Thurstan Crockett, Head of Brighton and Hove City Council's Sustainability & Environmental Policy, was invited to address interested Transition Brighton and Hove members and to field questions at The Brighthelm Centre on Tuesday 22nd July 2008.
The purpose of the talk, arranged by TB&H's Liaison with Local Govenment
Group was for Thurstan to present the progress of Brighton & Hove's Climate Change Strategy.
Return to LLG Home Page
In explaining the background to the Climate Change Strategy, Thurstan
referred to the signing of the Nottingham Declaration by the Leader and Chief Executive of Brighton and Hove Council in 2004, demonstrating their commitment to responding to this challenge.
The Nottingham Declaration commits the council to contributing to the
delivery of the national climate change programme, preparing a plan with the local community to address the causes and effects of climate change, reduce its own emissions, encourage all sectors of the local community to reduce their own emissions, work with key providers to adapt to changes, and provide opportunities for renewable energy generation within the area.
Following this commitment to The Nottingham Declaration, the Council organized its Fourth Annual Sustainability Conference on Climate Change in November 2005 on the theme of Climate Change. The conference was used for scoping opinion and interest in the local community and from stakeholders to assist in the creation of Climate Change Action Plan.
The Climate Change Action Plan (launched in December 2006) outlined the Council's aims to:
-Reduce greenhouse gas emissions in our city by conserving energy, reducing local waste, and promoting the benefits of sustainable transport, such as cycling or walking, rather than using the car for short journeys around the city.
-Encourage local businesses and other organisations to follow the council's lead and take responsibility for their own environmental impact on the city.
-Prepare for the changes that will happen in Brighton & Hove because of the changing climate, such as hotter summers, drier winters, storms and downpours.
-Create a change of attitude to renewable energy, such as wind and solar power as viable alternatives to the use of fossil fuels (for example coal and petrol).
-Illustrate the economic, social and environmental benefits of taking action
now on climate change.
The report on the Fourth Annual Sustainability Conference on Climate Change as well as the presentations from the four guest speakers, are available below to download:
Sustainability Conference 2005 Report [PDF 436kb]
Future Climate Change and Impacts (Professor Callum Firth) [PDF 219kb]
Renewable Energy and it's Role in our Future (Howard Johns) [PDF 722kb]
Towards Sustainable Development of the Built Environment (Terry Wyatt) [PDF 446kb]
Improving Life in Cities (Helle Lis Søholt) [PDF 1.2Mb]
Thurstan recognized that the Climate Change Action Plan would need citywide buy-in and would also need to set targets and priorities. In order to measure whether the general target of cutting carbon emissions across the city is being met, data was needed on what Brighton and Hove's emissions were in 2006 and this was plotted back to 1990. Comparison could then be made with the targets set within the Kyoto Protocol. In a formal agreement with government, a target of a 4% reduction in carbon emissions for three years was set.
Early efforts to engage with the local community left scope for improvement, though some internal actions within the Council (e.g. monitoring their own energy use & carbon footprint; staff travel) were steps in the right direction. There were efforts to engage both with schools and with Brighton and Hove's business sector. There was a debate on adaptation and resilience as well as focus on the numbers of cars in the city and the impact of homes on carbon emissions.
In the second phase of his talk, Thurstan introduced One Planet Living and the latter's operation as a joint developer in Brighton (together with the volume house-builder Crest Nicholson) under the name BioRegional Quintain.
One Planet Living (OPL) and BioRegional Quintain have pioneered ecological footprinting as a broad indicator of resource consumption. To sustain Brighton and Hove's current level of resource consumption, three and a half planets (of productive land and ocean) would be needed.(The average resource consumption for the UK as a whole requires three planets).
One Planet Living is well aware of the paradox of housing 170 people in sustainable accommodation in a fantastically unsustainable city. To try to reconcile the contradictory aspects, One Planet Living was keen to offer its services in refreshing the city of Brighton and Hove's Climate Change Strategy, providing £10,000 worth of finance as part of the offer. Part of the project has been to take a headline view at consumption-based CO2 emissions in the city. Emissions related to production are not to bad, but in terms of CO2 emissions related to Consumption, Brighton and Hove (a service-orientated seaside/tourist resort with a lot of places to eat out) is one of the worst performing cities in the country. This has much to do with Food and Air Miles.
