Agenda item

To receive a written report from the Executive Member for Environment and Climate Emergency, and to question the Executive Member thereon, in accordance with Standing Orders B9 and B10.

A written report was received from Cllr Kent, Executive Member for Environment and Climate Emergency.

Members were then invited to question the Executive Member on her report. Questions were received from the floor from the following Members in relation to the subjects listed, and replied to as indicated:

Carbon Reduction

From Cllr Coles: Where is the partnership with Solar for Schools already operating and what are the plans to roll it out to other schools? Any particular reference to the Westfield Ward would be much appreciated.

Response: This is very timely. I was at Dringhouses Primary School this morning where 75 solar panels have just been put on the roof. I met the ‘eco-warriors’ from Reception to Year Six who were fantastically keen and passionate about the project. The whole team at the school was delighted and this is the latest of seven schools across York that now benefit from the Solar for Schools project. This is a fantastic collaboration between the Solar for Schools Partnership and local authorities and educational establishments; they assess your school to see if it’s suitable, then do all the planning and installation, and there is a payback scheme whereby they take off the energy, but you get a reduced energy price, so it’s a win-win. In addition, there is an educational component; they come and deliver STEM-type subjects around sustainability, renewables and cheaper electricity, and involve the children in that. You’ll be delighted to know that we have two more projects in the pipeline, the first of which is Westfield Primary and the next is Applefields School. I hope these will be installed by the end of this year which will bring the total to nine. It’s a really wonderful project; a win for the planet because it reduces emissions, a win for the schools because it gives them extra educational training and cheap renewable energy, and a win for the Council because it reduces our costs.

Housing

From Cllr Whitcroft: What role is the Executive Member playing in the development of retrofitting Council homes and making sure our housing stock is as environmentally friendly as possible, particularly in relation to new development, but also existing housing stock?

Response: This overlaps with Cllr Pavlovic’s portfolio; a huge amount of work has been done by that team to map all the energy performance certificates across the city, so we have a really good idea for each individual house of how its energy is used and how efficient it is. The good news for our Council tenants in our social housing is that generally we perform much higher than the private residential stock. In relation to that our retrofit policy is that under our repairs scheme we do voids first so that there is no fuss for tenants; much of the resistance to retrofit that has to happen is from residents themselves because houses are turned upside-down, insulation is quite intrusive if you’re fitting heat pumps or new cookers, so we do it when there is nobody there. We’ve shortened the times between the voids and have done the repairs and mould prevention and made them cosier, warmer, cheaper houses to live in. This is a good time to ask this question – York has recently come first in one of the social housing major project awards, and second in the local authority doing outstanding work in this area under the social housing decarbonisation fund project in the Yorkshire Energy Awards; this was not just about delivering energy efficiency measures but doing it with customer satisfaction, craftsmanship and skill. In relation to the city as a whole we’ve been running various schemes which are largely government funded but from different pockets of funding; we’ve rolled this out really well and are seen as a very good place to pilot or roll out schemes in because of the way we do it. The lead project has been for hard-to-reach areas: conservation areas, Gypsy and Traveller amenity areas. Teams have visited at least 35 private homes and there is at least another twelve months to run on this; they give an advice pack and support including details of trusted suppliers. The Home Upgrade Grant (HUG) 2 is going to places which are hard-to-reach and not on gas. In terms of new build we have a commitment to 100% affordable housing which we are sticking to resolutely, and I’m delighted to announce that we are also sticking to Passivhaus standards where we can – this will be rolled out wherever possible, and these houses will be cheaper to buy, cheaper to live in and cheaper to run

Supplementary from Cllr Healey: You mentioned retrofitting heat pumps into existing Council properties – I wasn’t aware we were doing so, so I’d be really interested if you could expand on that?

Supplementary response: Yes, in certain properties where we can, we have; we don’t do it as a matter of course as there are some properties it doesn’t suit and there’s some debate over efficiency levels of insulation first, which was our priority. I can give you details of where that has happened after the meeting.

Garden Waste

From Cllr Fenton: Your report states that you are looking at relocating the Hazel Court recycling depot, can you please confirm which alternative locations are being considered, and also whether you are considering the future of the Towthorpe household waste disposal site?

Response: This is part of a Mayoral Combined Authority-funded project looking at the business case for a green energy park at Harewood Whin, which is where our recycling currently goes. This business case is in progress and the outline position would be the potential to provide 10,000 homes with renewable electricity from primarily solar or possibly onshore wind. This business case is also exploring the potential for hydrogen, for battery storage, and for EV charging. As a sideline to that, because Hazel Court is approaching capacity and there are issues with its location in the city centre, they are exploring the business case for relocating Hazel Court to Harewood Whin, which might make sense in terms of uptake from cheap renewables there. We’re only looking at the business case for that as part of the project, it’s not a conclusion and if it happened it would not be for some years; this is about assessing whether this would be part of the best use of a new green energy park. If hydrogen comes out as the most appropriate use, then this might mean using it as a waste depot would not be the most efficient use.

Supplementary from Cllr Fenton: Is Towthorpe in the mix as part of the business case?

Supplementary response: It was Hazel Court primarily, so Towthorpe would remain. Obviously if there are benefits to doing anything there we would look at it, but that’s not part of this project.

Supplementary from Cllr Ayre: As a point of clarification: one of the mitigations for the green waste changes is that residents can take their green waste to Hazel Court; you seem to have just said that Hazel Court will be closing and moving to Harewood Whin, so the suggestion is that green waste is taken to Harewood Whin?

Supplementary response: I apologise if I did not make myself clear, I said that what we have is a business plan being looked at as to whether it would make sense for Hazel Court to be relocated as part of the green energy park. I also said if this happened it wouldn’t be for a number of years, probably the end of this decade if that did happen; meanwhile of course you are free to take your green waste to Hazel Court. If relocation did happen, if it made sense in terms of carbon and energy efficiency and costs to relocate, of course we’d also be looking at what happens to green waste for people who live in the city – meanwhile this is primarily about large vehicles travelling in and out of the city carrying waste which many people would say is not ideal, but nothing is going to happen in the next few years.

Supplementary from Cllr Crawshaw: You mentioned that the Harewood Whin project was part of discussions which are ongoing with the Combined Authority looking at the environmental benefits that there might be for the city, could you very briefly outline any other discussions that you might be having with the Combined Authority about potential environmental benefits for the city?

Supplementary response: Yes, this is funding we’ve already got, it was part of about £3m from the MCA Net Zero fund; in addition to that we’ve just had all of the LED lighting on the second and third floors of West Offices and 900 streetlights replaced through funding from the MCA. There’s a possibility because of an underspend by North Yorkshire we might get an additional 1000 LED streetlights across the city and possibly for other Council buildings as well. We are joining with them on all sorts of projects, and there is also £10m in the mayoral climate fund which we are putting pipeline projects forward for, so the new Combined Authority is a fantastic collaboration for us and opportunity for us to decarbonise the whole region, to get to Net Zero and all the benefits that entails for our air, our costs, our homes and our people.