Agenda item

Cabinet Member Catrin Maby introduced the report, delivered a presentation and answered the members’ questions with Colette Bosley, Matthew Lewis and Hazel Clatworthy.

Key questions from Members:

• Do we keep a record of the trees removed, hedgerows lost, and trees fallen per year, and do we record Tree Protection Orders that have failed? Are there plans to have a hedgerow strategy?
• When is the dark skies policy likely to happen and what we are doing to protect the dark skies in the meantime?
• Would it be best to separate ‘climate emergency’ and ‘nature recovery’, and describe ‘nature recovery’ as an emergency, because applying the term ‘emergency’ to everything doesn’t necessarily lead to the best planning and approach. It can confuse people and we need to take people with us and use our influence and distilled knowledge to inform people.
• The concern around electric vehicles is whether we are clear about the true nature of carbon emissions and the use of rare minerals in the production of the batteries for EV’s leads to an entirely separate, but extremely important, set of questions, which is concerning if we pin our actions towards net zero solely on the use of electric vehicles.
• There is also the concern that Wales is being described as one of most nature-depleted countries on earth – tied to the UK being described as such in the 2023 State of Nature Report. The language used is somewhat apocalyptic and there is a danger in describing everything as disastrous and catastrophic, in terms of whether we will actually take people with us in terms of addressing the issue. We need to encourage and support residents and businesses and that's the bit that needs to be much stronger in this strategy because whilst this isn’t about giving financial support, it is about doing everything possible to support residents and businesses to move in this direction and we know the scale of what 100,000 residents can achieve, as opposed to a council, so surely putting our efforts into that may well be much more productive than some of the other things. England also has a greater amount of urban concentration than Scotland and Wales, so could they offset some of the effects of urban sprawl? 
• It’s vital that we understand what we can do, what we have control over and are clear about that, for example bats and dark skies, the fact we have a Site of Special Scientific Interest bordering Monmouth, so we must ask ourselves whether we are really paying enough attention to it and what plans we have for it in future. We also have examples of dates and times when some of our buildings have lights on, wasting electric, when not needed and contributing to lighter skies, such as Monmouth Comprehensive School car park and building lights being left on and Raglan depot too, so these need to be addresses. ACTION: Councillor Lucas to send details through to Councillor Maby and Ian Hoccom.
• The importance of flora and fauna, bees and other insect numbers, amongst a backdrop of declining numbers, and disease such as Ash dieback amongst trees, exacerbated by climate change, but there are signs of recovery and regeneration, so it’s important to reflect the positives in this report too.
• There is concern about the impact of new housing development and the importance of compliance with habitat regulations.
• There are also concerns around the River Severn and the Caldicot sea wall, in terms of mitigation and adaptation for flood risk ~ have we lost sight of that?
• Pleased to see that tackling plastic waste features are prominently in the climate and nature emergency strategy, given that in the previous budget cycle back in 2023-2024, there was a budgetary concession in respect of some £253,000k, if recalled correctly, to support the council’s enforcement efforts in respect of tackling the scourge of littering and fly tipping across the county. How has this additional resource has been deployed and how will it be deployed in in future? How will our enforcement powers and resources interact more broadly with supporting the climate and nature strategy? I endorse the ambition stated to support plastic free towns across the county though the aspiration, like many other aspirations in the strategy, will be contingent on having the support of the volunteers, so what more does the cabinet member think we can be doing as a Council to further unlock the potential and incentivize the immense civic capital that we have at our disposal to drive further meaningful progress, specifically in tackling litter, but also in supporting the wider aspirations of the climate and nature emergency strategy presented to us?
• The enthusiasm of the subject can lead to exaggerated terms in communicating it, such as Wales being described as one of most depleted countries, whilst nowhere does the state of nature report mention this – it refers to the UK. The key findings for Wales only look at a 7-year period, but it needs to be seen in context with the position for other countries which are starting at lower level, so it would be beneficial to emphasise the positives already achieved.

Chair’s Summary:

Thank you to Members for the questions and feedback. The report has been scrutinised in detail and the Cabinet Member and colleagues can consider the points raised. We discussed how Members wanted to understand how we're capturing the data of trees and hedgerows being felled and replanted and look at the replanting scheme and what we are doing in relation to preserving our dark skies and urban wildlife. There is a feeling we should not describe everything as an emergency – it doesn't provide the best planning approach. We need to encourage people to come with us and we don't want to overwhelm them with terms like ‘emergency’. There is some concern we use Electric Vehicles as an answer to all, but it is not the only answer or resolution to the climate change emergency.

A very valid point was made with regards to Council building lights left on e.g. car park lights in schools and Raglan depot – this goes against our dark skies ambition and is also a wasteful use of electricity. We need to consider and reference the positives such as the ash dieback problem being managed by the Council, and obviously the natural regeneration will see a positive from this. Points were made about Caldicot Seawall and the River Nedern and its importance to residents in the Severnside area with regards to flooding and water quality. We were pleased to see plastic waste featured prominently and want to know how resource will be deployed within the strategy to tackle this.