Agenda and minutes

Venue: Online Only - Via Zoom

Contact: Hannah Stevenson  01344 352308

Link: This meeting will be held online

Media

Items
No. Item

29.

Declarations of Interest

Members are asked to declare any disclosable pecuniary or affected interests in respect of any matter to be considered at this meeting.

 

Any Member with a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest in a matter should withdraw from the meeting when the matter is under consideration and should notify the Democratic Services Officer in attendance that they are withdrawing as they have such an interest. If the Disclosable Pecuniary Interest is not entered on the register of Members interests the Monitoring Officer must be notified of the interest within 28 days.

 

Any Member with an affected Interest in a matter must disclose the interest to the meeting.  There is no requirement to withdraw from the meeting when the interest is only an affected interest, but the Monitoring Officer should be notified of the interest, if not previously notified of it, within 28 days of the meeting.

Minutes:

There were no declarations of interest.

30.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 213 KB

To approve as a correct record the minutes of the meeting of the Climate Change Panel on 3 November 2021.

Minutes:

The minutes of the Climate Change Advisory Panel meeting held on 27 January 2022 were confirmed as a correct record.

31.

Urgent Items of Business

Any other items which, pursuant to Section 100B(4)(b) of the Local Government Act 1972, the Chairman decides are urgent.

Minutes:

There were no urgent items of business.

32.

Local Renewable Power Generation: Anaerobic Digestion Plant High Level Feasibility pdf icon PDF 310 KB

To update Climate Change Advisory Panel on the outcome of the Atkins report into the high-level feasibility of building an anaerobic digestion (AD) plant in the Borough.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Councillor Virgo introduced the Climate Change Advisory Panel and explained that this Advisory Panel meeting would be looking at Local Renewable Power Generation: Anaerobic Digestion Plant High Level Feasibility.

 

The Climate Change Advisory Panel received an update from Kevin Gibbs, Executive Director: Delivery on the outcome of the Atkins report into the high-level feasibility of building an anaerobic digestion (AD) plant in the Borough.

 

Kevin was joined by Damian James, Assistant Director: Contact Services, Grainne Siggins, Executive Director: People and Ross Wilson and Richard Lancaster from Atkins.

 

The presentation covered the following highlights:

 

·       The paper looked at many different aspects of Anaerobic Digestors.

·       Within the Climate Change Action Plan it had been raised by a number of consultees that not enough was being done around local power generation.

·       In discussion with the Executive Member 12 months ago, work had begun to look at different options, and one of those was anaerobic digestion.

·       The following types of renewable energy could be invested in by the Council; Solar, Wind turbines, Hydroelectric, Micro-nuclear, Micro combined heat and power and Hydrogen fuel cell

·       A number of consultees commented that Bracknell was behind other Councils in local power generation.

·       Council owned energy firms had lost more than £100m according to new analysis.

·       A short video was shown to the Panel.

·       The key concept of Anaerobic Digestions was that it broke down the organic material and turned it in to different sources, one of these being biogas and one being digestate, which could be used as fertilizer and could be used in terms of renewable energy through turning into a gas or directly into electricity.

·       Re3 food waste is contracted at an anaerobic digestor in Wallingford until 2031, it produces biomethane which is used to create electricity and received approximately 20,00 per annum from the three re3 Councils.

·       Members had recently visited the Wallingford Anaerobic Digestor.

·       It was hoped that the number would be driven down, regarding the amount of food waste received across the council.

·       An average village was 2000 homes and would need 17,000 tonnes of food waste to electrically power it. It would cost £9m to build an electricity to grid AD plant.

·       19,000 tonnes of feedstock would require a land space of circa 0.8 hectares.

·       A 50,000 tonne plant would generate 3MWh which could power up to 6,000 homes.

·       There were 780 re3 movements to Wallingford per annum.

·       There had been a visit to the Basingstoke AD in September 2021.

·       The first stage of any procurement process was market making, which would be the council showing what the need was.

·       The Business Case for an AD plat seemed viable, but required significant investment of at least £18m including land.

·       The Council would not be able to lead as a core service, nor were the expertise in place for this.

·       Initial feasibility work had been developed, but it was an officer view that the market was well willing to invest in.

·       The S151 Officer had commented that the Council would not be able  ...  view the full minutes text for item 32.

33.

Feedback from the Climate Change Advisory Panels visits pdf icon PDF 2 MB

To received feedback on the visits to Lakeside Energy from Waste plant on the 30 November 2021 and Wallingford Anaerobic Digestor plant  on the 1 December 2021.

Minutes:

The Climate Change Advisory Panel provided positive feedback on their recent visits.

 

It was commented by the Chair that the Grudens trip was fantastic and that he was still confused to why Heathrow didn’t want to use their energy.

 

Councillor Mrs Hayes, confirmed to the group that she’d like to take the Advisory Panel on another trip to visit the London Road site.

34.

Date of Next Meeting

Minutes:

The date of the next meeting of the Climate Change Advisory Panel was 9 March 2022.

 

Contact Information

Democratic services

Email: committee@bracknell-forest.gov.uk