A talk by the Herefordshire Climate and Nature Partnership which was was set up in 2021 as a key part of Herefordshire Council’s mission to deliver a net zero and nature-rich county. This talk is an insight into the environmental work taking place across various sectors – land management, the built environment, transport and more – and how this fits into the national and wider context.
So welcome to today’s event everybody I’m Jackie Jones from herut Green Network and we are delighted to be hosting today’s event in cooperation with Herer Council next slide please Rosie we’re going to be hearing about some of the work going on at county level across Herer to act on climate
Biodiversity and other environmental issues we’ll have a brief scen setting introduction from Richard vaugh whose sustainability and climate change manager at Herer Council we’ll also be hearing briefly from two members of the board Steve clink and Rebecca Telly uh who I’ll introduce more fly later and the final speaker will be councelor
Alysa swinger swingle Hurst sorry Alissa Cabinet member for the environment and also a member of the uh hcnp board our main speaker today though is the chair of the board at James Marsden who’s been chair for almost a year I think James’s background is in policy and his passion is for the natural
Environment James has over 30 years experience of evidence and policy analysis advice advocacy environmental law governance habitat ecology conservation management uh he’s currently a member of The Office of Environmental Protections College of experts in the past he’s been a specialist adviser for the environmental audit committee um he’s
Former director various roles but a director of Land Management strategy at Natural England and he’s been a board member for various organizations including bre and be beacons National Park saan ien I’ve done my best uh and heral Wildlife trust and now he’s a maker of cider and Perry
We’ll be hearing from James in a moment but first I’d like to hand over to Richard vau Richard over to you good afternoon all and Jackie thank you very much for the introduction and thank you to her green Network for co-hosting this event today my name is Richard vau I manage the sustainability
And climate change team at her Council uh and her Council declared a climate emergency in March of 2019 and this was expanded to recognize the twin emergencies it was expanded to a climate and ecological emergency in December of 2020 we recognize that the council is only about 1% of the emissions of the
County and so Heritage Council can’t do this alone partnership working is going to be absolutely key to delivering progress on this countywide ambition that we have so the Herer climate and nature partnership board was founded in November of 2021 the cabinet member for environment councelor Alissa swingle has a seat on
The board and my team provides the Secretariat support to the board uh the the climate nature partnership board has gone on to do a to host a number of events and they continue to do so so please do keep an eye out for future events and they’ve initiated and they’re
Delivering a range of projects with the aims of achieving our shared goals uh so more of which you you’ll hear about today Greener Footprints is a Heritage Council initiative you might have seen the Lego on the front screen uh this was a recommendation that came off the back
Of the climate citizens assembly and that was to support the County’s response to climate and nature emergencies by connecting with local groups and organizations working with businesses signposting residents uh to support and advice and also supporting the heriage climate and partnership board and their projects I’d really like
To thank all the members of the herich climate and nature partnership board they’re volunteers and they give their time freely and their commitment to the board is fantastic and without them we wouldn’t be here today and we wouldn’t be hearing about all the exciting work that they’ve been up to
So that’s it for me thank you to everyone for joining and I look forward to the session today back to Jackie thanks very much um we’ll now be hearing from James so James please start your presentation Jackie thank you very much uh and particularly to the green Network
For this opportunity it’s long overdue Jackie suggested it um several months back and I’m delighted that we’ve been able to bring this webinar forward to the the the the group and to have such great attendance and thanks to Sir Richard for his introduction can I have the next slide
Just to say a little bit about who we are and what we do Richards already mentioned the vision a thriving Net Zero carbon nature Rich Heritage by 2030 hugely ambitious and I’ll say a little bit more about the challenges ahead in a number of future slides ially we’re an
Inclusive board we’re open to all it’s a partnership um across everybody including all of you on the webinar today who are interested and concerned um to help us achieve the vision the board is a a wide ranging and really now tight-knit team we have architects who understand building and particularly
Green Building in Ellie Deacon Smith n Partridge we have OS environmental NOS represented by the wildlife trust Jamie olley and CLA Kingston The National Trust we have representatives from business Gareth Williams boury kapler uh we have energy experts obviously Gareth again Jackie and Gordon COK I think’s on
On the call we have the Arts represented in Philip trcy from uh Courtyard and of course we have farmers and Steve is is going to be saying a little bit later and we also have Ian Hoy former fine manager and journalist so it’s it’s a wide ranging team across experts enablers um and
Emitters as well as the community and I haven’t mentioned Rebecca who we’re going to hear from a little later as well and I’m going to put her in the sort of community box but she she’s a specialist in the food area which is so important and represents the food alone
We have an action plan which hopefully at our next meeting we’re about to sign off and you’re going to see a little bit of that later looking across the six big sectors buildings energy farming land use food farming transport and waste and we have access to a small fund of um
Money um for which we can commission projects through the Council next slide please I mentioned partnership that’s fundamental to all that we do our role fundamentally is to use soft power that’s all we have but we can coordinate and integrate we can convene and mobilize others we can enable and
Facilitate joint working across the plethora of other groups and there are quite a lot um but we don’t actually deliver stuff ourselves other than through the projects we do but we can and are beginning to do hold others to account against the targets fundamentally we’re about open honest transparent and evidence-based dialogue and
Reporting and this webinar is part of an evolving approach to engagement uh more widely um you’ll see um that uh we intend to hold an assembly well this is part of that evolving approach approach to engagement next slide please so I want to talk a little bit
About the big picture uh the climate change Act of 2008 establishes the legal Duty for Net Zero by 2050 at a UK level and the climate change committee set up to advise government has produced a series of carbon budgets that are designed take the UK towards that 2050
Target those of you that are Avid today listeners will have heard um day before yes it was yesterday 28th of February that the climate change committee had written to the government to say Well done um third carbon budget covering the period 2018 to 2022 was actually successfully met and
