Agenda item
BIODIVERSITY DUTY DELIVERY PLAN
To consider a report by the Ecology Officer (copy attached) which seeks the Committee to examine and make recommendations in relation to the draft Biodiversity Duty Delivery Plan prior to its submission to Cabinet for endorsement and adoption
10.45am – 11.15am
Minutes:
In the absence of
the Lead Member for Housing and Communities, the Head of Highways and
Environment presented to the Committee the Ecology Officer’s report and the
Council’s draft Biodiversity Duty Delivery Plan and Well-being Impact Assessment
(previously circulated). He advised that the report was being presented
to the Committee to seek members’ views on the Plan and its contents ahead of
seeking the Lead Member’s approval for the plan via the delegated decision
process. The Head of Service explained that Section 6 of the Environment
(Wales) Act 2016 required all local authorities to embed the consideration of
biodiversity and ecosystems into their early thinking and business planning and
to publish a plan on how they proposed to maintain and enhance biodiversity and
promote ecosystem resilience. He advised the Committee that in drawing up
the Plan, identifying key actions, and performance indicators, significant
engagement and consultation had taken place with officers across all Council
services as in order for the Plan to be delivered all services needed to be
engaged and willing to deliver their part of it. The Plan itself and a
progress report on the actions contained within it required to be published by
the end of 2019.
Responding to
members’ questions the Head of Highways and Environment and the Ecology
Officer:
·
confirmed
the cost of delivering the Plan presented to the Committee was based on the
Service’s current budget, making small changes to existing working practices etc.
and the availability of external grant funding which the Service had a proven
track record of securing. However, as a result of the recent Notice of
Motion to Council on the Climate Change Emergency, dependent upon the
recommendations of the proposed working group, additional resources may be
required for biodiversity work in future and the Plan may need to be
re-drafted;
·
confirmed
the Service worked closely with Natural Resources Wales (NRW) on a number of
projects, via the Public Services Board (PSB) and the Area of Outstanding
Natural Beauty (AONB);
·
advised
the Service used volunteers for various projects, including monitoring the
Little Tern colony. Bangor University was also involved with the Little
Tern project and was studying the colony’s behaviour;
·
advised
various Council services supported and contributed towards the delivery of
biodiversity initiatives as part of their Service team building away days;
·
confirmed
ecological enhancements for planning applications had changed and the Service now
routinely fed into the work involved with developing the Local Development Plan
(LDP) and provided ecological observations on individual planning applications;
·
advised
seagulls were a protected species and that the Council had a separate action
plan on how to manage seagulls and reduce the nuisance they caused.
Communities Scrutiny Committee at its meeting the previous week had examined
the effectiveness of this plan;
·
advised
the Council’s policy on highways grass verge maintenance was, in the Council’s
opinion, the best in Wales in relation to promoting and supporting
biodiversity;
·
referred
to a number of wildflower meadow biodiversity projects with which the Council
was involved and how they were sourcing native seeds and plants for these
meadows in a bid to ensure their sustainability;
·
advised
work was currently underway with the Council’s Facilities, Assets and Housing
Service to draw up biodiversity plans for green areas within the Council’s
housing estates;
·
confirmed
every effort was made with city, town and community councils in the county to
promote the Council’s biodiversity ambitions and the reasons underpinning its
highways and grass maintenance policies. However, some community groups
had previously sown some resistance to the Council’s approach;
·
advised
they were of the view that the Council had now struck the right balance in
relation to highways grass verge maintenance between biodiversity and road
users’ safety. Health and safety was given precedence. Members were
advised that if they had specific health and safety concerns in relation to
highways verge maintenance policy they should be reported to the Council’s
Customer Service Centre to enable them to be registered on the Customer
Relationship Management (CRM) system and individually investigated;
·
confirmed
NRW was also required to publish and deliver a Biodiversity Duty Delivery Plan
as would the WG’s Trunk Road Agency who had responsibility for grass verge
maintenance on the county’s trunk roads;
·
advised
the Council’s Countryside Services dealt with the removal of non-native
invasive plants, whilst native species such as ragwort would be dealt with by Streetscene and other Highways and Environmental Services
staff or contractors undertaking work on the Council’s behalf; and
·
agreed
with members that a discussion needed to be undertaken on a national basis
regarding litter picking on trunk roads
At the
conclusion of the discussion the Committee:
RESOLVED:
(i)
that it had read, understood and
taken account of the Well-being Impact Assessment (Appendix 2) as part of its
consideration of the Biodiversity Duty Delivery Plan;
(ii)
subject to the above observations
to recommend to the Lead Member for Housing and Communities, under powers
delegated to him, to endorse the Biodiversity Duty Delivery Plan;
(iii)
that a presentation be given at a
future Council Briefing session on the Authority’s duties in relation to
biodiversity and carbon reduction and the progress made to date in meeting
these duties; and
(iv)
to recommend to the Lead Member
for Housing and Communities that he should write to the Welsh Government’s Trunk
Roads Agency seeking it to adopt a similar approach to biodiversity to that of
Denbighshire County Council when undertaking highways verge maintenance cuts
and to the removal of litter from verges
Supporting documents:
- Biodiversity Plan Report 110719, item 7. PDF 117 KB
- Biodiversity Plan Report 110719 - App 1, item 7. PDF 2 MB
- Biodiversity Plan Report 110719 - App 2, item 7. PDF 206 KB