Progress in refreshing our Climate Change Strategy has involved setting short-term, interim and long-term goals. The steep increases, which we have recently experienced in the price of oil, have focused both on the needs for both urgent action and transformational value. The Environment Council has suggested that, in reviewing Brighton and Hove's Climate Change Strategy, regard is also given to risks such as drought, rises in sea level, flooding &/or severe heat. The response to these scenarios, which are to be subject to scientific probability analysis (i.e. risk assessment) would need to consider a service area of 25 square kilometres.
Back in 2002, 'Climate Change' got 'just about a mention' in the Council's Sustainability Strategy. The latter, one of ten strategy documents, is now considered very important as refreshed versions of it need to be approved by the full Council.
Thurstan's printed handout set out the links between One Planet Living,
Brighton and Hove City Council and the body known as The Local Strategic Partnership (LSP), also called The 2020 Community Partnership. 
It is through the LSP that One Planet Living has been commissioned to develop an up-to-date Climate Change Strategy for Brighton and Hove.
The Local Strategic Partnership is much broader than the Council itself, since it has six members from other public sector bodies, six from Brighton and Hove's business sector, twelve from the community and voluntary sector, and two from regional government bodies. There are a number of Strategic Partnerships in our city, another being Brighton and Hove's Sustainability Partnership for which Transition Brighton and Hove is putting forward Jacqui Cuff as their 2008 candidate for membership. The route for election onto these Partnerships is through Brighton and Hove's Community and Voluntary Sector Forum
The LSP or The 2020 Community Partnership provides strategic direction to the city i.e. a way in which mainstream service providers such as the city council, police, health services and central government agencies can listen to the views and concerns of local residents and work with other service providers such as the voluntary sector to tackle cross-cutting issues they could not address themselves and to join up and deliver services in a way that meets local need.
Last year, the LSP was asked to set three top priorities. Thurstan Crockett's Sustainability Team was delighted that tackling Climate Change (i.e. the city's carbon emissions) made it among the top three.
On 19th November 2007, a Brighton and Hove Climate Change Strategy Stakeholder Day, involving over 150 people from a wide range of backgrounds and levels of expertise, was held at The Freeman Centre at University of Sussex.
Brighton and Hove City Council contacted the Environment Council on behalf of the LSP. The Environment Council worked with the LSP representatives to define the aim and objectives for the workshop. Since the latter would bring together 60 diverse stakeholders, a process was needed to ensure that the workshop would have the best outputs so that the LSP would be able to maximize its impact in its attempt to lower carbon emssions across the city by 2050.
The documents below summarise the work undertaken by our stakeholders on the 19 November 2007 and our facilitators summary report of the day.
-[Programme PDF 50kb]
-Summary of John Chesshire's Speech [Link to follow]
-Heather Buttivant's Presentation [Heather Slides PDF 2.31mb]
-Thurstan Crockett's Presentation [Thurstan Slides PDF 1.27 mb]
-The Environment Council's Summary Report [Summary Report PDF 871kb]
The revised Sustainability Strategy will hopefully act as a check on Brighton and Hove City Council's administration and planning decisions in the future. It incorporates National Indicators for Carbon reduction in local areas.
One Planet Living will hold one week of workshops between 22nd and 26th September 2008 for schools, local businesses and the community voluntary sector. The progress of the project will then be widely promoted.
Questions to Thurstan from the Floor
Question 1.
Jim: TB&H Energy Group identified an energy gap and asked about the use of wind turbines in relation to Shoreham harbour. A plan to locate some in shallow water 10-15 miles off-shore was not to be implemented until 2014 (see The Core Strategy), but Jim asked if it could be speeded up.
It was noted that there had been planning objections to the creation of an off-shore wind farm for London. There is mention in the Core Strategy about Shoreham Harbour having a sub-station to connect to an off-shore wind farm. Within the Area Action Plan for Shoreham Harbour, West Sussex County Council, SEEDA, Adur and Brighton and Hove City Council are all signed up to a major opportunity for large-scale renewables. There is full Council support for large-scale renewables at Shoreham.
Reference was made from the floor to Al Gore's recent speech: a generational challenge to repower America using 100% renewables within 10 years. It was suggested that Britain should put Al Gore's suggestion into practice. An off-shore wind farm could use the Fishergate sub-station. The potential for tidal power was also mentioned and it was felt that a gas-fired power station could supply Brighton and Hove with hot water long before 2014. Another speaker from the floor emphasized the need for impact assessment in relation to protection of flora and fauna. Wind farms might not have the best environmental impact.
