Agenda, decisions and minutes

To confirm arrangements for chairing the meeting as follows:

Councillor Douglas - All standard agenda items 1-5.

Councillor Douglas - Agenda item 6 – Heritage Estate Programme  

Councillor Kent – Agenda item 7 – Annual Carbon Emissions Report 2024/25

Councillor Kent – Agenda item 8 – York Emissions Inventory Report 2025

Councillor Kent – Agenda item 9 – Urgent Business  

Resolved: That Councillor Douglas would chair the meeting for items 1-6 and Councillor Kent for items 7-9.

To receive and note apologies for absence.

There were no apologies for absence received.

At this point in the meeting, Members and co-opted members are

asked to declare any disclosable pecuniary interest, or other

registerable interest, they might have in respect of business on

this agenda, if they have not already done so in advance on the

Register of Interests. The disclosure must include the nature of

the interest.

An interest must also be disclosed in the meeting when it

becomes apparent to the member during the meeting.

(1)  Members must consider their interests, and act according to the following:

(2) Disclosable pecuniary interests relate to the Member

concerned or their spouse/partner.

(3) Members in arrears of Council Tax by more than two months

must not vote in decisions on, or which might affect, budget

calculations, and must disclose at the meeting that this restriction

applies to them. A failure to comply with these requirements is a

criminal offence under section 106 of the Local Government

Finance Act 1992.

The Executive Member were invited to declare any personal interests not included on the Register of Interests, any prejudicial interests, or any disclosable pecuniary interests that they might have in respect of business on the agenda. None were declared.

To approve and sign the minutes of the Combined Executive Member Decision Session held on 2 September 2025.

Resolved: That the minutes Combined Executive Member Decision Session on 2 September 2025 be approved as a correct record.

At this point in the meeting members of the public who have

registered to speak can do so. Members of the public may speak

on agenda items or on matters within the remit of the committee.

Please note that our registration deadlines are set as 2 working

days before the meeting, in order to facilitate the management of

public participation at our meetings. The deadline for registering

at this meeting is 5:00pm on Friday 31 October 2025.

To register to speak please visit

www.york.gov.uk/AttendCouncilMeetings to fill in an online

registration form. If you have any questions about the registration

form or the meeting, please contact Democratic Services.

Contact details can be found at the foot of this agenda.

Webcasting of Public Meetings

Please note that, subject to available resources, this meeting will

be webcast including any registered public speakers who have

given their permission. The meeting can be viewed live and on

demand at www.york.gov.uk/webcasts.

It was noted that there had been no registrations to speak at the meeting under the Council’s Public Participation Scheme.

This report invites the Leader to consider initiating a programme to develop a 10-year Heritage Strategic Delivery Plan – focused on maximising the social, economic and sustainability outcomes from York’s world-renowned heritage assets. To be considered by Cllr Douglas (Leader of the Council and Executive Member for Policy, Strategy and Partnerships).

Resolved:

                         i.         Approved the establishing of the Heritage programme which will be focused on making the most from and for York’s heritage assets.

                        ii.         Confirmed that Cllr Kilbane the Deputy Leader and Executive Member for Economy & Culture was appointed by the Executive as the Heritage Champion for the Council.

Reason:     By harnessing the opportunities from York’s heritage assets, the benefit will stretch far beyond York’s boundaries as new conservation, sustainability and community engagement practices are shared nationally and celebrated globally.  

Initiating the programme now is to enable the council to put in place the partnership and governance arrangements that would ensure a city response based on shared and approved priorities – providing Executive with greater oversight. 

This programme would act as the governance arrangements for all subsequent heritage-related projects which involve the council, including those led by partners such as the York Museum Trust or World Heritage Steering Group.

Officers introduced the report that sought the approval to develop a 10-year Heritage Strategic Delivery Plan and the appointment of a Heritage Champion for the city. It was noted that the strategy would assist in maintaining heritage assets and collections which could require significant maintenance to maintain. The strategy would seek to attract investment for York’s heritage assets, create future job opportunities, maintain York’s heritage for residents and visitors, as well as grow York’s international recognition.