Slightly exceeded but please don’t use the slack was the message from the climate change committee to think that you can go slow on subsequent carbon budgets because if you do you’ll miss the 2030 Targets this Budget on the slide is longer term this is looking Beyond on the trajectory from 20 sorry 1990
Through 2018 which is the budget we’ve just finished into the future and climate change committee recommends four big things more of us must take up low carbon Solutions UK electricity production needs to be zero carbon by 2035 we have to reduce demand for carbon intensive activities and that includes
Our diet and we’re going to have to transform farming and land use I’m going to say quite a bit more about that in a subsequent slide but the broad consensus is that somewhere between um 20% and maybe a bit more is going to have to um shift to other land uses out of
Agricultural production to meet current policy targets for Net Zero and nature recovery just touching on that this is difficult but I’m going to give you some more stats if you think about UK land use 71% is agricultural land in her tempature it’s around 80% 85% of that Farmland is used to rear
Animals but meat and dairy and eggs provide only 32% of UK calories whereas 15% of Farmland is used to grow crops for human consumption providing 68% of our calories so there’s a clear issue here and I can touch on food security and other elements of this perhaps in
Questions we just want to plant that thought that there is scope for that shift out of current more intensive agricultural land use towards something different and it’s happening as Steve will begin to talk about later next slide so you’ll see here these are the territorial missions for Herer from a baseline of
2022 on the left um you can see the light blue um bottom segment those are the territorial emissions for industry and commercial buildings and uses the Orange is us our homes domestic buildings smaller segment is agriculture that’s the energy use in agriculture and then the big chunk of dark blue the
Biggest segment in that um pie chart is transport move now across to the right if you include the emissions from livestock that picture changes so the four big things are Industrial and Commercial buildings housing transport and agriculture those are the things we have to shift to get
Towards Net Zero by 2030 or perhaps overshoot Beyond towards 2050 next slide but we can’t just look at territorial emissions we have to look at our consumption emissions these are the things that all of us are buying eating using and if we look at that we can see
That again there’s a bit of a mirror to be seen our purchase of goods um what we buy what we eat the second column Meat and Fish and fundamentally look at housing look at the role of oil in heritage’s consumption emissions this is because we’re a highly rural County so
It’s going to be difficult to fix because many houses are old they’re off- grid and then look at private transport there are quite a lot of flights there not a lot of public transport and quite a lot of private transport so there clearly some things that we can do what
Might those be buy and consume less eat a get less Meat and Fish perhaps no more than three days a week um clearly generating where we can and exporting electricity from solar PV on our roofs using electricity only from renewable sources at home those are some ideas of
What we can all do um and the shift and out of flights isn’t too difficult if you’re able to to catch a train and certainly Jackie and I are doing quite a lot in Europe at the moment next slide I want now to give a similar big picture on nature this
Is every bit as difficult government’s ambition uh stated ambition is to leave the environment in England in a better state yet England has one of the most nature depleted countries it is one of the most nature depleted countries in the world just look at those UK statistics um decline across a suite of
Species of 19% since 1970 but if you look at Farmland Birds the decline of breeding birds on Farmland is 60% since 1970 and that decline is continuing albeit the decline the rate of decline has slowed since the m teens of this Century as a result of the
Agri environment scheme take up but the Office of Environmental Protection and I declare an interest there because I have an association with them as a member of their college of experts they reported in January that government is largely off track to meet its environmental Ambitions so we know we have a huge hill
Climb however there’s lots of good news coming out of herit Shure um the local nature recovery strategy which mandated by statutary Guidance published in March of last year um that is underway led by the council as the responsible Authority there’s a Steering group with um environment agency in Natural England um
Farming interests uh the environment agency I’ve already mentioned and others on board um they report regularly um at the local nature partnership we’ve got a meeting coming up later this month when no doubt we’ll hear more but one of the things that excited me most and I’m sure
Steve will touch on this as well in terms of the shift that we’re seeing in Farmers attitudes look at that um 87% willing to make changes to reduce the phosphate that’s entering our rivers 72% are delivering environmental stewardship schemes now that was just 133% of the farms in Heritage but it was
24% of the farmed land now Steve and I have an ambition to grow that 13% to at least 80% of fiture farms and um we’re going to do it we’re going to we’re going to get that so the other big thing that happened last year it November was
The success of the landscape recovery application for and that’s an Agri environment scheme for the river y 36 farmers are going to be supported over 20 years to recover nature reduce phosphate and sequester carbon across 4 a half th000 hectares of Riverside Land that’s between just above Hera and um
The Y Valley Gorge there is also another landscape recovery scheme centered around mocus that’s been led by the duy so we’ve got two of the new landscape recovery schemes in the county and that’s a huge success and gives us great optimism next slide I want to touch quickly on um the
National targets within which the work to develop the local nature recovery strategy sits these targets stem from five things really the environment Act of 2021 and the statutary regulations that flow from those published in 2023 the global biodiversity framework of December 22 that came out of the conference of parties number
15 the environmental Improvement plan of 2023 and the guidance that defer issued in December of last year on the delivery of 30×30 30 by3 is the acronym for the global biodiversity framework obligation to protect 30% of land and sea for nature by 2030 and that’s an international treaty
Obligation signed by UK government the map you see on the right of this slide is the map published by defra on the 9th of December last year it shows in red the sites of special scientific interest National nature reserves that are currently protected for nature but only
50% of those are actually in favorable condition or there about the areas in blue are the so-called protected Landscapes national parks areas of outstanding National beauty that they were formerly known as are the areas in blue and so deer is saying that the red and the blue potentially will
