?

the value of a climate emergency;

?

Plymouth sectoral emissions;

?

emissions forecast for Plymouth;

?

climate emergency action plan;

?

corporate carbon reduction (aim and scope)

?

Climate emergency summary.

(a)

whether the survey that the Council had commissioned with the Centre for Energy and Environment at Exeter University relating the city’s current emission had been bespoke to Plymouth, ie had the city’s buildings/road network been mapped and scanned;

?

in response: Exeter University had looked at both the national carbon figures and the local context; this provided an overview of the sectoral emissions; the top three (buildings, transport and power) were generally the top three in most cities;

it was proposed to undertake a bottom up exercise, in order to fully understand where the greenhouse emissions being produced and to also review the hot spots identified within the city;

(b)

as the Council only had direct control of 1% of the city’s carbon output, what work had been undertaken to engage with the top 10, 15 or 20 organisations to reduce their carbon emissions and which 10 local authorities had the Council engaged with regarding this issue;

?

in response: currently the focus had been on engaging with organisations, to ascertain what work/initiatives were being undertaken to reduce their carbon emissions; once this work had been completed, the data would be analysed which would help inform which areas to target;

over the next year, work would be undertaken to form a repository which would provide information for organisations and to facilitate the sharing of best practice;

a list of the 10 councils that Plymouth had worked with, so far, would be circulated outside of this meeting;

(c)

whether grant funding had been secured for some of the initiatives identified such as electric vehicle charging points;

?

in response: the Cabinet had approved the allocation of £250,000 for the climate emergency action plan; however it should be noted that the climate emergency was not the sole responsibility of the local authority, everyone would need to play their part in reducing carbon emissions;

grant funding had also been received which included £500,000 for the installation of electric vehicle charging points, £880,000 for local renewable energy and £200,000 to reduce carbon emissions from heating;

(d)

the rationale behind the reduction in the emissions forecast since 2014;

?

in response: during this period power plants had switched from using coal to gas and there were more renewable energy initiatives (this was a national issue);

(e)

whether the option to ban cars from the city centre, as other local authorities had done, such as Bristol and York, would be required in order to meet the target of carbon neutral by 2030;

?

in  ...  view the full minutes text for item 40.

(a)

the plan would enable Plymouth’s residents to benefit from the visitor economy, supporting quality job retention and creation; whilst also enabling Plymothians to take full advantage of the city’s rich history, heritage and unique environment, by promoting opportunities for education, health and wellbeing and pride;

(b)

work on the Visitor Plan refresh was being led by Destination Plymouth and was initially brought to the Committee in August 2018 and was then further reviewed with the headline Visitor Plan 2020-2030 strategy being adopted by the City Council in March 2019;

(c)

the growth of tourism and the visitor economy had been a great success story for the city with over 25% growth in the last eight years; from just under four million visitors to 5.4 million in 2018 spending over £347m annually and supporting nearly 8000 jobs, over 7% of the city’s employment;

(d)

the Visitor Plan 2020 had more than achieved its targets ie –

?

visitor numbers had grown by 25.9% against a target of 20%;

?

visitor spend had grown by 25% in 2018, against a target of 25% by 2020;

(e)

the plan’s aim was to build on and consolidate the success of the previous plan and the legacy of Mayflower 400; the delivery of the refreshed Visitor Plan would generate a further 1000 new jobs in the city bringing employment in tourism to just under 9000;

(f)

the 2030 targets included -

?

growing visitor spend by 30% from £347m to £450m in a decade;

?

increasing the total visitor number by 15% from 5.1 to 6 million by 2030;

(g)

the new strategy had three key themes -

?

blue-green city;

?

brilliant culture and heritage;

?

premier destination.

(h)

whether all the cruise ships scheduled to visit Plymouth in 2020 would be docking at Millbay;

?

in response -

?

the Disney Magic cruise liner would be anchored in Plymouth Sound; passengers on board would land at both Millbay and Commercial Wharf on the Barbican via tenders;

?

work had been undertaken with Disney Cruise Liners to arrange for the passengers to pre-book visits such as the National Marine Aquarium, The Box and Plymouth Gin Distillery;

?

the initial aspiration was to secure up to 30 vessels a year, based on the current infrastructure; Trinity Pier had the capacity to berth 150m vessels; companies that operated 150m vessels or smaller were being targeted to visit Plymouth (companies did not always operate larger vessels around Britain);

(i)

the need to be digitally ready, in order to provide visitors with an opportunity to download an app which would enable them to visit areas of interest across the city and whether this could be an augmented reality app;

?

in response: the aim was to launch the first pilot  ...  view the full minutes text for item 41.

