SPC 4 - Minutes
Minutes of the Strategic Policy Committee 4 - Climate Change Meeting Held on Wednesday 23rd November 2022 At 10.00am in The Council Chamber, County Hall, Riverside, Sligo/Virtual Meeting Room (V)
IN ATTENDANCE:
- Councillor Sineád Maguire (Chairperson)
- Councillor Dara Mulvey (V)
- Councillor Martin Connolly
- Bernard Finan, PPN Agriculture/Farming Sector Representative
- Yvonne Lang, PPN Environment/Conservation Sector Representative (V)
- Lisa Moore, PPN Community and Voluntary Representative (V)
- Emer Concannon, A/Director of Services, Sligo County Council
- Mr Fineen O’Driscoll, A/Senior Engineer, Sligo County Council
- Pete Murtagh, Energy Efficiency & Climate Action Officer, Sligo County Council
- Daniel Conway, Climate Action Graduate, Sligo County Council
- Imelda McCarron, Administration Officer, Sligo County Council
1. Minutes of meeting held on 28th September 2022.
The minutes of the SPC 4 meeting held on 28h September 2022 were proposed by Councillor M. Connolly and seconded by Mr. B. Finan and agreed.
2. Matters Arising
Since the last SPC meeting the Department has committed to fund 2 Climate Action Officers. P.Murtagh is existing staff member, and HR will be recruiting a Climate Action Coordinator in early 2023. A Community Climate Action Officer will also be recruited in the coming weeks – their role will be to help communities apply for funding under Climate Action.
The National Road Lighting project is progressing. All public lighting along Regional and Local roads (5200 lamps) will be replaced with LED lighting over a 2-year project (contract for this region is commencing in 2023).
3. Work Programme 2022
Mr Pete Murtagh delivered an overview of the progress of the full 2022 work programme. Report attached.
There was positive praise for the progress to date. Concern was raised that this region was particularly lacking in suitable EV charge points, and if the ESB raise the cost of using their charging ports as planned it will act as a further deterrent to people in buying EVs.
P.Murtagh explained through the FASTER project would be delivering 2 double chargers. Potential for a number of others via a proposal from EasyGo/Eir. It was explained that while Sligo CoCo was facilitating the install of the chargers, the cost of install and maintenance was not the responsibility of the Council. In facilitating delivery of the project, discussions will be had in due course regarding the location of the chargers.
There was a request for a schematic/ infographic to be developed to depict how all the recently announced funding streams/energy projects and partners sit together and who is the best point of contact should the public have a query. Climate Team to work on this.
It was queried if the SEAI have a public office in Sligo – Climate Team to look into this and report back.
It was confirmed that as part of the Climate Action Plan for Sligo County Council, a decarbonisation zone would be created. This includes the SE quadrant of Sligo Town. There was some discussion around the context of the decarbonisation zone – more activity will be happening over the coming months including consultations as part of the Climate Action Plan.
As part of the GEMINI project P.Mutagh confirmed that Sligo CoCo would be part of a large EU funding application next year. Accurate costings will be done in due course but an estimate figure for the Sligo works alone is €1.2m. There are also two sites in NI and a deep geothermal site in Dublin with the total estimated costs for the whole project in the region of €10m+.
4. Community Climate Action Fund
Sligo County Council has received information in the past few days regarding the fund. The focus will be ‘Building Zero Carbon Communities’ and nationally there is €24m available.
Local authorities will work with local communities under 5 different themes (Home, Travel, Food & Waste, Shopping & Recycling, and Local Climate & Environment).
The fund will open in December, so time is tight for staff to get appropriate information out into the community. This will be administered through the Climate Action team.
The Community Climate Action fund will be administered by the (newly appointed) Community Climate Action Officer. Communities will have the first few months of 2023 to apply. The deadline for spend has not yet been confirmed but it is expected that there will be 2 x 18-month slots for delivery with a second tranche of funding being released at the end of the first 18 months. This is yet to be confirmed by the Department.
The importance of getting this information out into the communities was reiterated and agreed this would be treated as a priority in the coming weeks.
There was clarification provided that the role of the Local Authority would be to assist with information, but it was up to local communities to apply and deliver their projects. The communities would apply to Sligo Coco, the Council would decide eligible projects depending on the criteria and allocation set by the Department, and Sligo CoCo would administer the funding for the Dept.
More information would be provided after the meeting.
5. EU Mission on Adaptation to Climate Charter
Pete gave background information on the Charter – its reaffirming Sligo CoCo’s commitment to Climate Change. It is a non-binding agreement, but it will be very useful in applying to EU funding streams in the future. It was confirmed that the SPC was content to recommend signing of the Charter to full Council. A report would be taken for December agenda.
6. Climate Action Plan
The meeting was briefed on the Climate Action Plan training attended by staff on 22.11.22. It is a significant initiative and has been set as a statutory plan by the Department. It must be adopted by Council so this SPC will be instrumental in delivery, particularly the consultation element. Each Local Authority has been charged with developing a Climate Action Plan and it has 12 months to prepare and adopt the plan.
The data gathering process is ongoing. The Climate Action Plan includes climate adaptation and climate mitigation, and it includes not only Sligo County Council emissions and use, but also the whole county emissions. There is significant work ahead and consultations will be taking place. It was noted that this piece of work is a key focus for the 2023 work plan.
Concern was raised about future land use and larger companies ‘buying’ land in Sligo as Carbon sinks / off setting. It was recognised this was a larger problem outside of the remit of the Climate Action Plan, but it was confirmed that ‘off setting’ could not be included as part of the Action Plan.
Discussion was had around the data collection phase and the importance of utilising the high-quality data that would have already been captured through the County Development Plan. It was confirmed that through the County Development Plan a Renewable Energy Strategy was required for the first time. A key task is making all the data available but have it in such a way that is digestible, understandable, accessible, and useful for end users.
A query was raised if the Department could take legal action if the Council didn’t deliver on the outcomes of the Climate Action Plan. It was confirmed that the Climate Action Plan would have specific targets and nationally there would be implications if the Council didn’t deliver the plan.
There was a suggestion that it might be beneficial to start introducing a fee for anyone wanting to object to planning, with their fee returned if the planning was refused. It was agreed that this was a national issue and out of the control of Sligo County Council alone.
7. Sligo Leitrim Energy Agency
The Sligo Leitrim Energy Agency is currently in the process of recruiting for an office manager. Once established the team will be there to assist homeowners and businesses with energy grants from SEAI funding. The Energy Agency will be there to assist homeowners in the Sligo Leitrim area while the previously discussed Energy Bureau will be for energy issues internal to Sligo County Council.
8. Date of the next meeting
IMC and E Concannon to sit down and agree dates for all of 2023. These will be circulated to members in due course. A request was made to change the time of these meetings to 10.00am going forward. This was agreed by members.
9. Any Other Business
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Councillor Maguire thanked all present and the meeting concluded.
Meeting Date 23/11/2022