Get us to 30% of land protected for nature by 2030 but the management is the key the other targets are really important too the Apex Target halting the kind in species abundance by 2030 we’ve got to know what they are where they are and what habitats they
Depend upon restoring 75% of our ssis to favorable condition by 2042 as I’ve said 50% or thereabouts are in unfavorable condition at the moment the landscape recovery projects well we’ve got two already covering probably our fair share but the wildlife Rich Habitat to be created outside of protected sites is a huge
Challenge the way in which these targets are envisaged to be delivered is by paying Farmers through the environmental Land Management schemes to make the changes that will need to be made to contribute to those targets the government view is that farmers will contribute at least 50% of the protected sites
Target and create more than 80% of the 500,000 hectares of wildlife Rich habitat outside of those projected sites by 2042 this is hugely challenging for farmers who are under all sorts of other pressures from the market um and energy and what’s happening in Ukraine amongst others so the expectation is
From government that 65 to 80% of landowners and farmers will adopt nature friendly farming on at least 10 to 15% of their land by 2030 wow well it’s our job through the work of Steve’s farming and land use subgroup to get us to that place next slide and
This is I think my last one of this section of the talk because I just wanted to give you a an insight to what the targets that I’ve touched on in my last one might look like for heraia there’s clearly no wle room on that first one halting the decline in
Species abundance by 2030 because it’s a legal obligation it’s set down in statute Herer is not immune from that it’s going to have to happen across the entire country there is some discretion around some of these other targets though and that’s where the work of the local nature um recovery strategy Pro
Process kicks in because the what where how with whom by when of the debatable targets is going to be delivered locally through that process which will be fully consulted upon but somehow you take um 50,000 hectares for nature how do I get to that well 30% of the county 218,000
Hectares that’s the count area roughly 30% plus the existing protected sites and Heritage Wildlife reserves you get to needing to find another 50,000 hectares to give you a total of 62,500 hectares it won’t end up like that it will be delivered through the lnr process um in terms of the what
Where the up to-date condition assessment by of ssis that’s natural inance resp responsibility ditto putting the management actions in place for 75% of estize by 242 there’s no rigle room on that at all and government is going to have to Resource Natural England to deliver that Target for us working with
Land owners and Farmers the restoring habitat outside of ssis by 2042 Target is derived by taking there are 48 counties in England so we’re one of them divide the national Target by 48 and you get 11,900 hectares that’s an environmental Improvement plan Target again to be delivered through the local nature
Recovery strategy the last one well I reckon we’ve got a jolly good chance of knocking that one on the head and achieving it through the two um landscape recovery project that I’ve mentioned already but critically this is going to need to happen mostly on farmland and that’s the challenge ahead
Of us to deliver for nature thank you thank you very much James um we’re going to be moving on to hear from Steve Clank in a moment as James has said but thank you James for the giving us the national context and some of those really important numbers that
We’re trying to reach and nobody’s pretending at all that this isn’t challenging it’s anything but um as are the other areas that are being covered by um in the work of the climate nature partnership board and Beyond Steve please um do introduce yourself I should say Steve’s background is in agriculture
So he’s really really well placed to um present on this subject he’s um co-chair as you see of f Herer U membership member of the climate nature partnership board and he’s chairing the land use and farming subgroup uh Steve over to you yeah um can you hear me thank you Jackie
Um yeah so uh yeah my name is Steve clink um chair of farm Heritage here co-chair and member of the climate board I was a farm manager responsible for about 3,000 acres in North herit here for the last 33 years um before I retired um so Sort of hope I know a
Little bit about farming and the um difficulties that it faces um and maybe because I was the farm manager I always felt felt that I was just a custodian of the land and uh had to look after it for the short time that I was in control of it and always wanted
To leave it in a better place than um I found it um but anyway as a board um or the the subgroup we just we set out three uh priorities and those were um to ruce carbon to um both in the amount that’s produced and but increase the amount sequestered
Into Land by better farming practices and to increase the amount of on Farm energy that’s produced um we wanted to try and encourage reduction of nutrient um and phosphate is the one that is really in the spotlight at the moment but I don’t think it’s the only one um
And a lot going on with producing phosphates currently um and then also to promote nature friendly farming um and to help with improving uh the species and numbers of species within Heritage here um so just on the nutrient reduction I think um we have had Lancaster University in their
Refocus report have shown that there has been a big surplus of phosphate within the white hatchment and I think aaro and no Foods um should be congratulated uh in their actions of exporting chicken litter from the catchment and that that will certainly reduce the phosphate balance it won’t
Turn the water around um very quickly because a lot of that phosphate is sold in soil and will take time to either be farmed out of the system or to wash through point of a better word um but as a a board I’m very grateful that
Ian how he set up who was previous chairman set up and got funding for 40 Farm to be audited uh that happen has happened in the last 12 months and the results from those 40 audits um of Herer Farms has has actually been quite encouraging when you look at it compared
To the National picture most of them are a bit below whether you look at it in tons of produce or kilos of produce or um carbon per hectare that is produced that’s not to say there’s not um further to go with that um those carbon audits those 40 Farms will in 2026 be
Remeasured just to see what progress has been made if any and hopefully there will be some um so what we want to do now that 40% is only about 2% of the farms in the county uh and to try and get a figure on how many other Farms have had a carbon
Audit is really quite difficult the companies that do these audits don’t uh log them by County um but uh so there will be other Farms that have done them on their own back and certainly the duchy have had most of their Farms done which would be
Another one and a half % um but we can’t actually tell how many others um the next thing we want to do is to have workshops for those 40 and to invite other Farmers to come along so that they can see they the 40 can understand what
Their reports show and also for the for new people that don’t know about carbon auditing to come in and see what the benefits to their businesses could be um and the other thing I just like to say that I really think it’s important that the whole Farm is audited not just
