones within the climate change section. But if there are other ones, then we can certainly include those as well. Yes. Okay. Thank you. Members, any comments? Councillor Shrufona. Thank you, Yvonne. And in the page 16, if I can see that reduce the number one point number one, like the reduced consumption on resources and waste, that's point one, what I exactly describe or explain that waste directly comes from the excess. If we can reduce the excess shopping, excess doing things, it can we can come to that point. So I'm happy to see that. I'm also surprised that we all are keen to do something in our lifetime, in our lifetime. I mean, I mean, we all are keen to do, but we are really, we are also entangled in the process where to start, who to start, whom to talk in this process. I think every being can start at their point. So it's really not the black and white methods or the red tape procedures. I'm also very surprised when I'm now 50 plus. In our childhood, I never heard of plastic problem. So that means solution itself stays in this, in this planet itself. I never heard when I was in the school or college that plastic, plastic, plastic, it really collapsed and choked this world and planet. What I'm, what I'm listening now, like what the now children, those who are the children in the school are continuously listening. The one thing that plastic is choking this world, we didn't listen that. So if there is a, if there was a clean planet one day just 30 years before, 30, 35 years back, why cannot we pick up the same solution? There's a clean solution. Why we need the red tape procedure? Why we need so much of like COP 26, 27, 28 and nothing, nothing actually comes from there? So this is a, again the, your point number six is, seven is very, very, very, very promising, the training, education, communication. This I think in the school level children, the school, because it is, because it is their earth. We will live in 20, 30 years whatever, but it is actually, it is actually, it is actually their place, their planet, their earth. So we can really work on that, that buy less, reduce thing, reduce really comes from there, like that present, the gift, the food and excess. So this is the point number seven is very important solution is in your hand. You take it, lose it, either you take it, either you lose it. There is really, we don't have much time. Thank you. Thank you for that again, Councillor. If I can just comment that we very much would like to work with members and local residents, and I won't name names, but there's a parish that has stepped forward. And they want to be exemplar in terms of being the village that produces as little waste as possible. So we're going to work with them and trying to help them to reduce their waste generation. The, I think this came from an article sometime ago in the press where there was a family. They hadn't actually brought up their black bin for almost a year. So it's possible. So I think if we can encourage residents, parishioners, if they want to do this, we are very, very keen to work with you. It's very simple. We wouldn't collect the waste every fortnight. We can come every month and just give people the information, the education, home compost and recycling and actually help them reduce their waste by less, by the way you need it. But I think it comes from us all together. What if there are any more parishes or villages that are very, very keen that I want to do this? Absolutely. We will work with you and come and give them the information they need and we'll make it happen. We'll stop the lorry from coming every fortnight. Maybe come once in two months. And then that will force people to actually reduce how much they put outside. So I think what I'm trying to say is that some things we can do locally with help of the local people with your help. We're keen to do that. Thank you. You would like to come back on that? Thank you. Thank you to hear that. I will just make a point. I know one village in the Himalayan village in Bengal near Darjeeling, Kalimpongkarshan. And one village in Gujarat. There's a particularly this Himalayan village. They completely, they just banned in their local council in the entire village in that no plastic will be accepted. This is not the state level plan or national level plan. But they themselves the council. And they just name and shame if anyone does anything against. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Councillor Batchitoria. I think Peter Sanford, Councillor Peter Sanford, you are next. So thank you. Thank you, chair. Just to follow up on one of his comments. We only put a black bin out once a month. Then it's only half full. So okay, there's only two of us in the house. But you can reduce your own personal weight substantially if you put mine to it. That wasn't the point I was going to raise. On page 22 paragraph 3.1.3 regarding the use of biofuel in the council's own vehicles. Councils agreed to deploy fuel use subject to budgetary sign off on fuel costs. Has that been signed off? Who is still waiting for budgetary sign off? Thank you, Councillor. We put that proposal forward with the current budget beat. And I'm pleased to report that both SCDC and Cymru City Council signed up on that. So for next year, we're hoping to buy in upwards of 200,000 litres of biofuel. That's going to be maybe just less than a third of the fuel we use for RFEs collection fleet. So as I speak, the procurement team is now working very hard to try and secure that biofuel for a fuel next year. So yes, we got the sign off on that. So part and part? Looking at the decarbonising planning and land use, you separated transport and the planning issues. There's nothing really much about transport in the planning section 2. But the transport is topics virtually all related to our own fleet and our own vehicles apart from the electric vehicle charging points. It seems to me that