Decision details

The Leader introduced the report of the Chief Executive (previously circulated) requesting that consideration be given to the Adaptation Plan (also previously circulated) to ensure continued resilience to climate change.

The submitted report stated that this Council’s climate change strategy and action plan set out its ambition to be carbon neutral by 2050; it was vital for residents that the Council continued to deliver its services and for the Council’s staff to be able to do their jobs in a safe environment; since 2020, some of the Council’s working practices had changed and staff had proved their flexibility in successfully delivering services remotely; and that blended working and flexible hours were important additions to the Council’s resilience, as temperatures were projected to rise leading to more storms, heatwaves, droughts and flooding and it was important that the Council was ready.

It was reported that the Adaptation Plan, related to two actions contained within the Council’s Climate Change Action Plan, namely:- to conduct a gap analysis of current activity to identify further actions which could be undertaken (A11); and the integration of adaptation measures in statutory plans, strategies and functions (A12).

References were made at the meeting to the ambitions contained within the Plan; the involvement of Scrutiny, in order to assist the Council to achieve its Climate Change ambitions; and to the fact that the Adaptation Plan was a plan to deal with climate change rather than cutting carbon emissions.  The Leader responded thereon, and in doing so, stated that it was a working document.

RESOLVED – That Adaptation Plan, as appended to the submitted report, be adopted.

REASON – The adaptation to climate change is vital for the Council to continue to deliver services that residents and businesses rely on.