One um one part of the farm a lot of suppliers now um are asking for Farm audits on say their beef cattle but it’s it’s much better to look at the whole Farm rather than just one one aspect um James briefly touched on food and food production and the difficulties that we
Have trying to get people to um to change the way they Farm um but if you think that in 1950 UK had a population of 50.4 million and today we’re at 67.9 million and all those people need to be fed so farms for that period have been
Encouraged to produce as much food as they possibly can um and they’ve actually done a a pretty good job uh there has been some things that in hindsight you know probably shouldn’t have been done pulling out hedge RS um filling in ponds taking out Woodlands um
And that some of that needs to be put back um but we still do need to feed people and that shouldn’t be forgotten uh The Catch Phrase at the moment is public money for public goods and Farmers have since 1947 agriculture act have had public money um and the
Public good was to produce food it it’s changed somewhat now and that’s quite right that it should so I just thought it would be useful to know what the restrictions and barriers are to Farmers taking up these measures well firstly they’re businesses and they have to make a profit and one measure of
Sustainability is actually just staying in business that means making a profit so as far as planting trees goes um if if you want somebody to plant a field of trees they have to be compensated for that in some way because uh you will devalue The Land by about
50% and somebody has to be paid for that um reducing fertilizer use potentially risks A reduced yield and as far as carbon goes that could mean the carbon balance is actually greater per ton of food produced um taking land out of production from nature schemes is at the
Moment is very attractive for some of the options that are available but a lot of these schemes are only there for three years so people don’t have uh confidence that it will be there again in three years when it comes around which is why the Els the landcape
Recovery is really really good the 20-year program of guaranteed funding uh is is what people really really need but I did just want to look End by looking at positives so my own experience was we had um 10% of our farm uh in various schemes wild bird feed pollen Nector
Mixes buffer strips which connected areas um Wildflower areas um we had fields that we uh managed to encourage lapwing nesting and that was actually very successful and the farm was managed regeneratively now that that’s a sort of Fairly loose term it doesn’t have um set definitions of what regenerative farming
Is um we’ reduce fertilizers and we reduce F uh cultivations and I I’m a bear of little brain but um and wish I’d done a baseline study when we started farming in that way um but what I discovered was that we actually by doing those things brought live um we increased Farmland
Birds we increased Wildlife generally and my own feeling is that we created a a healthy soil that was full of uh bacteria and fungi and the soil was working um we didn’t need to put phosphate on because the plants themselves were mining phosphate and making it available um and we had an enormous
Amount of wildlife we had six pairs of nesting barnells we had loads of hairs we had lots of uh we had lap wings um skylars loads of birds so for me the answer is under your feet it’s in the soil and if if you look after the soil then uh all things are
Possible um thank you thank you so much thanks so much Steve and um it’s really lovely to hear about the farm that you were managing and the sort of transformation you you had there um to know how that how how that can be but it’s also interesting
How very much at the moment seems to be whether it’s in farming or a lot of the sorts of steps that we need to take um down to individual Choice within a system that may or may not be supportive so really good to hear about the 20year um structure of the elm system
Rather than what I call Traffic Light policy red green red green and you never know what will happen next um we’ve had a few questions in but we’ll hold on to them for now um we do know what’s going to happen next at least I think so which is that we’ll be
Hearing from Rebecca Tully so next slide please here are um Rebecca is coordinator of the herit Food Alliance which is doing absolutely great things um and is chair of the food subgroup uh over to Rebecca hello thank you uh can you hear me somebody give me one thumb
Lovely I can see a thumb um um I made the mistake of having a look at the uh chat and so there’s a couple of things in there that have um distracted me but uh I hope to kind of include them as well obviously there’s lots of things
That have been said that are relatable to food um but I will I’ll I’ll crash on with with what I was going to start by saying so we are um herant food l it’s the broad Alliance that is also part of a national uh sustainable food places
Network um it’s really uh great that it’s part of something that’s more National because it does mean that we can um uh kind of save Reinventing wheels and a lot of things and learn an awful lot from our partners especially across uh similar areas to us and there’s a lot of conversations that
Happen in the March’s area on this we are um also able to tap into the support and the deadlines that enabled us to get uh for the whole counties this is a whole County thing a Bron’s award sustainable food places um within the last year partly funded independent
Broad uh Alliance partly funded at the moment by public health um uh and that was part of the uh Public Health kind a mission was to go to down this sustainable food places um route so able to do that um we’ve got obviously really overlapping aims the alliance has got
Really overlapping aims with the climate and nature partnership board um and but we are more than that so we’ve got kind of six a that align with the sustainable food places and quite a lot of that is uh so it’s around access to food and food how of building economies
Around food and um oh I forgot my anyway six different names and in her actually seven because um farming and waste are much more uh much bigger in uh in a lot of ways than they are in other areas so we’ve um we the alliance has got quite a
A broad uh remit and part of that is also being part of this food subgroup and I think that one of the um successes of the climate nature partnership board is actually the fact that they started as two separate things and these things now um have uh mirrored priorities so
The three priorities I’m going to talk about are the food subgroup priorities of the climate and nature uh partnership board and that’s essentially something that’s been able to happen with a broad um boad board looking at zero carbon nature which um um across the county uh
So the three that we’re kind of looking at at the moment that are part of those 18 aims that um James mentioned building demand meeting demand so food that is produced locally in ways that support Net Zero and nature recovery there’s a conversation there’s constant conversations around what that
Means and um there’s work to be done to kind of develop that as a criteria I think but entally building that demand and meeting it um for that locally produced food which touches on quite a lot of the um things that people have have shared in the chat that’s around