we ought to be drawing attention to the fact that we have planning influence in transport, both in promoting active transport and the design of the elements. So it is a big important thing. And even in minor issues, one personal hobby horse of mine is the fact that we should, I think we should facilitate the access of storage of bicycles on properties because that very much encourages the use of active transport. A present building by cycle store in the front garden, the building line needs planning permission. But Scotland, for instance, has a local development order which permits you to do a certain size and shape of a cycle store in the front garden without planning permission. These sort of simple issues might facilitate the use of active transport. But these are some of the topics. I think we need to mention about transport in the planning session as well separately or mention about planning in the transport section, but one way or the other. Yes, so there are actually five actions which failed to get transferred into the new plan and will be moved back in. But they are working through the combined authority, developing implement a strategy to decarbonise transport through the Greater Cambridge Partnership, developing implement the city deal funded sustainable transport initiatives, support the development of the county council's active travel strategy, support community led active travel project through zero carbon communities grants and finally explore the feasibility of community car share schemes with rural coverage. And just to come back on the facilitating cycle storage, that of course was part of one of the zero carbon community funded grants in Milton and some cycle storage on some council, in a council owned block of flats there. And so that project is a sort of pilot for that work and we will be looking to see whether we can do that in other council owned buildings. But yes, I mean I would certainly agree that that is a good thing to support. Thank you, Siobhan, for that. Thank you, Mortyn Collin. Lisa Redruff, Councillor Lisa Redruff, I think you had another question. Thank you, Councillor Harvey. It was again related to the transport and I just wondered if we might like to reference the local plan and the transport sections of that from the infrastructure section. Good idea, we can certainly do that, yeah. Okay, I just have one more question if I may. I'm referring to page 30 and 31 section 8.11. I just remember how good that short film that we did for Climate and Environment Week was it last year showing new farming practices and Martin Lines I think was appearing in one of them showing the benefits of cover crops in terms of storing or sequestering carbon and increasing carbon content of soil, but also holding up heavy rainfall and potentially allowing sort of greater infiltration. It seemed to have so many benefits. I understand this is happening more and more widely as farmers are adopting that practice, but I just wondered whether there's any way that we could find a sort of scheme to enable farming practices like that to attract biodiversity net game credits where we're looking for sort of off-siting biodiversity net game because if you think about it, there's an enormous scale available there when you're talking about farmland compared, for example, with building a soakaway to a house. It's a quite limited rain catchment and it could be sort of huge benefits not only in terms of retaining more of our rainfall to recharge the aquifer, but also providing winter food for the ecosystem. Obviously, it's a little bit tricky because that's a kind of ongoing year by year farming practice rather than something that is sort of concretised if that's a word at the time of the development. So it has to be a sort of way of sort of getting an agreement that that practice will be ongoing into the future and that could be an alternative to more traditional approaches like sort of back boxes and so forth, but possibly more effective. Counselor Paul Bearpark. Thank you, Chair. I just wanted to provide, I suppose, some feedback on 3.3.5. So it was great to see the launch of the EV Charger Grant scheme and I suppose I've had a little bit of feedback on this myself from parish councils in terms of their willingness to take this up. And it's a problem and I don't have a solution, so open to members and officers for any advice on this. There was a bit of reticence because they were concerned that effectively they were going to have to dedicate a particular parking space within their car park to electric vehicles and that would kind of mean a loss of a parking space. And the problem is that often, especially parking around recreation grounds, is you end up with situations where there may be football matches on or something and a lot of people will want to park at the same time. So there was concern of the loss of the parking space for the electric vehicle setup. And I just wondered if anybody has any comments on that about, you know, are there ways of overcoming that reticence is probably the question I have. Thank you. Yeah, I'll take that one. So I think I will ask officers to go away and just look at options for how you signage, whether people are dedicating that space or whether there's options to be more flexible around the use of that space when it's not being used by a car to be charged. I'll come back to you in terms of, we've been working with a couple of different parishes. So we're building up a bit of an experience around how that works. We've also got our sheltered housing schemes as well and charge points that are going in there. So we'll come back to you specifically around a bit of feedback of options and possible solutions. Thank you. Councillor Henry Batchelor, you had a question, I think. Yep, thank you, Chair Councillor Henry Batchelor. Lee Cabinet Member for Environmental Services. Just on that point actually, I was going