Agenda and minutes

Venue: Council Chamber - Town Hall - Maidenhead

Contact: Karen Shepherd  01628 796529

Items
No. Item

119.

Apologies for Absence

To receive any apologies for absence.

Minutes:

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Simon Werner, Lynda Yong and Martin Fry.

120.

Declarations of Interest pdf icon PDF 217 KB

To receive declarations of interests from Members of the Panel in respect of any item to be considered at the meeting.

Minutes:

None.

121.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 98 KB

To note the Part I minutes of the previous meeting

Minutes:

The Part I minutes of the meeting held on the 8 March 2018 were agreed approved with the following amendment:

 

Councillor Sharp was not in attendance at the previous meeting.

122.

Open Forum

Opening remarks by the Chairman on the Panel’s role.

Minutes:

The Chairman welcomed Members and the public and gave a brief update on actions from the previous meeting.

 

Water refill stations – the Energy Manager stated there had been some progress in getting a scheme implemented and that would be covered in more detail in his report later on in the meeting.

 

The Energy Manager had also been working on the Sustainability and Energy Strategy which would be implemented over the next four years.

123.

ECO funding & the Flexible Eligibility

To receive a presentation from Scott Davis from GHE Solar LTD.

Minutes:

Scott Davies of GHE Solar Ltd gave Members a presentation on Energy Company Obligation (ECO) Local Authority Flexibility schemes and Members noted the following key points:

 

Ø  GHE were a Berkshire based company based in Newbury.

Ø  They operated nationally

Ø  They installed energy efficient measures on ECO and previous schemes. The vast majority of the work they carried out included Cavity and Loft insulation and replacement gas boilers under ECO.

Ø  Non ECO-Solar PV, Solar Thermal (hot water), Air Source, heat pumps, ground source heat pumps, Biomass Boilers, smart heating controls were all carried out by GHE.

Ø  They installed to around 15,000 households each year on ECO schemes.

Ø  GHE were a British Gas partner and they were also talking to other LA’s regarding potential scheme implementations.

Ø  ECO began in 2013 and mandated energy suppliers with greater than 25,000 customers to join the scheme. They were obligated suppliers must fund energy efficiency improvements to households.

Ø  The Big 6 energy companies that rang these schemes did so through third parties such as GHE. GHE installed the equipment free of charge for the end user and received payment from the energy company.

Ø  There were currently two categories of funding for ECO.

o   CERO was available to all households

o   HHCRO was available to those considered fuel poor – households needing to decrease costs and who were in receipt of certain benefits.

Ø  ECO3 was only available to the fuel poor (HHCRO) and would start in October 2018 until April 2021.

Ø  HHCRO was determined by qualifying benefits or by Local Authority Flex schemes.

Ø  Local Authority Flexible Eligibility (LA Flex) allowed LA’s to designate a household as fuel poor.

Ø  LA Flex allowed households that might struggle with energy bills but were not eligible for qualifying benefits obtain funding for energy efficiency measures.

Ø  LA Flex was highly relevant in the South East of England due to the high cost of living in the South East.

Ø  Due to high living costs in the South East meant vulnerable households had a higher income but lower disposable income than other parts of the UK; they might not be eligible for benefits but might still be fuel poor.

Ø  Statement of intent:

o   To provide LA Flex the council needed to publish a statement of intent.

o   Currently 133 councils had already published their statements of intent. Templates were available and it was possible to adapt them for the council’s existing use.

Ø  Currently councils that had signed up to the scheme included the London Borough of Barking & Dagenham, Barnsley Metropolitan Council, Basingstoke & Dean Borough Council, among others.

Ø  Possible Routes:

o   Councils promote ECO to households.

o   Install firms promote to households.

o   Data analysis by install firms from council data and promotion to households.

Ø  Council promotion of the scheme:

o   Council promotes to householders.

o   Council takes enquiries.

o   Councils provides details of enquiries to install firms.

o   Council signs off households as eligible (LA Flex).  ...  view the full minutes text for item 123.

124.

Work Programme pdf icon PDF 72 KB

To note the current Work Programme of the Sustainability Panel.

Minutes:

David Scott, Head of Communities Enforcement and Partnerships explained to the Panel that it would be a good idea to have a presentation from one of GHE’s competitors on LA Flexibility schemes.

 

The Chairman also requested to add an update on the Energy Switch to Save Scheme for later in the year, a report or presentation on waterless urinals and an update on Electric Pool Cars and Charging Points.

 

The clerk to the Panel noted the requests and confirmed she would add them to the Work Programme for future meetings.

125.

Energy Manager's Update pdf icon PDF 640 KB

To receive the above update.

Minutes:

The Energy Manager provided the Panel with a brief update on savings and progress made on reducing energy use. He stated that the competition on energy saving schools had ended and a prize awarded to the winner.

 

Energy monitoring data: Overall the data showed a total saving of 21% compared to the baseline year 2013/14. That meant that because the savings were likely to be maintained in March, that the saving target of 15% would be exceeded by at least 6%. The Energy Manager confirmed the good news on savings would be published in the Around the Royal Borough publication.

 

The energy Manager confirmed there had been a 22.5% energy decrease since the new LED street lighting scheme had been rolled out and completed.

 

The Energy Strategy that ran from 2014 – 2018 had now ended and so it was a good time to reflect on some of the key pieces of the energy and water saving work that had been carried out over the prior four years. The strategy started out with some work on gas, electric and water automatic metering. That was done to try and improve the accuracy of billing and to improve monitoring of the Council’s energy supplies. The Council was now in a good position to start a new strategy which would consolidate all the work done and that would improve for the future. Michael Potter, the Energy Manager added that as he was now leaving his post at the Council, it was a good opportunity to allow the new manager to take the new strategy forward.

 

The School Energy Competition ran from 23 April to 14 May and 20 maintained schools took part. The Mayor presented the prize to the winners, the Royal School. Oldfield Primary School were highly commended on the savings they had made. The Chairman stated the Royal School had said the weather had helped as they had taken classes outside which reduced their need to use energy.

 

Refill Scheme – the Energy Manager had received some information from City to Sea CIC about the scheme they ran. They were still not set up nationally and they did not have any posters or stickers for businesses windows but, they were gearing up to that. He added it was good to see residents leading the scheme by asking businesses if they could refill their bottles. There had been one resident very interested in water fountains being installed to refill bottles so the Energy Manager sent her the information he had and asked if she would go to businesses and ask them to sign up to the refill scheme. The residents contact details would be passed to Steph James, the Town Manager, to liaise over how best to approach local businesses.

 

Melissa, a local resident commented that she was starting discussions with local groups to try and remove plastics from the streets. She stated people used to be able to hand in bottles at local pubs and off licences and get refills. Supermarkets  ...  view the full minutes text for item 125.

126.

Date of Future Meetings

To note the dates of future meetings.

 

·         Future meeting dates to be confirmed.

Minutes:

Members noted the dates of future meetings.