Shortening Supply chains and around waste actually because um feeding people uh feeding a larger number of people often you know the amount of waste that we’ve produced has also increased in the last um 50 years as well um to do with our systems um
So yeah lot of use and some of the uh potential around that as as a board is that we can have conversations so uh we can talk about what the land use uh subgroup is is doing and try to overlap that and look at how we’re able to um
Kind of manage those things together and um uh so one thing that Steve was talking about about those workshops one thing would be that I would possibly say oh can I come and have a um have a a look at one of those workshops and see
What’s going on there so that I can then talk from a food perspective to other people about the um the positives that are being um being achieved in farming so a lot of the conversations I have are about telling other people what telling people what other people are doing um uh
The second uh point that uh we’re looking at is procurement so supporting uh some of the larger bodies um who procure food in the county to do more of that with shorter Supply chains and with nature uh rich food the some of the issues around that
That that you know we can get to grips with as an as an alliance is just trying to unpick who’s responsible for those things what the potential is you know how are we is are we tied into something that means we can’t do anything but where where is their potential for
Change and how can we do it so that’s some of the work that needs to get done um in the next while um the stuff that’s great again kind of linked to building demand and meeting demand so the stuff that’s that’s going on that’s great how
Do we make sure that that goes on the map what even what map are we even talking about how do we make sure that people get found who are uh producing great food in Herer and how do we tell that story about what producing grae food what does the the answer under your
Feet as Steve said like how do we make sure that story gets people know and understand um and that’s something that we’re working on as well so you know mapping it but also making sure we can communicate it um another thing is around food waste and that’s another
Thing where where you know we look to cataly something to happen so there are there are there are things that are are going on that are outside of our control but what what is within our control and how can we um make those changes happen so that you know every everybody has
Their food waste collected or everybody is able to compost their food waste uh in Herer for example uh and as I think I’ve said the whole way through the the the key for me feels like it’s about seeing those links so the the ability for us to
Have a a food subgroup that also is aware and linked to what’s going on in land and energy and transport feels like a really positive thing um there are challenges as well so the challenge for me with all of this stuff is about uh the juggling the doing with the
Talking the doing the thing with the talking about the thing and then obviously also getting the money to continue doing the thing and also to be able to you know feed ourselves and uh house ourselves Etc while we’re doing it so those are real juggle around how we
Managed to make all of that happen um but it seems to me that the the collaboration that’s happening in this board is at least a way of trying to do something okay I think that’s me thanks so so much Rebecca thank you yes the juggling um I think uh if I asked
Everyone to put at their hands if they were juggling we get a lot of hands going up uh and that’s the point isn’t it we can’t just take time to sit sit down and make a giant master plan we actually have to get on with something
Now even if um funds aren’t there even if um plans aren’t detailed just getting on getting on as Grand lovely um well we’ve heard from two of the subgroups now from the um Land Management and farming and from the um food subgroup we’re now going to hand back to James I
Think James is going to touch on some of the um other activity that’s less landbased um and then we’ll move on over to you James Jackie thank you and particular thanks to Steve and Rebecca for sharing uh their thoughts on the top three priorities for food and for
Farming and land use we might come back to that I hope in in discussion because it’s a really complex set of challenges that they’ve outlined in relation to the National context I shared earlier I want to move on now to talk about uh quickly about the other four sectors and um I’ll
Start with buildings I’m not going to go through everything that’s on the slide because you’re going to get these our building subgroup is led by our two architects Ellie and Emily but ay and amply supported by Jackie and occasionally me um and what we’ve come up with really is the idea that we’ve
Got to make make a shift towards zeroc carbon buildings that will need some regulation hopefully one day we’ll see that reflected in the building RS we need critically an advice hub for new and retrofit zeroc carbon buildings and we need to support retrofit skills training and there’s some of that
Already happening at the wonderful Nite facility in Herford how will we measure progress well the number of new buildings that are zero carbon the number of existing buildings that we can retrofit we need to set a trajectory and see that rise against those sorts of indicators and critically obviously we
Also need a switch to low carbon heating away from oil and gas more towards Renewables I touched on the challenges of that later and that’s a neat link into energy um the subgroup there led by Gordon Copic I think’s on the webinar today so please feel free to
Um POS questions that um perhaps Jackie can root to Gordon on the detail but the big ticket around items are getting the electricity grid fit um for the challenges of more locally based generation and demand increasing public acceptance of Renewables by which in her which I mean
Primarily solar and wind and creating a local energy uh action plan and let’s not go through those progress indicators they’re fairly obvious um but critically we need to see the grid capacity increased energy generation increased but particularly energy generated from renewable sources then on transport and waste these are LED substantially for us
By the council because they’re actually Council functions uh but the council is doing a sterling job in my own Parish of much marker we now have the daffodil Line bus um which didn’t exist 18 months two years ago and it provides a fundamentally important local link and this idea of supporting existing
Services at risk and making sure there’s a core Network to encourage a shift from private transport mode to public really matter and ensuring the interchanges are smooth and effective giving segregated cycle Lanes of pedestrian c copings a boost but the council again is doing some spended things on its own land and
Has a clear Target to put 100 EV charge points on councel own land by the end of 2425 that’s um the financial Year we’re about to move into after April and with a list on the call I’m going to say I hope they’re going to be fast charges
Not the ones that take all night or day on waste um the council is doing an heroic job a new contract is about to be let for uh waste and the key measures there are reducing the regid residual waste from households and increasing the rates of recycling so if I can now move
On to just headline a number of the successes that we as a board claim in partnership with others set let’s have next slide please so in the two and a half years that we’ve existed we’ve agreed the grid the 3×6 of priority actions and I hope