to perhaps make a suggestion whilst officers are exploring that, it might be worth exploring with colleagues in the planning departments as well about potentially making it easier to apply for say parish councils to change a piece of say communal land or publicly owned land into a specific car parking space for an EV charging point. So then villages aren't losing and already dedicated parking spots but they are in fact creating a new one whereas planning might have been a barrier to that previously. It might be worth officers exploring that with planning colleagues to see what the appetite there would be in trying to make that more feasible. Just a thought. Any comments from our officers on that? Yeah, we'll follow that up. Great suggestion, thank you. Yeah, okay, thank you. So, Councillor Lisa Redrup, another question. Thank you. This is on the 8.4 enhanced opportunities for nature through our work managing watercourses. It mentions that we've moved forward by looking at supporting local nature conservation groups by exploring joint working initiatives. I just wondered if that was specific to the awarded watercourses or if that was a more general action. The answer is I'm not entirely sure whether our watercourse people are able to work with local groups on ditches that are apart from the ones that we're managing but we can certainly find out and get back to you. Unless you know. I can answer that in the sense that as part of the processes to keep the watercourses of the ditches clear, what we try and do is be sensitive to the potential growth of bio-dabasty around that wildlife so there's a way that the operational sequences, they sort of promote growth of wildlife and I think we have quite a few success stories of water roles that have been able to encourage that was it. In his team. So yes they do take that into account but in terms of working with specific organisations was that your question? We can look further into that but there are principles that are definitely aware of. There's a few things they do for instance they don't completely clear the ditches on one side so sort of it promotes vegetation so that we can have some wildlife there. So there are a few things that they do in terms of working with other people we can take that forward. Thank you I just meant where is it a more general helping people in all different villages where there might not be awarded watercourses that was just the gist of the question. Thank you. Thank you. Councillor John. John Lovelock. Thank you. Chair. Just a question about the EV charging points across the district, across the county. I mean I see there is a reference to CPCA study that you've fed into. Where are we? Very much at the beginning I'm sure but how are the targets defined or how many years out if they're a document you can point me at that I can look at which summarises where we are, where we're trying to get to and what kind of feedback we're seeing from residents who don't have their own private charging point as to how much they're being inhibited by the lack of public charging points at the moment. Just a few lines, just a few sentences and then point me at a report I'll have to read. Thank you. There's such a report is being, well there's a strategy that is being worked on at the moment and our Luke Waddington is part of that kind of steering group into that but there is no publicly available report on that that I'm aware of yet but we'll keep you posted. Councillor Mark McLean. The concern that I have is linked to the section 18 in terms of 8.4 in terms of, well not 8.3 the earlier 8 points about the opportunities for nature and our own estate. We're the only district in the whole of Cambridgeshire that doesn't have our own parks and green spaces service. Everything is managed by contract. It's very much more difficult to manage if you don't have direct control and improve. I know at the moment financially it's not on the cards but have you got a longer term, do you see this as a longer term benefit in looking at the way that we manage our spaces and seeing whether we want to take some direct control rather than putting matters out to contract or do you think that wouldn't help? We do not have any such plans at this point in time but in terms of an overall approach to doubling nature we are developing a strategy in terms of what can we do because we don't have our own assets we don't have our own land so we have to work with others. That's very much a work in progress but we should be able to share that doubling nature action plan so to say very soon but in terms of any other plans to provide our own recreational land there is no such plan that I know of at the moment. I have one one final question on page 35 8.5 I just wondered if you could be reassured that the A14 sort of planting seem to be such a failure that it's almost it's a new project, isn't it and whether is that able to be part of this environmental legacy fund that it mentions in the right hand column or is it a remediation of an existing project and if it is, is there any money to do that and is anything happening? So that's around the A14 during the trees that have died in there and there's a lot of work going on going on around that but I'm not personally in the loop on that but it would be I think actually it would be our planning it would be the planning enforcement team and so I wonder if we could get you an update on that, I know there is a lot of effort being put into sorting out some kind of a solution so I can look into that and get back to you. Thank you Oh we have one Sorry for the question, yes Thank you chair Following on from 8.5 I was interested to see that you've got eight opportunities identified and being reviewed internally by Highways England Highways England are very difficult to get hold of and to find out anything or to get anything done by them and I wondered if you could identify who these are