Devon Sustainable Energy Network
Minutes of Steering Group Meeting
Friday 12th May 2006, 10 a.m. – 12.30 p.m.
Reed Hall, University of Exeter.
Attendees:
Paul Baker – Managing Director, Devon Association for Renewable Energy (DARE)
Ian Bateman – Climate Change Officer, Devon County Council
Teresa Butchers – Chief Executive Devon and Cornwall Housing Association.
Sally Farley – Sustainable Communities Officer, Torbay Council
Jeremy Filmer Bennett – Chief Executive, Devon & Cornwall Business Council
Mark Hodgson – South West Business Manager, Global Action Plan
Peter O’ Neill – Chair, Plymouth 2020 Partnership
Jo Nicholson – Secretariat for DSEN, Devon Local Energy Support Team
Tony Norton – Centre for Energy and the Environment, Exeter University
John Sunderland - Chief Executive, North Devon District Council
Andy Seaman – Energy & Sustainability Officer, Devon County Council
Pat Sykes – Local Energy Support Team
Apologies:
Steve Cryer – Manager, Mary Tavy Power Station, South West Water
Graham Horler – Director, Westcountry Energy Action
Mike Fox – Assistant Environmental Director, Torbay Council
Fiona Swan – DSEN Coordinator, Devon Local Energy Support Team
Yve Tyrell – Devon Area Team, South West RDA
1. Minutes of last meeting
The minutes of February’s meeting were agreed to be a true and accurate reflection of the meeting.
2. Matters arising
The actions in the minutes of the last meeting had all been carried out apart from JN and JS refining the statement regarding nuclear power.
Action: JN & JS to liaise and agree a refined statement on nuclear power.
3. Chairs Report – all chairs
Domestic Energy & Health: Pat Sykes for Graham Horler
Pat ran through the main topics of discussion from the last meeting of this group. For a full account of the meeting please see the minutes on the website.
TB asked if there was any link between this group and ‘Devon Pound’. Devon Pound are a charitable company involving credit unions and the University of Salfords financial inclusion department working towards social and financial inclusion and budgeting. This group does not link with Devon Pound so it was agreed links would be made.
Action: TB to send contact details to JN in order that contact be made.
IH mentioned he has close links with individuals who were involved in the setting up of the Devon Pound and will introduce DSEN to them as well.
Renewable Energy: Paul Baker & Tony Norton
This group enjoyed good attendance again and the chairs gave an overview of the discussions from the meeting. See the minutes on the website for a full account. The next meeting on the 6th June is planned to include a presentation from Western Power distribution.
The group discussed the RE guide for Devon, and agreed that this should be updated especially local case studies. Discussion also took place around the updating of the Devon RE strategy and Action Plan. Devon County Council is now doing this through SWEEG and TN / MH are looking at how to link this to RED.
A discussion ensued around the Devon targets for renewable energy and the lack of district level ownership of this target. John Sunderland explained how North Devon's draft REAP has apportioned the Devon target to its District through a resource mapping exercise. A range of possible targets will go for discussion and agreement by Councillors with the final target incorporated into planning policy through the Local Development Framework process. The objective is for North Devon to deliver its fair share of renewable energy but for the type and location of renewable energy to be owned by the community of North Devon. The Group discussed how this experience could be used by other local authorities to ensure local development and ownership of targets. It was agreed that DSEN could provide a co-ordinating role by calculating targets based on the region's resource mapping technology.
The county council are drafting a series of guidance notes for districts on this topic. Discussion took place around Plymouth and Torbay’s involvement with this and it was decided that the 3 authorities, Devon, Plymouth and Torbay, need to put their heads together to discuss how best to approach this.
Business: Jeremy Filmer - Bennett & Mark Hodgson
The business sub group was a small group this quarter, but despite this a lot was achieved at the meeting. For a full account of the content of this meeting see the business sub group minutes. Discussions took place around incentivising businesses to achieve better energy standards, and the links between this and business rates. JFB spoke to Bronwyn Hill (GOSW) about this and it would appear there is a willingness for Devon to be a pilot in incentivising businesses to reduce carbon emissions. This would be delivered by DSEN.
EDF are the biggest energy provider in the SW and had not yet been engaged with the business sub group. JFB has spoken to contacts at EDF and they are happy to be involved, particularly by hosting future meetings of the sub group. EDF will attend the next meeting and discuss how to work with Devon businesses.