We’ll sign that off uh later this month at our next meeting we’ve started some work on targets and um identifying how we will measure progress against those targets and the actions that will deliver them we’ve got a number of projects that have been funded through the climate Reserve fund held by Heritage Council
And we’ve begun to engage effectively I hope with some key stakeholders both the workshops that have happened on carbon today’s event and a number of other events that we’ve um sought to reach out across the people of herriage to engage around our vision specifically 42 business energy audits
Have been completed and the companies that have done these have been super excited about the results of those and I’m aware of a number of those companies that are now delivering some significant savings to bottom line as a result of the work that has come off the back of
Energy audits Steve has touched on the farm carbon Audits and here and our handing glove on this this is really important because heraches Farms contribute 22% of our climate change emissions and we need to bring that down otherwise Net Zero by 2030 or 50 just ain’t going to
Happen so encouraging more Farms to take it up and then following through so we’re going to follow up those audits in 2026 and hopefully fund some more in the coming years and then the renewable energy mapping contract was let and overseen and led by Gordon COK who chairs our energy subgroup terrific
Piece of work it’s reported the end of last year will soon make that mapping public and this is an in going to be an indicative tool for where Renewables could be placed without impacting nature recovery landscape Heritage assets Etc and obviously any development that is brought forward will be subject to the
Planning process next slide and I think that’s my last one before we do a Baton Pass to Alysa what we’ve also been doing as a board is is to contribute to the countywide strategy development and so we have been involved in the adap the climate change adaptation strategy that
Was published earlier this year in January we quite heavily involved we had presentations and some of us contributed individually as well and we had a board discussion about strategy several of us engaged in the council’s core strategy local plan uh review still subject to consultation so
If anybody wants to have their say on that you still can and I mentioned the local nature recovery strategy the nature recovery Network opportunity mapping contract is part of that process led by Liz duy who I think is also on the webinar and possibly may take some
Questions if she’s able to about that process that contract’s underway that is the mirror to the energy opportunity mapping it will signal where we can put that new habitat creation habitat Restoration in place across the county in a joined up connected way these initiatives that are in the
Second part of that slide I’m less familiar with and I I simply leave them with you but perhaps Jackie Richard might chip in and and say a little bit about those points Thanks James um yes us yes Richard is with us and Richard I think if yeah grand um if you
Richard or I think Ben Boswell has also joined us if one of you would like to say something about the um 30 for 2030 business initiative I think that would be this would be a good time if if you’re willing to summarize that yeah very happy too so we were
Looking to work with 30 businesses although I’m pleas to say we exceeded that Target to help them understand um how reducing their carbon and importantly their energy consumption and therefore costs can help them as a business so understanding that businesses are under pressure they haven’t necessarily got dedicated sustainability colleagues to do this
Work how can we best support them to help them understand their energy consumption and in turn reduce their operating cost because of the the cost of living crisis the energy crisis that we were going through at the time and therefore also their carbon emissions so
It it was a bit of a win-win really so we were providing energy audits to those businesses to help them understand what that looked like and help them understand importantly the next steps and what they can do to achieve that and those audits included an outline of of
What that business case looks like so okay if I do invest a little bit of money here how quickly will that pay back how much money will I save each year as well as of course how much carbon can I save so that was a really great initiative that was running last
Year and yeah very pleased to support that one thank you thanks Richard and are you able to say anything about the follow through um if there’s any follow ongoing support for those businesses or you know can they come back and get additional support very good plug thank you Jackie
Yes absolutely so I’m really pleased to say there’s currently a grant scheme running so if any of you business own do have a look at the marches energy Grant it’s running across the marches as you might imagine it’s being led by our partners in werer and uh her businesses
Are eligible to apply for this is It’s primarily focused atmes and if you’ve already got an audit through the 30 for 2030 business initiative then that’s fine you can simply apply for up to 40% grant funding for eligible um uh retrofit um Energy Efficiency measures essentially
Um and if you haven’t got an audit already you can actually get a free audit through the March’s energy Grant scheme so that support is there for businesses in the county if you’re interested in reducing your energy consumption your energy costs working smarter working more efficiently that
Grant is out there just Google March’s energy Grant and you should find it pretty much straight away but if you’re struggling contact us on climate and you’ll get a free audit and you can get up to 40% grant funding depending on which measures you’re looking to install uh and that’s running now
Terrific thank you very much Richard uh James do you want to come back at at this stage or shall we hand over to Alysa hearing nothing from James who I muted um so I think I’ll say huge thank you to to James I wanted I simply wanted to say Baton Pass to
Alyssa good thank you James that’s super well we’ll be hearing we’ve got quite a few questions coming through um so let me hand over now to um Alysa swingle Hurst and I think Elissa you’re going to be giving a perspective from the um from your position as Cabinet member for the
Environment so please uh let me hand over to you thank thanks very much uh Jackie yeah so it’ll just be an overview of some of the things that the council uh is doing um and I want also say um Thanks James for for your talk and what
Said um James is always my conscience sits on my shoulder and he’s uh just a wealth of incredible information um we’re very lucky to have sharing the uh climate nature partnership um right so this first slide I thought it’d be useful to kind of just take a look at
The context of this uh o over a slightly longer time period um so this is her council’s uh Net Zero Journey uh greenhouse gas emissions with and I actually dug out a document which goes back to 2006 which which was the 2020 Vision which is here which was aligned
With the with the then uh Benchmark of 60% reduction by 20150 and we’re now looking at Net Zero by 2030 um we’ve come a long way we’re doing pretty well um but Heritage council is actually currently um ahead on the flight path to achieve 75% by 2025