if you do have these identification I'm personally waiting for an update from them as to this scheme but I can certainly we can include that information in the next time that this comes back to you what where the locations for those are We have a specific area in Bar Hill where I would be the parish council would be very interested to know so anything you could get back to us would be grateful So I think with that are we ready to move on? Yes okay thank you Alex selling day I think it's your turn again so you're going to update us on the Water Beach Renewable Energy Network business case Thank you very much Thank you chair So this paper sets out an overview of the business case for the Water Beach Renewable Energy Network the REN project so this is a project looking at a solution to our electricity capacity at the Water Beach depot and in order to enable us to charge more electric refuge collection vehicles on site and obviously that transition to more electric refuge collection vehicles is a key part of our decarbonisation plan for fleet and then obviously leading into a key part of our net zero plan as well so the business case sets out sorry the scheme sets includes a solar faultyc of ray includes battery storage it has an energy management system of brain which essentially controls that energy and optimises performance and then it also has a network of the chargers specifically for charging those types of vehicles and it has a collection of connection into the grid as well so the business case can kind of concluded that we need to invest in this project we are not able to charge more vehicles on site after the third one is in operation that we looked at options of a kind of upgrade to the connection to the grid versus this microgrid solution incorporating the solar and the battery and it came out that it's actually a lower cost of energy to implement the microgrid option versus that straight kind of grid upgrade it also looked at the resilience that we get in order to from having the solar generation on site and the battery on site as well and it looked at how much carbon saving we'd be able to achieve as well so the next stage for this project is obviously kind of having done this this bit of work around the business case is to move on to that implementation plan and the kind of detailed design and kind of progressing the project in that way so the business case has been if you'll remember from last time this was updated so this project is funded through funding from the combined authority the business case for which went to to that final committee I think it was last week actually the agreement that the £2.7 million will be put into the project and then the remainder of the project cost will be shared between the Cambridge City Council and South Cams Council as well so we're at that point where we've reviewed this business case we've kind of got this technical solution and it kind of stands up for a business case perspective and we're moving into that kind of implementation phase and looking at how we move forward with the project so I'm happy to take any of the questions that you have on this it's quite a technical project so I will I will answer the best of the questions I can do here but if I need to go away and get any more information for you I can do Thank you Annex, I have a question from Councillor Luton Cahn I'm interested to see the scheme and that you're planning to have a battery system but there's a great difference in the production and winter and summer for instance I've got a solar together scheme my maximum production at my panels in the summer was 22 kilowatt hours a day two days ago it was 0.1 kilowatt hour that gives you the the range it's tremendous and the production in the month of December is 50 kilowatt hours and in summer it's over 400 so that's eight times the factor of eight so I'm just wondering how you're going to manage the winter period the four months period whether it's the least generation is your battery going to take energy from the grid when necessary otherwise you would need to increase the grid for the winter period is that the way it's planning to do it or are you planning to rely solely upon the renewable generation I'll try and give a simple answer to quite a complex question or a complex task that's been undertaken so that energy modelling has taken into consideration the fact that we need that demand of electricity evenly across the year despite the fact that our solar will generate at different rates so the way in which the microgrid is set up is that annualised over the year you're looking at that split between solar and grid so solar is 65% and the grid is 35% so that battery is able to charge and discharge from both the solar but also the grid as well if we need it but the whole point of this is to maximise the solar that we're generating on-site and only have that grid demand at the times of the year when we particularly need it so when there's less energy to charge it I presume that you have a maximum that you can charge on the grid because the grid is so would you be charging at off-feet periods or in the daytime when the van is around how would you manage it or the weekends and how much will the battery will the battery have sufficient for several days to charge up the whole of the fleet or how will it work so again I'll give quite a simplistic answer again the way in which this is set up is that you have that power management system that monitors all of this for us on our behalf so we have almost inputted what we need in terms of the charging capacity when we charge vehicles how many we're charging so we've got lots of data around that information that feeds into the microgrid that controls whether we're drawing from the solar direct the battery or from grid via the battery if that makes sense and this feeds into quite a complex model across that year I should say as well this project