The Chairman will announce details of the arrangements in case of fire or other events that might require the meeting room or building’s evacuation.

The Chairman will announce details of the arrangements in case of fire or other events that might require the meeting room or building’s evacuation.

(if any) - receive.

Apologies were received for the absence of Councillors Sally Miller (Councillor Robby Masir substituting), Nisha Patel (Councillor John Crowder substituting), and Michael White (Councillor Carol Smith substituting).

Members are invited to disclose any interest in any of the items on the agenda at this point of the meeting.

Members may still disclose any interest in an item at any time prior to the consideration of the matter.

Councillor Darren Wise disclosed a person interest that he had attended a meeting regarding the Havering Climate Change Action Plan the previous week and confirmed that he would still have an open mind regarding the topic.

Report attached.

In accordance with paragraph 17 of the Overview & Scrutiny Committee Rules, a requisition signed by six Members representing more than one Group (Councillors Carol Beth, Keith Darvill, Linda Van den Hende, Paul McGeary, Ray Morgon, and Graham Williamson) had called-in the Key Executive (Cabinet) Decision dated 10 November 2021.

The Climate Change Action Plan covering report and the Climate Change Action Plan were built upon previous plans and set out the next strategic stage in tackling climate change in Havering.

The report was bold and included ambitious actions and targets, which would be based on emissions evidence and best practice. The action plan contained clear actions and milestones which would continue to lead to improvements across the Council’s services.

The action plan was constructed to enable an annual review which would allow changes in circumstances and evolving regional and national plans to be incorporated into the strategic target for the Council and Borough to be Carbon Neutral by 2040, ten years ahead of the national goal of 2050.

Representatives of Extinction Rebellion, Havering Cyclists, Friends of the Earth, and Havering Quakers all spoke to the call-in and stated various concerns. They provided various comments including the following:

·         the language used was passive instead of active and did not match up to the urgent action that was required;

·         walking structure resources, infrastructure, low emission neighbourhoods, car club providers, school streets with restrictions, or e-cargo bike hires were not mentioned in the plan;

·         the report required more detail as other London Boroughs have done more work and the public needed to be involved;

·         the report should have been broken down into targets, as it is too vague, lacks transparency and the targets cannot be qualified or quantified.

The Corporate Projects Manager responded to the groups’ concerns and made the following comments:

·         ways in which progress would be monitored was addressed on page 63  of the Agenda Pack;

·         the walking and cycling strategy was on page 93 of the Agenda Pack;

·         a feasibility study was included on Page 96;

·         it was not accepted that the language used  lacked urgency;

·         the annual report could be updated and a more detailed action plan existed in other documents;

·         the public needed to be involved and made the focus of the plan and the Council had a well-developed network of voluntary groups to assist with this.

It was agreed that any further questions which were not answered at the meeting would be referred to relevant officers, work stream Leads and/or Heads of Service for response.

Furthermore, it was agreed that the representatives of the groups attending the meeting would be invited to a meeting of the Environment and Climate Change Topic Group where more detailed discussions could take place.

The Leader agreed it was important to get the right approach for Havering and that Climate change was a fast and evolving situation that would benefit from the Overview and Scrutiny process.

The responses to the requisition grounds by officers were contained in the Supplementary Agenda.

A Member  ...  view the full minutes text for item 33.