Minutes of the Environment and Planning Committee meeting held on Monday, 23rd November 2009 at 7 pm in the Corn Exchange Complex, Hungerford. 

Present:  Cllrs Booth, Buckwell, Cardwell, Harries, Acworth, Hudson, Bullock, Gaines, Parry and Ravenhill.

Before the meeting started, Barry Flisher was invited to give his talk on HEAT and Greening of Hungerford campaign.  His notes are appended. Mr Flisher left at 7.25.

1. Apologies for absence:  Cllrs Wilson (ill), Liddiard (ill), Wynell-Sutherland (ill) and Crane

2. Declarations of interest:  Cllr Buckwell declared a prejudicial interest in Item 4.

3. Minutes of meeting held on 9th November 2009:  with a correction to Cllr Buckwell’s name (not Buckworth in item 7), the minutes were proposed by Cllr Gaines, seconded by Cllr Cardwell, 3 abstentions, rest  in favour.

4. Planning applications

09/02197/HOUSE

Lovelocks, Newtown - Major C O P Hanbury

New pedestrian gate and flanking walls replacing existing gate and fence in same location

No Objection proposed by Cllr Bullock, seconded by Cllr Parry, 1 abstention (AB), rest in favour.

5. Case Officers reports 

The reports were noted.

6. HEAT and Greening of Hungerford campaign (Barry Flisher):  see separate notes.

7. Risk Assessments:  nothing to discuss.

Hungerford Briefing

Ladies and Gentlemen, I’ve have come along this evening to give you an introduction and informal briefing on the reasons for, as well as the hopes and the ambitions of the Hungerford Greening Campaign.

At the end of this month we have the Copenhagen Conference; there will be massive media publicity with regard to Climate Change and Resource Depletion. The international governments will be searching for a replacement treaty to Kyoto, whether they succeed, who knows. In any event there is evidence that the commercial world on food, energy, fuels and resources will change beyond recognition.

Both I and HEAT believe that action is not just down to high level politics but action at a local level is just as, if not, more important. We are beginning to hear the message from governments that action from the grassroots will be the only answer.

Local action addresses issues directly with the people that will be affected:

• Enabling them to have some control over the consequences.
• Bringing the community together, encouraging them to work together builds a solid community.
• Enables local councils to have a clearer picture of what residents want and their aspirations for the future.
• Some may see this (peak oil and climate change) as a gloom and doom scenario, but we see it as one of opportunity.
• All the technologies that we need to solve the problems of at least the next generation already exist and can be applied locally.

This is not essentially about fostering a belief in Climate Change or Resource Depletion.
The Greening Campaign (programme) is in the first instance simply a set of sensible precautions that people can take in order to reduce the risks that we are told, we and immediate generations, possibly face in the future.

For instance if energy prices are rising because of volatility in the futures markets or reductions in output of fossil fuel — does it not make sense to reduce consumption?

Extremes of weather in food producing parts of the world are causing global shortages. Increases in world population are putting more demand on the food supply chain — is it not better to produce and consume as much of our food as possible locally?

It is now said that the average household throws away food to the value of £420p.a. This is not only putting a strain on family budgets it is unsustainable in terms of the food supply chain but also it is costing the local community for disposal and causes increases in Council Tax burden to maintain services.

These along with ‘many’ other things are what the programme is about. Carbon reduction will be a natural consequence of the actions taken by residents, shops and other businesses as they move through the various phases of their programme. This is the community, the whole community, helping itself and helping the authorities to maintain good service standards.
Actions under this programme cannot help but impact on to the local, regional and national targets for governments. In addition to underpinning International attempts to stabilise the climatic systems and increase sustainability.

The Greening Hungerford Campaign is to be funded principally by West Berks Council and the Greening Campaign.

A little background to the Campaign:

I have been asked by WBC to be a local voluntary champion together with
HEAT Energy Group to drive forward the overall project –

• The national Greening Campaign was set up in response to the threat of global warming and resource depletion. It is an innovative idea to help motivate people to reduce their energy consumption and lower their personal and community carbon and ecological footprint.
• It concentrates on local action by ordinary people!
• It is operating successfully in over 100 towns and villages throughout England.
• The motivation comes by virtue of the fact that the precise actions of the community are largely decided by the community, under good local leadership, in a number of phases, usually about 4. Each phase is designed to be an easy step from the last.

The first of which we propose to launch here in Hungerford in about April next year.

Sometime after Christmas and New Year we will be looking to organise an initial Public Meeting to introduce the concepts of the programme to local people, groups, Churches and Schools. It is at this meeting that the initial Challenges are set and submitted for printing on to the Challenge Cards also a date for the launch of the first phase will be decided, along with a Committee appointed! elected to carry the project forward.

Phase 1: is all about the Challenges the community has set itself at that public meeting; simple basic actions that enable people to save money, based on the Challenge Cards and the Challenges set by the Community. These cards are distributed to every house by members of local groups. HEAT and other organisations will be on hand to assist anyone needing help or advice; after the resident has completed at least 6 of the challenges they place the card in the window. A census of the cards is taken on a day to be determined, the figures are returned to the Greening Campaign office where the C02 saving is calculated. The results are widely publicised; so people remain engaged and prepared for the next phase which will enable them to increase both their saving and to attain further reductions in C02.

It must engage with as many of the residents of Hungerford as possible.

My personal views; so these targets could change as the project set-up phase progresses.
But targets will need to be set. I would consider success to be around 30% within the boundaries of the road signs declaring you to be in Hungerford. I would like to see a more ambitious target, even 60%, more than any other town or village has achieved. This may be possible as unfortunately the need for change is becoming more urgent as the time goes on.   The geographical boundaries of the campaign cannot be cast in iron as we know being on the boarders of the county there are many people in the surrounding area that consider Hungerford ‘their’ town, so we are going to have to address that problem when it arises.

As I said earlier this is an innovative idea to:
• Help motivate people to reduce their personal and community carbon/ecological footprint.
• It is operating successfully in over 100 towns and villages throughout England.
• The motivation comes by virtue of the fact that the precise actions of the community are largely decided by the community. The result of their actions is measured and reported back to the whole community.
• Each phase is designed to be an easy step from the last.
• It is an opportunity to show real substance in the local environmental policies
Thank-you for the opportunity to present this very simple outline briefing to you tonight.
I hope it has inspired you to support our efforts both as an individual and councillor.
Please as a council do all you can to encourage all parts of the community to participate to their fullest extent.
Please support us all you can, to help us help the community.