To receive Notices of Motion submitted under Standing Order No.12
a) Improving the energy efficiency of homes is vital to help the residents of Rushcliffe who are in the middle of an economic crisis. We call on central government to facilitate a simpler, less chaotic, and less bureaucratic system of aiding local government to deliver home energy improvement schemes to those most in need:
1. End the bidding system for all relevant schemes that takes up valuable officer time and resources when it could be better spent making the changes needed to ease the economic disparity and suffering, we are seeing.
2. Stop funding schemes on an annual basis and move to much longer time frames which will encourage local business and much needed skills to develop in this sector whilst alsofacilitating larger scale delivery of projects.
Councillor J Walker
b) Recognising that hedges have a positive effect for both wildlife and the amenity of residents, and play a vital role in carbon reduction, this Council adopts a strategic aim to protect hedges within the Borough and to increase our hedgerow network by 40% by 2050 as recommended by the Climate Change Committee*.
To further this strategic aim, Council will:
1. Ask scrutiny to oversee, by March 2023, a review of the legal and policy framework for the protection and enhancement of hedges including use of planning conditions
2. Ask the Local Development Framework group to look at strengthening policies to protect hedges and create new hedges in the next version of the local plan
3. Develop an action plan to establish a baseline and set out an ambitious route to achieve the target of 40% increase in the hedgerow network as soon as possible
4. Further promote best practice advice for the management and maintenance of hedge rows in our own operations and with the public, partners, and landowners, including promoting National Hedgerow Week in October 2022.
*The Climate Change Committee is an independent, statutory body established under the Climate Change Act 2008
Councillor L Way
Minutes:
a. The following Notice of Motion was proposed by Councillor J Walker and seconded by Councillor Gaunt.
“Improving the energy efficiency of homes is vital to help the residents of Rushcliffe who are in the middle of an economic crisis. We call on central government to facilitate a simpler, less chaotic, and less bureaucratic system of aiding local government to deliver home energy improvement schemes to those most in need:
1. End the bidding system for all relevant schemes that takes up valuable officer time and resources when it could be better spent making the changes needed to ease the economic disparity and suffering, we are seeing.
2. Stop funding schemes on an annual basis and move to much longer time frames which will encourage local business and much needed skills to develop in this sector whilst also facilitating larger scale delivery of projects.”
Councillor J Walker informed Council, in moving the motion that she had felt compelled to try and do something, although since writing the motion, the situation had become worse. She acknowledged that everyone could take simple steps to save money; however, there was no one in the Chamber who could deny the fear and worry coming from local communities, regarding their financial uncertainty. Councillor Walker advised that she had been approached by village leaders in Ruddington to set up warm spaces for residents to access during the winter, which was a dreadful prospect to consider. The situation had been horribly juxtaposed by the recent removal of the top rate 45% of Income Tax, an action, which was callous and unhuman, and at best irresponsible, and Councillor Walker urged Councillors to support the motion, to ensure that the Council could start to improve on its workings and processes before the winter. Councillor Walker stated that this would be a start of some cross-party action, as doing nothing was not an option.
Councillor Gaunt seconded the motion and reserved the right to speak.
Councillor Brennan advised that the Government was taking action and had recently announced £64 billion to help with household energy costs. Councillor Brennan stated that she would not address the other issues raised by Councillor Walker, as they had no bearing on the motion. In respect of insulating homes, it was noted that the Council had a strong track record in this area, with substantial funding secured from LAD 2 and 3, together with funding for off-grid homes to retro fit and provide up to date insulation and improvements in energy efficiency. Council noted that those practical schemes had been delivered and had benefitted many residents. Reference had been made to Government schemes being chaotic; however, Councillor Brennan stated that no examples had been provided of that, and whilst it was acknowledged that schemes could be bureaucratic, appropriate checks were required. In respect of the use of officer time and the completion for resources, Councillor Brennan did agree that it took up officer time; however, competitive bidding could be extremely useful in focusing resources and ensuring that the most innovative and value for money projects coming forward. Councillor Brennan did acknowledge that if funding was not awarded, it could be argued that there were more equitable ways of distributing that funding. Councillor Brennan agreed that in respect of longer term funding, it would be helpful to have longer timeframes to bring plans forward. It was very welcome that in the Devolution Deal the importance of energy efficiency was recognised, and Council noted that significant funding would be made available for the retro fitting of housing and devolved to the boroughs to enable works on a more strategic level. Councillor Brennan stated that everyone would agree that having a strategic approach to resources, which would help with planning and efficient delivery would be beneficial. Given that the Devolution Deal should be approved, and the funding delivered, the issue for this motion was timing, and Councillor Brennan advised that the Conservative Group would not be supporting the motion. However, Council was advised that if the Devolution Deal did not address this and did not provide for more strategic funding at a borough level, that it would be appropriate to bring the motion back, at the beginning of the next financial year.
