Minutes:
The Climate Change Officer advised Members that currently the Council had no Carbon Reduction Plan and that monitoring and activity on the former plan had stopped in 2022. However, a viable Carbon Reduction plan would be looked at following recommendations further to an internal audit.
Internal Audit had also identified the necessity to develop an internal working group to develop the Carbon Reduction Plan for the Council, and following a meeting held on 13th October 2025, the Climate Resilience Working Group was formed. This group would enable greater ownership by multiple different departments.
The groups’ primary objective would be to develop an effective and implementable Carbon Reduction Plan. Further meetings would be held prior to the next scrutiny meeting where an of the plan would be provided on the progress of the plan.
The Council along with Nottinghamshire County Council were collectively working with the Microgeneration Certification Scheme (MCS) which was funded by the MCS Foundation (an energy advocacy charity aimed at accelerating the use of carbon free energy) on creating a new strategy that would be launched on 20th October. The aim of the new strategy was focused on upskilling local green skills to enable retrofitting BDC homes to achieve lower emissions.
This was part of a larger strategy from East Midlands Retrofit Strategy (EMRS) a regional collaboration on the retrofit strategy to reduce fuel poverty and increase the sustainability of homes across the East Midlands.
It was incredibly positive for the residents of Bolsover and the Council.
The Green Skills Development Hub (located in Shirebrook) had a £250,000 grant approved through the UK Government Regeneration Fund and East Midlands Investment Zone. Multiple development proposals had been received from colleges and universities as well as private companies for the Hub and Rider Levett Bucknall (RLB) had been appointed as the consultant on this project.
An internal working group to facilitate and manage this project has been created and consists of the following: Interim Director of Planning, Devolution and Corporate Policy, Leaders Executive and Partnership Strategy Manager and the Climate Change Officer. All local stakeholders including colleges, universities and members of the Boslover Partnership have presented their input throughout and would continue going forward to ensure this project benefits the community as much as possible when completed in the academic year of 2027.
The Climate Change Officer then presented a Carbon Plan Update Regarding the Energy Plan developments. It was confirmed that work was ongoing with the Carbon Plan and Energy Plan Updates with Energy Performce Certificates (EPC’s) being collected to identify areas which required more attention.
In response to a question relating to older properties which may not have EPCs it was explained that when older properties were renovated with extensions or refurbished an EPC could be produced.
Only a very small percentage of older properties had never been improved and average EPC ratings for similar type properties could be used. Low EPC performing properties tended to be located in the same more than likely would require work to be upgraded, to the desired minimum national standard which was E for existing properties by 2028 and C for Social housing by 2030.
The Climate Change Officer confirmed BDC was working in partnership with Nottingham Trent University on researching and developing a supply chain database to discover why Small Medium Enterprises (SME’s) were finding it particularly difficult to operate within major housing developments in the local community. The result was a report and pilot database that could be used by housing developers to improve local SME’s activity. This was funded by the East Midlands Investment Zone (EMIZ) and covered the East Midlands Combined County Authority (EMCCA) Area.
EMIZ was an investment institution governed and managed by EMCCA. The EMIZ was awarded £160 million in public investment by central government over a ten-year period along with an estimated £383 million in private sector investment over a ten-year period. The funding would be used across the East Midlands to focus on clean energy projects and advanced manufacturing.
EMCCA was formed in 2024 to monitor and govern economic growth, housing, transport, and skills development throughout the East Midlands.
It was confirmed that Bolsover Partnership would be developing a thematic working group and that the Climate Change Officer would be Vice-Chair of this group.
Moved by Councillor Sandra Peake and seconded by Councillor Cathy Jeffery RESOLVED that the Carbon Reduction Plan: Draft Actions Update be noted.