Agenda item

To receive the report of the Director: Neighbourhood & Enforcement Services.

Councillor C Healy (Cabinet Member for Visitor Economy, Historic & Natural Environment and Climate Change) will also attend for this item.

The Committee received a presentation from the Director: Neighbourhood & Enforcement Services that set out the Council’s Recovery, Reform, and Reset (RRR) agenda.

Members heard that that the RRR was a part of the Council wider recovery programme. There were monthly meetings of a group of core officers and Cabinet Members to develop and monitor actions from the action plan. From an initial nine priorities, the group had now rationalised the initial nine areas into three key areas – connectivity, green recovery, and infrastructure.

COVID had changed the way residents worked, lived, and played. While life had begun to return to a degree of normality, people’s lives would be different. Home working was one such difference that would likely remain. There had also been a raised awareness of space standards, in both homes and gardens. Access to reliable broadband had also been highlighted by the pandemic. There was a growing appetite for green spaces.

Attempts were being made to address these issues through the planning system. The Local Plan was being re-examined with the aim of improving inclusivity, resilience, and sustainability in the Borough. The Local Authority was to examine how it could negotiate schemes so that they were designed holistically from the outset, looking at energy, site layouts and related infrastructure, and provision of electric vehicle charge points, amongst other provisions.

The Council had also engaged with residents. My Wild Telford was launched on Twitter to engage with residents and advertise the Borough’s green offer. Rights of Way in Telford were also promoted, with a Definitive Map of the area’s Rights of Way due to be published in December 2020, it had last been published in 1965. The new map would be available online and was considered both accessible and timely. The categorisation of public Rights of Way would also be examined, with officers looking at how important routes were, how they could be improved, and how to prioritise maintenance.

Members were informed that the Council had conducted a study on the value of its nature reserves. Local Nature Reserves (LNRs) received 3.6 million visits per year; 2.4 million of these visits were made by active travel and 1.2 million by car. Of the 3.6 million visits, 1.1 million were made by first time visitors.

The Council aimed to leave LNRs in a better state than they had been in the past; the Council had looked at a net gain approach that assigned a common numerical value to sites. The Borough had a value of 6819 biodiversity units (bu), or 12 per hectare. This was effectively £75 million worth of bu - £135,000 per hectare.  The value of woodlands had been examined; Telford & Wrekin had canopy cover over 15% of the Borough, higher than the national average. In terms of area, 49% of urban areas had canopy cover, compared to 8% in rural areas. Canopy cover also varied by ward, with Edgmond having the lowest (8%) and Ironbridge the highest (55%). The Council protected 682 hectares of accessible woodland. The Woodland Trust estimated that 70% of residents in Telford and 20% in Wrekin were within 500m of woodland; the average household was within 100m of 62 trees. From this, the Council was able to look at trees per head and target planting.

The Committee were also briefed on the net zero carbon transition. The Council would look at a green recovery and had promoted energy efficiency grants, retrofitting, and improved insulation. On green recovery, the Council would re-examine its existing office spaces due to the long-term impact of home working.

A discussion followed and Members posed a number of questions to officers –

There did not appear to be any measurable outcomes in the presentation, just a thematic overview, would specifics be brought to scrutiny in due course?

This was an overview but it established the baseline position for Telford & Wrekin, this was an important position to understand where the Borough had to develop in the future. The work on social value, biodiversity value, and spatial distribution had allowed the Council to decide what and where work was needed.

Would My Wild Telford be available on other social media platforms?

My Wild Telford had started on Twitter as the Council wished to see how it worked on one platform, monitoring the engagement received, before spreading to other platforms. The account’s posts were, however, often shared across other social media channels and were included in newsletters.

How would the impact of actions be measured?

On Rights of Way, the impact would be measured by how many people used the new tool. In the New Year, categorisation of green and recreation spaces would begin and this would give a base level to measure the impact of actions against.

Would the Council consider, as part of its plan, making LNRs more accessible by active travel?

This was part of why the work on access had been performed, it was important to understand who visits and how they got there. Understanding where connectivity gaps were was key. Officers would examine how to increase active and sustainable travel links to LNRs.

In terms of the Telford Land Deal, would the Council consider the economic alongside the environmental recovery? Could the Land Deal be used to bring green industry to Telford?

That was certainly something to consider and could be discussed with the appropriate directors. This was something that the Government also supported, particularly from a planning perspective.

Would green poverty be included in the planning for planting schemes?

It was a complicated matter as it was important to create and improve a number of different types of habitat, such as re-wetting in the north of the Borough. It was important trees were planted in the correct places with the right habitats.