Councillor Jones, confirmed that the Liberal Democrat Group would be supporting the motion as local authorities and more importantly residents, needed more certainty and a steady process by which Government supported energy improvement schemes. Councillor Jones considered that the current ‘trickle-down’ Government should understand that a regular trickle over a longer timescale was far better and a more efficient use of staff time, than the on-off annual gambling bidding processes.
Councillor S Mallender confirmed that the Green Group would be supporting the motion, acknowledged the very difficult time everyone was facing with the enormous increase in energy prices and stated that it was vital that people most in need had improvements to their homes, to reduce their energy bills. Councillor Mallender also stated that rather than mentioning all the time that more energy was needed, the most important point was that too much energy was being used in the first place, and if energy could be saved, less would need to be produced, better insulation and micro-generation would help that.
Councillor Thomas noted the comments made by Councillor Brennan regarding the Devolution Deal; however, she considered that action needed to be taken before then and advised that the Leake Independent Group would be supporting the motion. Councillor Thomas stated that reducing energy consumption and costs to households was so important in this current crisis and the grant funding schemes certainly seemed chaotic. It was noted that officers were doing a great job working alongside other agencies to deliver benefits despite this, and Councillor Thomas advised that last year she had been privileged to accompany officers around part of her ward identified for support, and despite the advance publicity, they had been met with some suspicion. Councillor Thomas referred to the many scam and bogus organisations taking advantage of the confusion and stated that what was needed was a clearly badged public scheme, delivered via local government, with a well ordered application process and clear eligibility criteria so that the public could have confidence in it. Council noted that steady progress would not be achieved by this patchwork of stop-start “initiatives” and more could be done by Rushcliffe and Nottinghamshire County Council, for instance by developing a group buying scheme for solar panels.
The Leader stated that in the Devolution Deal, £18m would be available to support housing, with £9m of that for retro-fitting, which was exactly what the motion was about, and in respect of timescales, this money had to be spent by April 2023. The importance of the issue had been recognised and was a major part of the Devolution Deal, with funding allocated to Rushcliffe and the Leader reiterated that this motion was not currently relevant.
Councillor Gowland stated that yesterday the Government had given £1.5 billion to cover 130,000 houses, and she considered that £9m would not cover many houses, billions of pounds would be required. Training people to undertake the work would also be key, and it was hoped the Deal would cover that.
Councillor Gaunt, having reserved his right to speak, felt that everything that Councillor Walker had said had been relevant, given what was happening nationally, and stated that as the Devolution Deal had yet to be agreed, the current motion was timely to indicate how Rushcliffe wanted to move forward. Councillor Gaunt referred to the difficult choices people were having to make every day, and he considered that this motion would help residents to get the home energy improvements they needed. Councillor Gaunt advised that in 2006, the previous Government had a law in place to say that all homes would be net zero by 2016, and that had been changed in 2011, and this motion was asking for some changes to be made to mitigate the decision in 2011.
Councillor Walker disagreed that the Devolution Deal would help people this winter, whilst this motion would provide immediate, practical help and she could not understand why it could not be supported.
On being put to the vote the motion was lost.
b. The following Notice of Motion was proposed by Councillor Way and seconded by Councillor Gowland.
Prior to presenting her motion Councillor Way informed the Mayor that she wished to make a small alteration under Standing Order 14 (highlighted in italics below). After outlining the alteration, consent was given by Council and Councillor Way proceeded to move the motion.