The Executive Leader welcomed the report noting that it would be a strategy to take care of the city’s heritage assets. She welcomed the opportunity to set the scene for additional investment to be brought in and assist York to be a modern city with well-managed important heritage assets. She also confirmed that the Executive had agreed to appoint Cllr Kilbane the Deputy Leader and Executive Member for Economy & Culture as the cities Heritage Champion to work with the Council and partners to promote the cities heritage assets.

Resolved:

                         i.         Approved the establishing of the Heritage programme which will be focused on making the most from and for York’s heritage assets.

                        ii.         Confirmed that Cllr Kilbane the Deputy Leader and Executive Member for Economy & Culture was appointed by the Executive as the Heritage Champion for the Council.

Reason:     By harnessing the opportunities from York’s heritage assets, the benefit will stretch far beyond York’s boundaries as new conservation, sustainability and community engagement practices are shared nationally and celebrated globally.  

Initiating the programme now is to enable the council to put in place the partnership and governance arrangements that would ensure a city response based on shared and approved priorities – providing Executive with greater oversight. 

This programme would act as the governance arrangements for all subsequent heritage-related projects which involve the council, including those led by partners such as the York Museum Trust or World Heritage Steering Group.

City of York Council (the Council) has set a target to reduce carbon emissions from corporate activity to net zero by 2030. An Annual Carbon Emissions Report is produced to monitor progress against this target and identify areas of improvement. This report relates to the Council’s operations throughout financial year 2024/25. To be considered by Cllr Kent (Executive Member for Environment and Climate Emergency).

Resolved:

                         i.         Approved the Annual Emissions Report for publication.

Reason:     To monitor progress against the Council’s ambition to be net zero by 2030.

The Head of Carbon Reduction introduced the report which provided the Corporate Emissions data for 2024-25. He noted that additional data capturing had resulted in a small increase in emissions but noted that overall use of fossil fuels were down. He confirmed that the Council’s largest source of emissions continued to be gas heating. He also highlighted work undertaken in 2024-25 which included the continued roll out of heat pumps and fleet electrification which, was expected to be at 90% for vehicles under 3.5 tons in 2026.

The Executive Member for Environment and Climate Emergency welcomed the report and highlighted the dual benefits that had been achieved in both reducing emissions and reducing costs, such as, the roll out of ELD street lighting that was saving £365,000 per year. She also highlighted the roll out of heat pumps at Council properties like Alex Lyon House had reduced Council tenants’ energy bills.

The Executive Member enquired about the Council’s work on Scope 3 emissions. The Head of Carbon Reduction confirmed that monitoring Scope 3 could be challenging but that the Council was working on ways to monitor and reduce scope 3 emissions, such as, working with the Council’s procurement team with the aim for the new Social Value policy to put an emphasis on carbon emissions.

Resolved:

                         i.         Approved the Annual Emissions Report for publication.

Reason:     To monitor progress against the Council’s ambition to be net zero by 2030.

This report presents the latest York Emissions Inventory Report (2025) for the reporting years 2022 and 2023. The data is used to monitor progress against the council ambition to achieve net zero carbon for the city by 2030. To be considered by Cllr Kent (Executive Member for Environment and Climate Emergency).

Resolved:

                      i.         Approved the York Emissions Inventory Report for publication.

                    ii.         Approved the adoption of the UK local authority and regional emissions dataset as the reporting methodology for future city-wide Emissions Inventories. 

Reason:    To provide transparency of progress against the ambition for York to be net zero by 2030.

The Head of Carbon Reduction introduced the report. He confirmed that the Council would expect a slight change in methodology moving from the SCATTER tool, which was been discontinued, to the UK local authority and regional emissions dataset. He confirmed the accuracy of the data would remain the same. He also confirmed that city wide emissions continued to decline and were now below levels in 2020 which had been a low year for emissions in part due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Executive Member for Environment and Climate Emergency enquired about the work undertaken with partners around the city to reduce emissions. It was confirmed that the Council had relaunched the York Climate Commission in 2025 which helps bring people together and aims to hold the Council and other partners to their climate targets. It was noted that the Council also engages in events such as green business forums. The last City Leaders Forum also focused on sustainability.

Resolved:

                      i.         Approved the York Emissions Inventory Report for publication.

                    ii.         Approved the adoption of the UK local authority and regional emissions dataset as the reporting methodology for future city-wide Emissions Inventories. 

Reason:    To provide transparency of progress against the ambition for York to be net zero by 2030.