26 um we were the first Council to uh put all of our street lighting to LED for instance we we’ve rolled out a lot of solar panels and uh things that nature on Leisure centers schools to reduce that um we’ve got uh I think across the the council estate um we we
We’re generating more than one megawatt um so we obviously still a way to go I and I think the thing with this is that the the lower it goes the harder it gets uh and we have to be prepared for that um but we’re we’re very determined to to
Get where we need to go so yeah next slide please one of the things that uh anyone who knows me will know uh occupies a great of my time and um is a real passion of mine is water quality um you’ll know that we do have a problem
With the water quality in the river lug and the why and the clown um as indeed many rivers nationally uh have got a problem uh with us is nutrients principally um landbased or or from diffuse agricultural sources um one of the economic impacts that this has had
Has been to uh put a halt on housing delivery in the lug catchment which is um desperately unfair since new housing actually accounts for something like 0 23% di Minimus amount of the problem but the um that they get caught up in the the legal net as it were um so we’ve
We’ve been we’ve had to put in quite a lot of time and energy to mitigate that but I’m very pleased with the mitigation that we’ve come up with It’s a UK first I think it might be a world first but the great thing about it is it’s a nature-based Solutions doesn’t involve
Chemicals or anything else a nature based solution and will bring also other benefits like biodiversity which is great and we’re looking to do more of that um and and the the first one the last one is is up for for award for an award for Services
Which is brilliant um I also chair the riverwi neutri management board and so therefore I’m kind of you know twin hated and I’m on the cabinet commission as well uh each of these uh grouping they have kind of distinct functions um the the nutrient management
Board uh is is there to um see the plan to improve the quality of the Y uh the cabinet commission is more politically aligned uh and it’s great great for me to have conversations with uh my equal opposite numbers in other uh neighboring uh authorities because obviously the the
River doesn’t know it’s flowing across a boundary it just doesn’t you know it’s a river we need to think like the river and just flow thank you next slide yeah so one of the jobs that the council has really is is collaboration and I think that sort of in a sense
Reflects as well with the climate and nature partnership um trying to stick ulate conversations and get everyone to work together towards the same end uh whether that’s improving water quality uh or or delivering um retrofit and uh climate change adaptation Farm audits you know almost everything we do
Requires a degree of collaboration and uh it’s important that we uh not only collaborate within the county with Partners in the third sector but also we look at uh best practice outside and and and we learn from that and we take from that because because we want to be uh
The best that we can be um and and be able to deliver uh as many uh good projects as as we can to um to respond to the climate and ecological emergency and next slide and yeah and the other thing obviously um mitigation is is tremendous important and and we’re not going to
Lift our foot off that pedal but we also have to be realistic and uh as a local Authority we have responsibilities uh for our residents to ensure that they are safe and prepared and therefore we need to have an eye to adaptation whether that’s an adaptation uh in terms of physical structures and
Buildings um planning um flood resilience natural flood management you know we we have to make sensible predictions about what we think is going to happen and and make sure that our residents are prepared and protected against those uh you know as that as that might occur
As a result of climate change um and and the changes that may come forward um it’s a really important thing and there I think James mentioned that we have the strategy come forward that the climate nature partnership we consulted over uh try and get that right um because it’s a
Really important element of the work that uh that that we’re doing we we try to uh prevent but sometimes you also have to prepare um and I think is that is that it or is there another slide I have no idea questions and feed there we go and that’s my department I think
Thank you so much thank you so much Alissa and we must move really quickly into the Q&A um we can go over slightly but I’m aware that lots of people need to get back to work so um I’ll start with a um a general question which is
From Sally Webster uh saying what role can Parish councils play in all of this and I’d like to address that if possible to um councelor spingle Hurst thank you yeah I mean do you know what really good question um Parish councilors can declare their own emergency they can they can do at a
Parish level an amazing number of things I’m very fortunate in my ward that that um you know at least one of my Parish councils has completely gripped this they’ve got a great Environmental Group they’re doing local recycling they’ve got a repair Cafe up and running they host seminars and talks they’re doing a
Lot to raise awareness in the area doing litter piics um and uh and looking at uh giving people good advice about uh food and about heating so Parish Council absolutely they can do a great deal and could I just chip in Jackie to say that in addition Parish councils have a
Biodiversity Duty and the local councils um oversight body has issued some fantastic guidance um to Parish Council as to how they can Implement that Duty I think one of the things we could do is make that link available on our website I know a number of Parish Council is
Already aware of it but um they now have a duty to consider and to act Thanks James and also just to say that the um uh that heriage green networks great collaboration Herer is also um linking with um the council and resources to try to pass that on to the parish councils
That we’re supporting um we’ve got a C we’ve got a few questions obviously on Land Management I’d like to jump to the one from from tibits if I could um which is about introduction of horticulture by which I assume you’re meaning very small scale food production Tom um what
Opportunities there are there um for for new entrance essentially is that something you’ve got a view on James or is part of our planning I do have a view but I think it I’d very much like to hear from Steve on this but yes there are number of I
Mentioned the ratio um if we grow more crops uh to feed us rather than to feed animals um there is a clear link um in relation to calories and land use and land area that provides the basis for the shift that we need to see without threatening food security that’s clear
In the evidence in the dimble beer review the national food strategy it’s clear in defra’s UK food security report of 2021 it’s clear in the climate change committee’s recommendations so there’s a broad consensus at a scientific level of but what about here in here in Herer James what about here in Herer the
Opportunity for people to Herer is not I said it once I say it again Herer is not immune uh to National data sets um Herer is one of 48 counties that National picture applies locally here undoubtedly or beard we have a rather larger percentage of Farmland so small scale horiculture that is