“Recognising that hedges have a positive effect for both wildlife and the amenity of residents, and play a vital role in carbon reduction, this Council adopts a strategic aim to protect hedges within the Borough and to increase our hedgerow network by 40% by 2050 as recommended by the Climate Change Committee*.
To further this strategic aim, Council will:
1. Ask scrutiny to oversee, by March 2023, a review of the legal and policy framework for the protection and enhancement of hedges including use of planning conditions and consider a methodology for recording new and lost hedges
2. Ask the Local Development Framework group to look at strengthening policies to protect hedges and create new hedges in the next version of the local plan
3. Develop an action plan to establish a baseline and set out an ambitious route to achieve the target of 40% increase in the hedgerow network as soon as possible
4. Further promote best practice advice for the management and maintenance of hedgerows in our own operations and with the public, partners, and landowners, including promoting National Hedgerow Week in October 2022.”
*The Climate Change Committee is an independent, statutory body established under the Climate Change Act 2008.
Councillor Way informed Council, in moving the altered motion, that hedges and hedgerows had a positive effect on wildlife and residents playing a vital role in carbon reduction; however, due to large scale development they were being lost at an alarming rate. New hedges took years to establish, and they never achieved the level of biodiversity that established hedges had benefitted from. Following the Council’s recent promotion of the Hedgehog Highway, it’s No Mow Policy and a reduction in the use of pesticides, the protection and extension of hedge and hedgerows felt like the next natural step.
Councillor Way advised that the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England stated that hedgerows were essential to soak up carbon, protect against flooding and aid nature’s recovery. Council was informed that some hedges were protected under government legislation but as was often the case, this was very complex and left many hedgerows unprotected. The Climate Change Committee and CPRE recommended increasing the hedgerow network by 40% by 2050; and Councillor Way hoped that the Council could be more ambitious than that. She went on to say that evidence suggested that the country had lost 50% of its hedgerows since the end of the second world war, with hedgerows that remained often subject to overcutting, which reduced biodiversity and mechanical cutting that sometimes damaged hedges beyond survival. Fortunately, this situation could be improved with proper management as demonstrated in her ward.
In conclusion, Councillor Way stated that Rushcliffe was a mainly rural Borough, and this motion called upon the Council to do more to protect existing hedges and hedgerows within the Borough as well as actively increasing the number of hedges and hedgerows and raising awareness about the importance of hedges with residents and developers.
Councillor Gowland seconded the motion and reserved the right to speak.
In supporting the motion, Councillor Upton recognised that hedgerows were a valuable part of the Borough and that the Council had limited powers to protect hedgerows. However, he did see hedgerow protection legislation being used where possible despite its complexity and Council was informed that under certain circumstances the Borough Council could enforce replacement planting. Councillor Upton advised Council that the Conservative Group would be supporting this motion to protect as much hedging as it could and work towards increasing the Borough’s network of hedgerows as part of its work on Biodiversity Net Gain.
Councillor Price informed Council that the Liberal Democrat Group fully supported the motion and reported that she had recently attended a meeting of the Sharphill Stakeholder Group and had heard that many hedges that had been removed by the developer would now be replaced after Council intervention.
Councillor R Mallender stated that the Green Party would also be supporting the motion and suggested that perhaps the Council could run a free hedges scheme following the success of its free trees scheme to increase hedge planting for the benefit of the environment as well as wildlife in the area. He stated that he would be keen to see town and parish councils get involved to increase the number of hedges over the 40% set.
Councillor Barney congratulated Councillor Way on bringing this motion to the attention of Council and described Councillor Way as a ‘woman of action’ having seen her making a real difference on the ground in East Leake recently.
Councillor Gowland, having reserved her right to speak, thanked the Council for this support and stressed the importance of hedges and hedgerows to carbon capture and the biodiversity of wildlife in the Borough. She asked Council if they knew the old meaning of ‘Rushcliffe’ and quoted from Wikipedia that Rushcliffe was the "cliff where brushwood grows" with brushwood being an old term for small trees and shrubs, in effect hedges. She called for Rushcliffe to be true to its roots and become known for its hedges once again.
Councillor Way thanked Councillors for all of the supportive comments and was pleased that the motion appeared to be supported by all parties.
On being put to the vote the motion was carried.