Issue - meetings

The Committee received a report which appended the Carmarthenshire County Council’s Environment (Wales) Act Forward Plan 2020-23 for consideration.  The report presented by the Cabinet Member for Climate Change, Decarbonisation and Sustainability outlined the progress the Council was making in delivering its legal obligation with reference to the Act.  The Plan covers the period January 2020 to December 2022.

In order to evidence delivery of this duty, under the Environment Act, all public bodies in Wales had a statutory duty to prepare and deliver its Section 6 Biodiversity Duty which is placed on it by this Act. The plan covers a period of three years.  In addition, it is a statutory requirement that every three years Carmarthenshire County Council reports on the delivery of its Environment Act Forward Plan to the Welsh Government with the next report due in December 2022.

Members noted that Carmarthenshire’s approach to developing and delivering its Forward Plan had involved engagement with officers in looking at their working practices, plans and projects whilst assisting them in identifying present opportunities for maintaining and enhancing biodiversity and promoting ecosystem resilience, alongside the delivery of their other obligations and objectives.

The report highlighted that the actions set out in the Forward Plan were linked to the Council’s Well-being Objectives (WBO10) and target dates for delivery of each action and the posts responsible were identified.

The following queries were raised in relation to the report:-

·       Reference was made to the ‘By When or EOY Target’ column.  An observation was raised regarding the inconsistent reporting in regard to the action targets.  Some had no targets, others had past dates further with some stating ongoing, it was raised that further clarity in regard to targets would be beneficial going forward.  The Head of ICT and Corporate Policy in explaining the description of the targets, acknowledged that it would be beneficial for the targets to be more descriptive in order to provide better clarity and understanding for the reader.  In addition, the Rural Conservation Manager provided a verbal update on the progress made in respect of section 3 of the plan.

·       In response to a query raised regarding the process to replace the Ash trees that have been removed due to being affected with the Ash Dieback disease, the Rural Conservation Manager explained that new tree planting was an integral part of the Ash Dieback plan stating last 2 winters 200+ new trees had been planted close to Parc Dewi Sant, Carmarthen with more going being planted this coming winter.  In addition, it had been identified that in regard to property that had been annually let for grazing, 3 sites had been identified for planting this winter with Glastir Woodland Creation grants from the Welsh Government.  It was reported that these grants took 2 years to be agreed and in that respect a programme of grant applications was in place following the identification of suitable land with no existing biodiversity value for the planting of new trees.  Members were informed that  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7