Producing crops for people we can all think of examples of where veg boxes are being produced and circulated locally we have one in ladbury jolly good I should be seeing him on Saturday at the Helen’s Food Market produce market and no doubt buying my stuff from him it’s
Possible and it’s part of the shift that needs to happen happen great thank you and I’m sure Rebecca would probably have more to add to that um you mentioned that Steve might want to say something on that but I’ve got a specific question for you uh
Steve from uh David Gillum um about the phosphate saturated nature of our F Farmland James would also have strong views on this given that is there um any good reason at all why um animal manure or I suppose digest a would be spread on our land so Steve or James to answer
That please Steve go first yeah okay um so uh phosphate saturated soil is um an emotive term possibly um most farmers are testing their soils can you hear me James I can see you y good um most farmers are testing their soils and for the majority of
Crops there is a level that of phosphate available phosphate in the soil that is recommended and under the farming rules for water uh to apply phosphate over those levels is not needed um and shouldn’t be done however if you want to build up carbon and you want to build up
Soil fertility animal manures have a great place to play a great place in that they will help soils to increase their organic matter and therefore sequester carbon so it’s a bit of a double-edged sword but one hopes that soils aren’t saturated in phosphate um I think up until about five
Years ago it was assumed that a a soil with a indes an alen Pig indices of a mid2 or even a three did not leech phosphate in drain water the way that nitrogen does but it’s it’s since been proven that um certainly soils levels index three will
Leech uh will leech phosphate in the water it’s not just held on to the the clay particles and the brown Water you see when we have a lot of flooding um so yeah there isn’t a need other than a few crops to apply phosphate above uh
An index to and um I think 80% of herfer soils are at three or below there are some fours and fives around and some of those are historically hopyards some of them are because um chicken manure has been spread um year on year um primarily for the nitrogen um but the
Phosphate was was there and that was is now bad practice and does not should not happen and the ea uh The Regulators need to enforce the rules um so that’s that’s where we are that would be my answer I hope that helps thank thank you very much I think we’ll
Take one other farming question um Jonathan Lloyd has asked how does the fact that mixed farming is showing to be more carbon efficient in this County than arable farming how does that fit with the mission to reduce numbers of livestock well no idea is uh can Steve
Or James uh come up with something there can I you want to start James yeah thank you Steve I’ll chip in briefly can I also just say that Steve and I ow one on on the points you made in response to the phosphate I’m going to answer the livestock one um
From a similar perspective we must not look at the problems of carbon nature and nutrient as silos we must look at them as an integrated Trio of challenges for the county so we are going to need livestock for the reasons that Steve has said to maintain soil structure to increase
Infiltration um and to provide fertility we’re going to need livestock to eat no one of other than and for all sorts of the right reasons personal choices um those who are vegetarian or vegan don’t want to eat meat personally I still do eat meat I just don’t eat
Very much of it um and we’re going to need to have meat in our diet for the foreseeable future so we need livestock for that we need livestock for soils and critically we need livestock for nature even in the most wild and rewilding sites there are livestock um so livestock has a place
For you know I I I cannot envisage a scenario in which the county will not have considerable numbers of livestock I think we will see a shift in livestock type there may be fewer sheep and probably fewer cattle and personally I would hope fewer chickens but that’s an emotive issue too
Steve uh yeah I think to try and answer Jonathan’s point and he he probably knows better than me the answer to this but um so those mixed Farms arable and livestock are using a lot of the the produce that they grow on their Farms to feed their livestock they’re not
Exporting that produce and and um Grass Grows 365 days a year it takes in sunlight 300 when there is some at this time of year it takes it in year round and so it is capturing carbon from the atmosphere all the year round where um you know it’s argued deciduous
Some deciduous just Woodland only captures it for six months of a year um and so some of the measurements for carbon capture with grass actually show it as being a very good thing thank you thank you both um I’m going to take the liberty of extending
By another couple of minutes I know that we’ve already gone five minutes over um but I’m aware there are some question questions on um non-land management uh related um subjects too so there’s a couple about buildings I don’t know whether any of our um board members um
Are here from the building subgroup uh if so please wave are you here Ellie Deacon Smith I can’t tell anyway there’s one asking um about the um whether um building materials are taken into account um I think sorry whether the embedded carbon in building materials is taken into account um when
Um build equality is assessed if we haven’t got Ellie there I think I’ll say um no that would be a national issue I don’t believe unless one of the council members or team uh tells me otherwise that that’s part of any um supplementary guidance in herish at the moment um but it’s certainly
Something I think that the building subgroup is very aware of and one of the things that we’re now proposing for um building retrofit is that rather doing than doing deep retrofit absolutely immediately on every on on a few houses we try to do lighter retrofit on more
And a switch to lower carbon heating so we get those immediate carbon winds um let me just check again we’ve got another question um which is on um the timing of the consultation of the local plan is anyone able to answer that question please when is the next um consultation going
On uh yes it’s coming um reg 18 Sor Lissa um it’s it’ll be at reg 18 consultation I think it’s the 25th of March it’s coming out so any minute now well next month any minute now that’s great I’ve got a cabinet meeting now so thank you thanks thanks everyone thank you very
Much good gr so uh we have not of course managed to answer all of the questions when does anybody ever but um we are still open for questions so you’ll see the slide there um climate.gov to.uk if anyone’s got any questions to address specifically to the council
Please send them there and if it’s to The Climate nature partnership board please email um questions there and they’ll be forwarded to us um so I think I will now just thank everybody for attending thanks for taking time thank you for your interest in what’s going on um we haven’t got
Everything answered that’s the nature of it thank you also to all of our speakers um Steve Rebecca um and James in particular and Richard uh who keeps everything rolling for us great thank you so much just a reminder we will be sending you a recording
Uh a link to the recording um and you will also be circulated the slides thanks everybody