Devon & Cornwall Business Council have a meeting on 7th July which will be built around sustainable energy and climate change. The steering group will be invited to this.
Action: Jo to send details of this meeting with the minutes.
Public Sector: Andy Seaman / Ian Bateman
AS was unfortunately not able to atedn the last meeting so IB reported back. Although this meeting had a poor turnout it provided a good opportunity to get something going. DCC and Teignbridge council are taking part in a carbon management programme from the Carbon Trust and are one of three partnerships investigating how large authorities can work with smaller ones. On the back of this IB will feed back information to the other districts through a series of workshops beginning next month with a carbon footprinting workshop looking at where we are now and where we want to be.
Action: Jo and Ian to set a date for this workshop. UPDATE: Date set and event publicised… support from steering group members to encourage LA participation would be appreciated, please see document attached.
Action: John Sunderland to talk to Devon districts about this.
It was mentioned at this point that the action plans had not been presented by any of the chairs. It was felt that these documents are still important, even if there is only one action on them.
Action: Chairs to update and circulate action plans prior to steering group meetings. Reporting should always be done through the action plan, not the minutes.
5. RED update – Mark Hodgson
Mark gave an overview of RE4Devon and what it involves. RED is looking to improve the quality and supply of RE technologies in OJ2 areas and to increase the number of RE installations. Delivery partners include GAP, CEE, DARE, Trans-send and the EEAC.
An offer letter for the funding was received on 25/4. RED now has 2 years to provide a suitable level of delivery, although it will be assessed in 18 months, therefore needs to be achieving within this timescale. So far RED has had a board meeting, and an operational meeting to get action plan put into practice asap.
Tony Norton and Mark Hodgson will be interim project managers. There has not been a press release yet. They are working with DCC to get one out next week.
Mark has a slide set which can be used to promote RED and is available for anyone to use. NB: this slide set is available in PDF form on the DSEN website at www.dsen.org.uk/markhodgson.pdf or the powerpoint version is at www.dsen.org.uk/re4d_presentation.ppt (warning! 2.7 MB may take a long time to download!).
RED’s key objective is to manage the RE process from interest to installation. Outputs are 225 installations across a range of sectors, £3M sales generated and 4.8MW installed.
There will be a separate RE4Devon website which will be for renewable advice and information. The DSEN website will continue to exist for networking, action planning etc.
8. LAA 4th Block – Ian Hutchcroft
Ian Hutchcroft is the sustainable prosperity manager for DCC and the coordinator for the 4th Block of the LAA. He also drafted the RE strategy and action plan for the DSP, which was where DSEN originally evolved from.
Ian outlined the purpose and function of an LAA: It is a way to get agreement between government and LA’s on priority goals. They are signed 3 year agreements and seem to work well in unitary authorities but are more difficult in 2 tier authorities.
The 4 blocks of the LAA are:
Children & young people
Safer communities
Healthy communities and older people
Economic development and enterprise
The Devon LAA 4th Block (economic development and enterprise) contains an element on sustainable energy which is proposed to be delivered by DSEN. Plymouth and Torbay are developing LAA’s and will have them ready by April 2007. It is hoped that DSEN will be able to play a part in the delivery of some of the targets within these LAA’s also. The 4th Block of Devons LAA includes 4 outcomes (see LAA attached for detailed info), one of which is sustainable energy – increasing productivity through the environment as an economic driver. The LAA looks for increased outcomes, over and above DSEN and RED targets. DCC is looking to source funding to assist with the delivery of these targets.
The timescales for this are very tight as the LAA is being signed off in mid July. At this stage the group is being asked to consider the draft LAA and agree that it is worthwhile and that DSEN is the appropriate delivery agent.
Discussion took place around DSEN’s role in the delivery of the LAA and concerns were allayed by Ian. Due to the tight timescales involved the decision was made to make the statement:
“We are happy to support the LAA as it is worded in this document at this stage.”
The document is attached for further review and opportunities will exist in the future for queries / concerns to be addressed.
Action: Jo / Ian to send out draft LAA with minutes – see attached.
8. AOB
There was none.
Date Of Next Meeting
Friday 15th September
10.00 a.m. – 12.30 p.m. Larkbeare House, Exeter.
