Issue - meetings

Report of Deputy Chief Executive and Director of Regeneration and Planning

Lead Cabinet member: Councillor Emily O’Brien

(Key decision):

(1) To approve the Climate and Nature Strategy 2024 and Action Plan for final design and publication on the council’s website.

(2) To note the achievements to date.

The Cabinet considered the report of the Deputy Chief Executive and Director of Regeneration and Planning, presenting the new Climate and Nature Strategy and Action Plan for publication.

The Plan built upon achievements since 2019 and set out updated priority actions that were needed to deliver net zero at the council and the wider Lewes district. It also included actions to tackle the dangerous decline in nature caused by human activities.

Thanks were expressed to those that had contributed to the Plan and also to officers for their process in ensuring a variety of views were captured.

Policy and Performance Advisory Committee (PPAC), held on 10 July 2024 considered the report and were supportive of the officer recommendations in full, subject to the following being considered.

For Appendix 1, it was requested that Cabinet amend the wording under ‘Water, Rivers and Seas’ for ‘Our objectives, targets and milestones to meet the challenges’ and that it be changed so as to remove references to “to seek” and “to advocate” as such wording is not appropriate when describing an objective, without suggesting that the Council has lead responsibilities in these areas.

Cabinet considered the recommendation from PPAC and agreed an amended form of wording for Appendix 1 on page 27, which was detailed below, prior to the agreement of the Strategy.

Objectives:

We will support and encourage the responsible authorities, stakeholder communities, landowners and others in their efforts to:

·        mitigate the risk posed by a changing coast

·        support communities to be resilient to flooding

·        manage waterways and improve water quality

·        preserve our water resources

Resolved (Key decision):

(1) To approve the Climate and Nature Strategy 2024 and Action Plan for final design and publication on the council’s website.

(2) To note the achievements to date.

Reason for decisions:

To progress the aims of the council’s Climate Emergency Declaration (2019), to make the council net zero carbon by 2030 and to assist the same aim to be achieved within the wider district.