has an energy performance contract that sits kind of above it so what we're getting is that contract we are saying we need x amount of kilowatts at specific times and that has to be a guaranteed generation because this is our this is an operational service that has to maintain that operational capacity as well so that arrangement sits above how the microgrid functions as well so an energy performance company then will take on the responsibility and they will have to deliver thank you councillor Lisa Redbro thank you chair so it's a bit of a complex question I guess it's about the business case whether it takes into account the rate of vehicle acquisition because obviously the level of energy and the cost benefits vary depending on whether you've got 4 or 24 so I'm just wondering about that thank you yeah you're exactly right so we obviously there's been a lot of budget discussions recently around vehicle purchasing and all of that kind of budget setting for the next x amount of years and so we've been able to feed that quite granular information about okay so we order a vehicle in a particular month we know when it's going to be in operation so we factored in when vehicles are going to be in operation and actually drawing that down we are building out the system to have that capacity from day one but we've got that modelling in place that shows when vehicles are coming on board and how many we've got at particular times so we can kind of build out so we're using that over a period of time so yes that's factored in thank you thank you very much Councillor Peter Sanford thank you chair how much of this is proven technology and how much are we being guinea pigs for the last 4 or 5 months I've been watching the work not being completed on the car park and that's obviously a simple project compared with this so I'm wondering what are the risks thank you and I think in terms of proven technology very very much so we're using a proven and tested solar panels batteries and cable so I think just to rush everybody it's definitely proven technology the issue about delays to the building and to the car park is a bit different it's the same company so I think it's a fair question to ask and that's the stage that we're at now and that company I think to be fair to them they have delivered several solar projects in the county they've done them St Ives car park they're doing very well so I think they have we know that they have successfully delivered several solar projects across the country not only in the county but in terms of delays that's something we are very very aware of and before we move to the next stage of implementing constructing we are pausing and doing a detailed review and trying to put in place several checks and balances before we press go thank you councillor Paul Bear Park thank you very much chair I suppose this is a comment really on the pace of the development of the grid within the UK is astonishingly slow and I think the DNAs are constrained in what they can do they should be doing a lot more and it constrains projects like this it's constraining other projects around the around Cambridge about how they're connected into the grid I mean I don't know what the solution is other than some changing government policy which allows the DNAs to make more investment but it seems astonishing to me that there won't be sufficient connectivity into the grid here for the grid to benefit as much as it might from the system when there's excess capacity those companies could benefit from charging for being able to transport that electricity from the solar site to wherever it's needed I suppose another and related to this is obviously the build out of Water Beach New Town almost next door to this which will be effectively an electric town there won't be any gas boilers it will be all electric heating there will be every house that's built will have an electric vehicle charger put in I mean we could be talking about the first kind of fully electric town in the UK and I do worry that the ability of the constraints that are there to build out the grid will actually constrain the development of Water Beach New Town as well and I do think the council should be making more of an effort to air concerns to the government about the constraints on not only our renewable energy projects but also development of our new towns and the electrification of those new towns because it is going to be a serious problem I am astonished that the GCP is having to put money into this, I understand why they're doing it but it seems we're putting constraints on this that are totally unnecessary Thank you Perhaps I could comment on that because it's a topic which greatly concerns me too but and maybe this is something that also needs to be pushed to the national level I think the council are hailing through her role with the LGA organisations like UK100 are also making representations it is a disappointment that the Rio ED2 pricing period for I mean that's the surprise control period that OFGEM sets which determines how much money district network operators distribution network operators and national grid are allowed to collect from customers in order to spend on infrastructure and it used to be the case certainly at the time the southern Cambridge grid reinforcement work was being looked at by GCP that there was actually a legal barrier to UK power networks getting involved because they legally weren't able to spend ahead of need but in this next price control period Rio ED2 that legislative blockage has been removed and yet UK power networks don't seem to have noticed in many respects because their business plan majors almost exclusively on the digitalisation benefits they call flexibility which is trying to get more out of the existing infrastructure by for example signalling to an EV that's charging that we're running out of power so can you stop charging for the next half