Agenda item

Councillor Lucinda Preston, Sustainability Advocate, provided an update report to Council in her role as advocate for sustainability.

Councillor Preston highlighted that sustainability cut across a number of Executive Portfolios as well as linking directly to the Vision 2025 strand ‘Lets address the challenge of climate change’. She paid tribute to the work of the Council’s Executive members who were committed to sustainability and the Councils officers for their excellent work.

The report provided further information in relation to the following aspects of sustainability:

·         tackling climate change;

·         the Lincoln Climate Commission;

·         housing;

·         the Local Plan;

·         reducing single use plastic;

·         waste and recycling;

·         improving the urban environment;

·         transport;

·         food;

·         the Lincoln Social Responsibility Charter;

·         the sustainability section of the City Council’s website.

Councillor Thomas Dyer referred to the Council’s review of its car parking strategy and asked whether any environmental impacts would form part of that review, particularly given that the Council was under increasing pressure to deliver a sustainable budget and relied upon car parking as a key income stream. He questioned whether the review would take into account the environmental impact of people driving into the city centre.

Councillor Preston acknowledged the conflict the Council faced between encouraging use of its car parks and aspirations for people to use public transport more regularly from an environmental perspective.

Councillor Dyer, in terms of the Council’s Green Strategy, asked whether the Sustainability Advocate believed there was any scope for the Council to have a healthy soil strategy in place, particularly in respect of the city’s parks and green spaces.

Councillor Preston reported, from the perspective of the Planning Committee, that the impact on soil was a regular consideration and so agreed to feed this suggestion back to officers for potential further development.

Councillor Reid asked whether the figures associated with hybrid provision and carbon related to a particular area as opposed to a generalisation.

Councillor Preston did not have this information available but agreed to provide it outside of the meeting.

Councillor Reid was pleased that fuel expenditure and scheduled housing repairs seemed positive. He questioned, however, whether this was as a result of the changes made to the service or attributable to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Councillor Preston reported that this had been set up as a pilot so there were not any comparable figures on performance from previous years. The changes in vehicles more effectively managing their journeys and reducing their mileage would inevitably have a positive impact. This time next year would provide a useful analysis.

Councillor Reid acknowledged that EPCs was an area that would need further consideration but felt that reference to this issues was quite vague in the report and asked for further clarification.

Councillor Preston reported that the Council was making sure homes were more efficient, with a significant amount of consideration taking place in respect of design and what could be achieved.

Councillor Reid reflected on the Council’s target of being plastic free by 2022 and asked when this was likely to be achieved.

Councillor Preston reported that the Covid-19 pandemic had significantly impacted a number of aspirations as resources and priorities had been reallocated across the authority. This had meant that it had not been possible for the Council to put in place what it had originally intended in order to support this aspiration. Moving forward, plastic free would be advocated at significant events such as the Christmas Market and further consideration would be given to what the Council could do further over the coming year.

Councillor Reid asked for further information on the statistics associated with those people accessing the sustainability pages on the Council’s website.

Councillor Preston did not have this information available but agreed to provide a statistical analysis outside of the meeting.

The report was noted.