Agenda item

Sally Oldfield, Nature Conservation Manager, and Andrew Bedford, Head of Greenspace and Leisure Services was present, together with Barry Emmerson Park and Open Spaces Manager for discussion of this item and made a presentation to the Committee, copy interleaved

The scope, challenge, objective and deliverables of what the council wants to achieve across the natural environment in the next twelve months were reported. The following points were highlighted:

·         On Scope, the whole borough is in scope. The council needs to look at how we can create greening opportunities and developments across every part of the borough. This included parks, Highways, housing (private and council owned) and commercial land.

·         On Challenges, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) , 9th August issued "code red for humanity" Without deep carbon pollution cuts now, the 1.5°C goal will fall quickly out of reach. Climate Vulnerability Mapping produced City Hall and Bloomberg Associates, Bloomberg Philanthropies’ pro-bono consultancy for cities, shows that six London boroughs are at particularly high risk from the effects of climate change. Islington is identified as one of those boroughs at high risk. Greening the borough will cool microclimates, absorb carbon and aid in flood risk mitigation as well as offering up many more benefits

·         On Objectives, the Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP) was highlighted, along with the need to identify new opportunities to increase the amount of green infrastructure on all council public realm developments. And the increase tree canopy cover in Islington from 25% to 30%.

·         On Deliverables, the following achievements were noted:

·         Launched consultation of the new BAP in spring 2020, receiving 175 responses.
• Published final BAP September 2020.

·         Provided opportunities for local residents to learn about and enjoy nature, through events, volunteering and education, e.g. 6,500 children benefitted from activities provided by The Garden Classroom during the past year.

·         Seek to maximise benefits for biodiversity through the emerging Greening the Borough Programme.

·         Engage with new audiences to ensure equal access to nature for all, e.g. through a new programme of activities aimed at improving mental health.

·         Work with Bright Lives to deliver environmental education activities for under fives plus a training programme to skill up the Bright Start team with accredited forest school training.

·         Planning applications are carefully scrutinised for their biodiversity impacts and developers are challenged to improve their contributions to the natural environment.

·         Proper consideration for tree protection and tree mitigation through the planning process, with a dedicated tree officer commenting on planning applications and strong tree protection policies in the Local plan.

·         The adoption of the new Local Plan will include clearer and more robust biodiversity requirements for developers.

·         New legislation on Biodiversity Net Gain comes into force in 2023 and the Council will provide guidance to developers on how to comply with this.

·         Set up a Greening the Borough Task Group to develop an action plan with the aim of accelerating the delivery of greening the borough.

·         Completed a review of Community Gardening and Food Growing in the borough which will support the development of the Greening the Borough Action Plan.
• Secured funding and appointed a new dedicated Project Greening the Borough Programme Manager.

·         Secured funding to develop a master plan of greening opportunities on the public highways.

·         Secured an addition £140K per year to invest in greening improvements on the highways.

·         Identify and deliver training programs for current staff to support the delivery of more green infrastructure in Public Realm Projects.

·         Complete the Master Plan of greening opportunities in the public realm.

·         Secured £150K of funding for a new Housing Community Gardening Team to improve the planting/biodiversity on estates and supporting/develop community gardening.

·         Commissioned reports to understand the baseline tree data and allow for focused tree planting

·         Secured a central tree planting budget to enable a minimum of 430+ trees annually to be planted on public land via Capital Programme.

·         Continued tree mitigation for tree loss to development.

·         161 trees planted in conjunction with Forest of Change and Islington Clean Air Parents
• 680+ trees planted in the 21-22 tree planting season

·         Implement online tree planting donation process

·         Develop a tree warden scheme to encourage resident engagement and promote private tree planting

·         Seminars on tree management and tree walks delivered for the climate festival

The Chair thanked Sally Oldfield, Andrew Bedford and Barry Emmerson for the presentation and welcomed members to raise issues and ask questions.

On funding concerns, members were made aware of the transformation funding that the council has obtained that will help towards greener infrastructure. This will be done in a collaboration with the GLA.

On getting greater resident engagement in green council projects, members were made aware of efforts that have gone into programme management around residents getting involved in keeping green spaces open for everyone.

On trees in council run estates, members were reassured about the work that is done to maintain trees within the borough, but as there are over 40,000 trees on public land, it was suggest that a lot more can be done. Action: Officers to detail how many residents do not have access to nature and green spaces within the borough.

It was requested that officers report back on how many residents do not have access to nature and green spaces within the borough.

RESOLVED:

That the presentation be noted