Agenda and minutes

The Chair welcome those present and led introductions. 

The following apologies and substitutions were noted;

·       Councillor Thomas substitution Councillor Bolton

·       Councillor Weston substitution Councillor L Alexander

·       Councillor Wellington substitution Councillor D Alexander

·       Councillor Wright substitution Councillor Negus

To note any declarations of interest from the Councillors.  They are asked to indicate the relevant agenda item, the nature of the interest and in particular whether it is a disclosable pecuniary interest.

Please note that the Register of Interests is available at https://www.bristol.gov.uk/councillors/members-interests-gifts-and-hospitality-register

Any declarations of interest made at the meeting which is not on the register of interests should be notified to the Monitoring Officer for inclusion.

None

Up to 30 minutes is allowed for this item.

Any member of the public or Councillor may participate in Public Forum.  The detailed arrangements for so doing are set out in the Public Information Sheet at the back of this agenda.  Public Forum items should be emailed to democratic.services@bristol.gov.uk and please note that the following deadlines will apply in relation to this meeting:-

Questions - Written questions must be received 3 clear working days prior to the meeting.  For this meeting, this means that your question(s) must be received in this office at the latest by 5pm on 10^th March 2017.

Petitions and Statements - Petitions and statements must be received on the working day prior to the meeting.  For this meeting this means that your submission must be received in this office at the latest by 12.00 noon on 15^th March 2017.

David Redgewell was invited to speak to his statement and during the course of his presentation the following was mentioned.

a.     That the car park attached to the central bus station depot was not closed because of an extension being built by the owners of the student accommodation block.

Action:  Officers to note

To agree the minutes of the previous meeting as a correct record.

Resolved that the Minutes of the meeting of the 13^th February 2017 be agreed as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

Place Scrutiny Action Sheet together with the Pre-election Guidance note for the West of England Combined Authority Mayoral Election 2017

Agreed to note the position of the Action Sheet.

To note any announcements from the Chair

The chair on behalf of committee members acknowledged and congratulated Mark Wright on the safe arrival of his child.

a.     OSM would be facilitating a meeting on the future format of the scrutiny process.  All invited to share views to the Chair.  Those in attendance would include Party Group Leaders, representatives from Cabinet and the Mayor with a representative from the LGA.  It was noted that Place Scrutiny would be well represented at the event.

b.     Members considered the recent announcement that there was a significant funding shortfall for the MetroWest Phase 1 project that included reopening the train line from Bristol to Portishead and asked that a statement to summarise their concerns be submitted to the Joint Transport Board at their meeting on 17^th March 2017.  It is attached here at appendix A.

To note the work programme.

a.     With the possible formatting of Place Scrutiny the work programme discussion was deferred.

b.     The agenda items for the next schedule meeting 27^th April, would need to be considered as it would occur during the pre-election period with strict rules on procedure.

The Members of the Commission requested and were provided with an update on the 2 grant applications for Air Quality projects.

a.     The team had successful obtain funding for the Feasibility and design for a clean Air Zone and the unsuccessful bid was for the Communication and Engagement work.

b.     Work was underway to move the project forward with the intention of identifying as many of the Council’s business activities that connect with the project.

c.      Members requested a briefing on progress and for involvement in the air quality work group being led by Cabinet Members Cllr Bradshaw & Cllr Hance.  Action: Alex Minshull to provide members with details

The discussion then returned to the report on Climate Change and Energy Security Framework.

Members were provided with a definition of a ‘clean air zone’: it is a district or region that has regulations to limit emissions of gasses such as nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and particulate matter.  Such regulations typically target cities areas that have a high population or areas that historically had dangerously poor air quality.

The report and presentation provided members with the back ground on the Climate change and energy principles adopted by the Council with a commitment to ‘put Bristol on course to be run entirely on clean energy by 2050’.

Members attention was drawn to the slides in the report that detailed:

·       2005 – 2014 Emission – Tonnes Carbon Dioxide output by Transport, Domestic and Industry and commercial against the target line

·       2005 – 2014 Emissions by Sector

·       2005 – 2050 Targets and Trends

The following was noted from the discussion:

a.     The target and trends slide detailed the projects aspiration also demonstrating that the City was on track to deliver its aspiration.  All was asked to note that  progressing to the end goal would become harder over the next few years.  Within the time line there was no identifiable point at which that progress would get hard but those involved recognised that achieving the end goal would be hard.  Difficulties exist because current systems were not geared up to support the delivery of the ambition.  The hope is that future development of technology would reduce cost and ease direction of travel.

b.     Renewable energy production was impacted by the inability to switch of and store same.  Therefore the volumes required to support the requirements of thriving city would be huge. 

c.      Work on the Climate change framework continued with integrated work with other service areas.  The principle of one Council drives all interaction and this would extend to all liaison with the West of England and Enterprise partnerships.

d.     If new houses are built to meet the current Bristol standards on carbon emissions approximately 240 tonnes would be added to the target.  With many new builds underway and approximately 70% of the required target already built there would be an impact on the target.

Resolved to note to the report

The attached report  and presentation covers the following:

·       ELENA Programme Update

·       Warm Up Bristol

·       Heat Networks

Energy presentation

The commission received a report and presentation from Bill Edrich, Service Director Energy and the following team members; Mareike Schmidt, Paul Barker and David White.

Bill Edrich outlined the report and presentation to the Commission. 

·       The team had attracted national and international recognition for the work done in this area and Bristol is recognised as being one of the leading Cities in this field.

·       The funding obtained had ensured that the Energy Service’s impact on the Council’s revenue budget was almost cost neutral

·       The city council energy bill remain static in a time when energy prices continue to grow by c20% this can be credited to the work undertaken by the team together with the reduction of council owned/leased properties.

·       Future changes and improvements to the National Grid is on the way with the industry integrating digital technology into their operation this will change the energy sector muck like how Amazon changed the retail sector and open up future possibilities.

·       Since 2010 The National Grid’s generation customer base has extend from 10’s of generators to approximately 6000 generators customers.

ELENA - Mareike Schmidt

The European Local Energy Assistance (ELENA) Programme technical assistance grant was signed off by the European Investment Bank in March 2012 and it is now at the end of the 4 year programme.

The funding of £2million provided for a programme of work across four areas:

·       Set up of a municipal energy company

·       Energy saving measures on social and private housing properties

·       Energy efficiency measures on public buildings

·       Solar PV installations on social housing and public sector building

a.     The team are now viewed as Market leaders amongst local authorities finding themselves in the position of being sought after to share learning from the work done.

b.     The Programme had clear guidelines for delivery with a leverage factor of 25:1 applicable.  This meant for every pound spent 25 times the investment had to be delivered.

c.     Overall learning was that in place of the procurement exercise for each of  the four strands of work, a single procurement procedure to cover all four strands of work for the programme would have been a more productive way forward.

d.     The authority has been invited to make a further bid for funding which is a compliment to the team and reflect the high regard in which the team is held.

Warm Up Bristol – Mareike Schmidt

The domestic energy efficiency programme was established in January 2014 with funding of £7.3m obtained from the Department of Energy & Climate Change (DECC) in July 2014 leading to the launch of Warm Up Bristol in October 2014.

The Service Manager provided an overview of the situation regarding the failure of the delivery partner Climate Energy for the programme and the steps taken in mitigation.

a.     Members were advised that Warm Up Bristol programme was a different programme to that provided to social housing tenants of the City Council.  The programme provided to social housing tenants is ‘Warmer Homes’.  Both schemes have similar  ...  view the full minutes text for item 35.

The Scrutiny members were asked to note the report.