Agenda and minutes

None.

RESOLVED that - the minutes of the meeting 8 March 2022 be confirmed and signed by the Chair.

To receive the presentation of Fliss Mercer (Director: Communities, Customer & Commercial Services).

The Cabinet Member for Climate Change, Green Spaces, Natural and Historic Environment and Cultural Services will attend.

The Committee received the presentation of the Climate Change & Sustainability Project Support Officer.

The presentation set out the Council’s work on a local Youth Climate Summit scheduled to take place on 6 July 2022. The summit would be the fourth in the country, previous events had been relatively small, this event would be on a larger scale with 210 students from seven of the Borough’s schools attending.

The aim of the summit was to educate, empower, and mobilise young people, providing them with the actions and knowledge to combat climate change. It was important to show actual steps that people could take and to connect people with others with the same goals.

Officers from the climate change team, amongst others, would be facilitating the event. Funding had been secured from the National Lottery and this covered the venue costs as well as the price of some of the catering, these were the majority of the associated costs. Speakers were appearing free of charge and represented a number of organisations, such as the University of Wolverhampton, the University of Birmingham, and Veolia. Between talks, there would be activities and workshops.

A discussion followed with Members posing questions:

How could feedback from the event be facilitated? In particular, students feeding back into their schools

The grant funding meant that feedback would be necessary; the Council was, generally, successful in capturing feedback from events. It would be good to have a follow up with students a number of months after the summit to check in.

How could young people, more broadly, be targeted by the Council’s environmental initiatives?

Social media was often the best way to engage this group and as such, work was being done to create a tailored social media strategy for young people. Younger people were users of TikTok and Instagram, where older groups may perhaps be more active users of Facebook and Twitter.

How were schools selected for the summit?

The schools attending were those who had responded to emails seeking interest.

Members also discussed the importance of engaging children and young people for their role as ambassadors, speaking to their parents and encouraging changes in their own homes and communities. Officers noted that one way in which children were being engaged was through holiday activity schemes with an environmental focus.

To receive the report of Fliss Mercer (Director: Communities, Customer & Commercial Services).

The Cabinet Member for Climate Change, Green Spaces, Natural and Historic Environment and Cultural Services will attend.

The Committee received an update on the Council’s Plastic Free scheme from the Climate Change & Sustainability Project Support Officer.

Telford & Wrekin Council had pledged to become plastic free by 2023; the plastic free taskforce was working towards Plastic Free Community accreditation, through Surfers Against Sewage, by the same date. The taskforce was made up of a number of organisations and businesses.

A number of achievements, since the last update to the Committee, in July 2021, were noted for Members. These included town council’s passing resolutions to take steps towards plastic free status, local businesses signing up as partners, and the establishing of town council steering groups.

Updates were also provided on the Ocean Fish Project, the Plastic Free Pledge, and a partnership with a website named Mossy.Life that offered an online ‘green’ directory. Members were also shown the Mossy.Life website.

A discussion followed the update with Members posing questions:

Had there been much promotion of Mossy.Life?

The page had only recently gone live; the Council would be doing work to promote it. The potential benefits in terms of green tourism were noted.

In terms of school partners, how were they contacted?

It tended to be through the Educational Visit Coordinators Group. Particularly passionate staff often drove environmental campaigns within schools; it was important to identify these people as contacts as Heads were very busy and as a result could not be as easily reached. Feeding back of any known individuals would be welcomed.

Members noted that importance of education driving the environmental agenda so that children were engaged and aware of issues.

None.