an hour and then switch back on again but I think that's unfortunately a a one-off digitalisation bonus and what I'm picking up is that that will soon be used up is no way that that mechanism would cope with Councillor Bear Park's example of the Water Beach Newtown and in any case there's no new capacity available at the Burwell super grid connection until 2032 so I think very much this council needs to bolster its kind of communication channels with both national grid and the distribution network operators to sort of put pressure on but I was going to ask on that basis perhaps Alex whether you've had an experience of how this flexibility network mechanism might work for us is it actually a way forward? It's something that we'll look into more about when we've actually got some generating assets that can play a role within that function so previously we've not had assets of that size that could play into that market around the flexibility services that you're talking about I think the REN project itself we will look at when we're in those first few years when we finish that kind of build out and we don't have all of the vehicles that are using the generation that we're generating we will look at options around how do we provide flexibility to the grid and whether we do that there's a lot of factors that have to come together to make that possible in terms of the sighting of it whether that's within a flexibility zone that's kind of advertised those things will need to come together but it's definitely something that we've talked about for this project and seeing what role we can play in supporting that going forward Thank you very much I'd just like to sort of say thank you to the team that are working on this project I think it's hitting so many of ticking so many of our boxes it's an investment and there's never a better investment than one that reduces your own costs because that's sort of cutting out the middleman fantastic work getting the grant from the combined authority I think and it's working well for them because it's a that's struggling I think to find projects where we can say we invested this money and it's produced this local benefit so I think it's really a wonderful kind of example of the work that we're doing in green investment so thank you very much Have we got any more questions? Oh yes, councillor Just a bit longer sir I agree with what councillor Harvey said about the project, it's a great project I don't know exactly how at the moment you deal with a via suggestion of the organic material that comes into into the waste sorting centre and I don't know how the balance is dealt between county and district because obviously the disposal of the waste is actually the county matter but have you looked at the generation of biogas from the material, not just the waste of the food material but also the something like compost and the paper of elements in the blue and black bins and have you thought of that possible generation from that means because that is more evenly spread to the year it's more manageable and you can store biogas as well so it's perhaps one of the more useful renewable energies if you can do it and also you can use the heat and since you're close to the new town that might be a possibility I just wondered whether that had been examined So two parts to my answer so I mentioned the kind of joint waste strategy working with partners because as you rightly say we're a waste collection authority not disposal but the two need to work really closely together so that strategy will look at all of that end to end cycle and you're right that there will need to be this looking at different opportunities in different ways in which we derive benefit from any waste that's occurred so there's that side of things in terms of ourselves as a waste collection authority in the fleet of which we have we've always talked about the fact that we'll have electric vehicles we've got the introduction of the HVO use within the other vehicles but our future kind of make up of our fleet will probably have a range of different fuels and alternative sources so yes that will be something that will be played into that discussion as we move forward and kind of derive at that getting that final piece of decarbonisation of the fleet coming forward so thank you so are there any other questions if not I could close that item then which is the last item on the agenda except for the forward plan and the date for the next meeting next meeting will be on Thursday February the 2nd 2023 I don't know whether there are any particular items of concern that members would like to raise that might be considered to go into the agenda for that meeting and it's probably still time to sort of feed that in if anything should occur to us in the meantime but oh sorry we're planning an item on the doubling nature work that we're doing at that meeting so I just thought I'd mention that okay great thank you so with oh this is not related to the meeting we can end here but I'm saying that Christmas is coming and we can always say do not buy the plastic toys anymore buy only the flower pots and beautiful flowers for the family and friends and everyone that's the kind of thing we can do and one more thing this is out of the meeting I think it's finished here it's not for the minute my own faith also help my own faith like Hindu or the Sanatanigalegian help me for not wasting not to waste the food on the plate because we have a concept of the Lachmi Lachmi is a goddess of wealth so if you waste any food on the plate Lachmi won't come to your house anymore so so this type of like kind of you know the faith related to a conversation sometimes help one certain type of population also thank you for that well thank you for reminding me to wish everyone whatever there religion or religion or not really a sort of opportunity to be with our families and enjoy some time of reflection