Question 2
Clare, who has previously worked fot the Council, highlighted the difficulties she was having in getting support via The Council's Energy Efficiency Manager for her learning disabilities project involving carbon management, composting and recycling. Thurstan acknowledged that staffing levels could be better. The Energy Efficiency Manager doubles as The Council's Water Manager, but greater resource provision was in the pipeline. Instead of a sole Energy Efficiency Manager, there is going to be an Energy Team. A specific learning module on Energy Efficiency is to be made available to Senior Management within the Council. Every directorate will have a carbon reduction Induction process lasting at least half a day. E-learning opportunities will also be available for all staff. However, in deciding where to allocate funds, payback time will remain an important consideration.
Question 3
John made mention of the cooperative relationship which Transition Brighton an Hove were seeking with the Council. Jacqui asked whether a time-scale (e.g. 60% by 2050) had been put on reducing carbon emissions within the Climate Change Strategy. She also felt that the Council could improve on publicity in engaging with the local community. Joyce reminded members of Transition Brighton and Hove on their own need to work on how they were going to channel their relationship with the Council in relation to Sustainability.
Question 4
Stephen focused on the quantity of rented accommodation within Brighton an Hove and asked if it was within Thurstan's remit to encourage landlords to take or allow energy-saving measures such as wall/roof insulation, double or triple glazing or even allowing tenants to fit curtain rails! Thurstan mentioned that the Private Sector Housing Group was part of the Housing Partnership. Brighton and Hove City Council had one of the most extensive and sophisticated Grants Systems for encouraging energy efficiency e.g. through the Warm Homes initiative. It was helped that incentives to save energy could be extended to landlords. From October 2008, rented properties will need Energy Efficiency certificates. The worst performing may find that they are shunned by some prospective tenants.
Question 5
Joyce focused on the contribution of food (through Brighton and Hove's restaurants and not just through "food miles") to our city's ecological footprint. Reference was made to the Cuba model of growing food within and around housing estates. Allotments locally are considerably oversubscribed. It was time for Open Space planning to extend beyond the usual amenity and recreational values and to extend to horticultural activities i.e.growing more of our own food locally. Dig for Victory was mentioned as something which could be revived, the new victory focusing on the environmental challenge. Another speaker from the floor wondered whether the inefficiency of supporting meat production could guide planning policies. Thurstan observed that this was something that Bioregional mention when discussing resource intensity.
Question 6
Doly focused on the relatively small resource provision in terms of manhours, working towards sustainability within a Council which has a very large payroll. Within the Council there are 3 members of staff working on sustainability, not full-time and not daily. The sustainability brief is in addition to other work. Doly's point was that insufficient manhours were there. Thurstan acknowledged these working constraints, but mentioned a very useful additional resource: the Council's Active Volunteering Programme. There was scope for building on its success: finding what volunteers wanted, their capabilities. Managing volunteers was an area where more attention could lead to greater gains.
Brighton and Hove Council's Sustainability Team, made up of Council officers, is a small team based within the Strategy & Governance Directorate of the council. The team works across the council and with the community to promote sustainability issues through the development of action plans, supporting local projects and campaigns, and through the delivery of an environmental education programme. The team offer unpaid volunteering, work shadowing and other work experience opportunities. Work can range from general administration and office duties, to research projects and assisting in the organisation of events. Projects which they already support include:
- Carbon Management Programme
- Climate change action plan
- Education for Sustainable Development Conference
- Eco-schools programme
- Energy performance certificate
- Environmental education
- Fairtrade
- Farmers' markets
- Green kids club
- Park Art Schools Resource CdRom
- Microgeneration
- Nuclear Power and Shoreham Harbour
- Real nappies
- Sustainability commission
- Sustainable schools
- Sustainability strategy
- Water saving
- Volunteering
- Water Action Plan
The question session with Thurstan closed at the planned time of 9pm when the meeting proceeded to select Jacqui Cuff (from TB&H's Liaison with Local Government Group) as Transition Brighton and Hove's candidate to compete for a place on our city's Sustainability Partnership in elections administered by Brighton and Hove's Community and Voluntary Sector Forum.
See separate post on the process and administration of these 2008 elections.
