Notes from Climate Cafe meeting with PKC on the Climate Action Plan

Date: Wednesday 25 November

Notes from the Climate Café meeting with PKC 18.11.20

30 people took part, including 3 young people, members of Alyth Eco Kids.

This was the 4^th in a series of meetings with Perthshire Climate Cafes and is part of an engagement process over several months. The next event will be a general online session on December 9^th from 6pm to 8pm. People can register for this by emailing:

climatechange@pkc.gov.uk

This is also the best way to communicate ant ideas/questions etc with the PKC team drafting the Climate Action Plan.

The online survey closes on January 5^th but there will be events in January and February:

u    To identify any areas of concern that were not covered in the engagement

u  To discuss Council-led strategies specific to the phases in greater detail

u  To have experts of each phase present their own activities and goals towards tackling Climate Change

u  A live Q&A session

These will be advertised in due course.

To encourage participation, there will be prizes of up to £1,000 for schools, businesses, individuals and locally constituted groups to be spent on energy and carbon saving actions and/or towards active travel.

The discussion

1.General. The first focus was on how to help people in local communities grasp the urgency of the climate emergency. Local data, visualisations and other approaches were suggested. We acknowledged that this needs a public information campaign from Scottish Gov, local gov. and supported by local groups. People need to be inspired by positive examples. Local radio was seen as a good way to reach a lot of people in Perthshire.

Schools, the curriculum and environmental practices in schools (specifically recycling) were looked at next. Much work to be done here. PKC is creating online learning packages which could be made available beyond schools. Part of the engagement process will focus specifically on schools. One suggestion was to introduce an inter-schools challenge related to climate change – perhaps a quiz format or based on actions taken. Support is needed for eco groups in schools.

2. Transport. The need for an expanded EV charge point infrastructure was raised. In Blairgowrie there is one charge point with access for only one car at a time. There is scope to develop Broxden further as a hub. Some hubs in Dundee are solar powered. There are also plans for a hydrogen station at Broxden. PKC’s own light fleet is changing to EVs.  

Re active travel, a plea was made for PKC to become more directly involved in local initiatives. It is very difficult for small groups to manage something on the scale of cycle paths and to find match funding.

The Ember bus (EV bus service between Dundee & Edinburgh via Perth) was mentioned.

The Cross Tay Link Road will have cycle lanes.

A low carbon travel plan for Rattray will be the subject of local engagement starting in December and continuing through 2021.

3. Land Use. An area has been identified for tree planting. PKC help to draw up an agreement and support to form a new charity was requested. The proposal is to use the SG Woodland Carbon Code to enable local people to plant and look after a batch of trees (there is space for 500 in the pilot) and offset their carbon footprint in that way.

There is a PKC strategy on forestry. Green networks are being identified and potential green corridors are being explored. Catchment planning was also mentioned. For more information on the PKC Forest and Wood Strategy - https://www.pkc.gov.uk/ldp2trees

PKC & local people in Rattray could collaborate on creating and running a community garden in the most deprived area. For more information on the PKC Food Growing Strategy - https://www.pkc.gov.uk/foodgrowingstrategy

In terms of agriculture, a plea was made for oats (for non-dairy milk) and rape seed (to replace palm oil) to be grown more in this area. Much more could and needs to be said about agricultural practices and PKC’s own land management practices (verge cutting, spraying etc.).

4. Energy. There is a dearth of impartial advice and help for householders in P&K. An idea put forward was that each community should have its own “eco/energy hub” to give good quality advice and support to obtain grants and other funding for people in fuel poverty.

PKC is retrofitting its properties.

Final points.

As part of the engagement process, a template which people can use to explain any suggestions or ideas they have would be a good addition.

FINALLY, WE WERE ASKED TO SPEAK UP ABOUT WHAT IS NEEDED. Peter Marshall explained that when planning proposals are put forward it is rare for anyone to respond with their approval so that often a small number of objectors have a disproportionate influence.

Links to the online surveys are available. The email address for the Climate Change team is: climatechange@pkc.gov.uk This is the contact for registering for any of the forthcoming events and also for any additional comments or queries anyone wants to make as part of the consultation.

 

Contacts and further reading:

For zero waste, recycling in schools etc, contact Ana de Miguel on  ADeMiguel@pkc.gov.uk

For community gardens, contact allotments@pkc.gov.uk

This week, WWF and Scottish Power launched their collaboration challenge in the run up to COP 26 in Glasgow - see https://www.wwf.org.uk/cop26-climate-collaboration-challenge

In relation to local data (section 1 above): there will be good visualisations out there which show the impacts of climate change on a more local scale (e.g. different scenarios re flooding). One example of a good tool is:  https://www.cheknews.ca/interactive-map-shows-impact-of-rising-water-levels-to-vancouver-island-385720/

Adaptation Scotland has tools too to identify the needs on a local level to adapt to changes and/or prepare for them:

 https://www.adaptationscotland.org.uk/

 

Thanks to everyone who took part, especially Jess Pepper who did a great job of facilitating the discussion and ensuring that everyone had their say. And this is just the start.

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