(a)

a new burden was defined as any policy or initiative which increased the cost of providing local authority services such as the transfer of a function from central to local government;

(b)

services of the Council which were included in the scope of new burdens included -

?

Environmental Health (additional resources at Millbay ferry terminal, in order to discharge the Council’s Port Authority role);

?

Trading Standards (a range of impacts on advisory and enforcement roles);

(c)

in 2018/19, a grant had been received from the Government of £104,958 which had not met the Council’s Brexit preparation costs of over £300,000; in 2019/20 the Council had received a Government grant for £209,968 which would not cover its preparation costs;

(d)

the fiscal impact could include the following -

?

net payments to the EU budget currently amounted to 0.4% of UK gross domestic product (GDP); these payments could be redirected to fund increased UK public spending, although the UK may be required to continue to contribute to the EU budget, in return for a closer relationship;

?

details of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund were yet to be published by the Government; (the Government had guaranteed to underwrite EU funded schemes which were due to be delivered by December 2020);

?

structural unemployment was anticipated due to the displacement of people from negatively impacted industries (this could lead to a skills shortage in industries that experienced growth);

(e)

Brexit would impose new burdens, some of which would be temporary others would have longer term budget pressures; some additional funding had been made available through various Government departments but this funding had not covered the Council’s costs;

(f)

many of the fiscal impacts would not be within the scope of the new burdens doctrine; Central Government was operating on a presumption of the resilience of local authorities to economic shocks.

(g)

whether there was an update relating to the city being designated as a Border Inspection Post;

?

in response: the Council was currently developing a programme which included a number of priorities to be delivered over the next year, one of the priorities was the designation of Plymouth as a Border Inspection Post;

(h)    

what measures were the Council putting in place to mitigate the risk of the UK leaving the EU without a trade deal in place by December 2020;

?

in response: one of the priorities of the programme would be to keep under review a no deal scenario, in the event that a trade deal could not be secured with the EU;

(i)

the measures being taken by the Council to gain clarification from the Government on outstanding issues;

?

in response: the Committee was assured that officers led by the Assistant Chief Executive were lobbying the Government to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 42.

(a)

why the target for the measure relating to the total value of strategic projects, third party investment and notable Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) brought into the city or facilitated by the Council, was the same figure for ‘how have we done’ and ‘the target for 2019/20 of £334.408’m;

?

in response: the target for 2019/20 and the ‘how we have done’ measure was the same, as the amount of inward investment was a forecast for this year and the actual amount of investment would not be known until the end of the financial year;

(b)

whether the measures relating to the efficient transport network (public satisfaction with traffic flow) were set nationally or by the Council;

?

in response: the performance indicators were reviewed on an annual basis with the Cabinet Members and Strategic Directors;

(c)

what measures were being put in place to address the issue of a significant number of young people not agreeing with the statement that Plymouth had a lot to offer;

?

in response: this may be an issue that the Committee wished to scrutinise further at a future meeting.

(a)

the Queen’s speech which outlined the Government’s intentions over the next Parliament;

(b)

Government policy, legislative announcements and news which included -

?

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs: £50m Woodland Carbon Guarantee scheme which would encourage farmers and landowners to plant more trees to help tackle climate change;

?

Department for Transport: funding available to local authorities for electric car vehicle charge points;

(c)

open consultation – Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government: this consultation sets out plans for Future Homes Standard which included proposed options to increase energy efficiency.

(d)

whether the Council would be eligible for funding from the Woodland Carbon Guarantee scheme as a landowner;

?

in response: a response would  be provided to the Committee, regarding this matter;

(e)

the reason for the reduction in the UK threat level from terrorism from severe to substantial given the recent events;

?

in response: the reasons for the reduction in the threat level were not known;

(f)

whether the Council should respond to the open consultation on plans for the Future Homes Standard;

?

in response: the Cabinet Member for Housing and Co-operative Development could be requested to respond to this consultation.

(1)

vibrant cultural offer including music venues;

(2)

Brexit Community Cohesion;

(3)

six monthly on the actions of the climate emergency action plan and the corporate reduction plan 2019-2024.