Sustainability Committee

Inquiry into Carbon Reduction in Wales: Carbon Reduction by Industry and Public Bodies

Response from Welsh Local Government Association

Steve Thomas
Chief Executive
Prif Weithredwr

Welsh Local Government Association
Local Government House
Drake Walk
CARDIFF CF10 4LG
Tel: 029 2046 8600
Fax: 029 2046 8601

Cymdeithas Llywodraeth Leol Cymru
Tŷ Llywodraeth Leol
Rhodfa Drake
CAERDYDD CF10 4LG
Ffôn: 029 2046 8600
Ffacs: 029 2046 8601

www.wlga.gov.uk

Date/Dyddiad: 28^th January 2008
Please ask for/Gofynnwch am: Craig Mitchell
Direct line/Llinell uniongyrchol: 02920 468625
Email/Ebost: craig.mitchell@wlga.gov.uk

By E-mail

Dear Mr Bates AM,

Committee inquiry into WAG Carbon Reduction targets

The WLGA welcome’s this opportunity to add to its two previous submission’s and as such this will not duplicate that previous content. Attention in particular is drawn to the Roger Levitt paper on Carbon neutral local authorities, LSB’s and communities.

The committee’s review of how public agencies may be able to respond to the Climate Change challenge is timely. The WLGA would like to highlight a key finding that is emerging from some recent work that it has undertaken.

The WLGA works closely with all local authorities; supporting development and improvement, and seeking to improve service delivery. The Wales Programme for Improvement (WPI) is an important element of that work to ensure that services are fit for purpose.

The WLGA are also currently developing in partnership with WAG a sustainable development framework for local government. In essence what this tries to do is to turn the rhetoric around sustainable development into a clear process that front line staff can use to make it a reality. Obviously this is very challenging work. As part of that process the WLGA have facilitated a round of meetings between local improvement concerned with the WPI and sustainable development staff and service managers and our lead consultants/WLGA improvement support team. This has proved to be an extremely useful process.

These series of meetings have found that as it is currently designed, the risk assessment process within the WPI is very good at identifying and prioritising risk to local services and service delivery. What it fails to do to the same extent is identify risks to communities and localities from external factors. This external focus may be picked up within the Community Strategy process but it may not have the same status within the local authority because of a lack of clear ownership and accountability and the lack of impetus from the WPI process.

This represents a significant issue if concerns such as climate change, carbon reduction and SD are ever going to be given the same priority on a local basis. In light of this the WLGA are working closely with WAG to understand how this could be addressed in terms of how the WPI process operates. However this broader issue of how risk is identified and prioritised by all public agencies may be one that the committee may wish to pursue.

Equaly relevant to this process is the position taken in relation to Community Strategies. Potentially alongside the Local Service Board work this could significantly help or hinder the local response to Climate Change. Revised guidance is about to be issued and the WLGA understand that there will be some additional non-statutory guidance notes on issues such as Climate Change. What is worrying is that there will be a large number of such gudidance notes in addition to the main guidance notes themselves. It is difficult to see how this approach can have a significant impact as there is a danger that the strategy becomes too diffuse to be effective.

The LSB may provide an opportunity for more effective corporate governance of this issue. Work undertaken for the WLGA under the remit of the Environmental Champions project demonstrates how individual rational decisions by both public agencies and citizens can produce unforseen outcomes. These outcomes can be reinforced by further rational decisions such as citizens deciding not to walk or cycle due to safety concerns. Therefore there is great potential for LSB’s to understand these whole system issues and plan interventions that may produce a virtuous circle of decisions instead.

It is also necessary to consider how regional (as well as local) collaboration and spatial planning operates? The way public bodies promote development in the regions and decisions on the location of key facilities/supporting infrastructure have major implications.

Regional work between local authorities and via the spatial planning groups and decisions on European funded projects can make an important contribution to getting this right by consciously considering the impact of development proposals - e.g. across each region minimising the need to travel by having an appropriate mix of local and regional provision, avoiding unnecessary duplication of provision, prioritising strategic public transport routes and focusing development adjacent to public transport access points, facilitating homeworking and identifying, protecting and enhancing important environmental assets

Yours sincerely

Director of Regeneration and Sustainable Development