Agenda item

To agree and adopt the refreshed Kent Environment Strategy: A strategy for environment, health and economy by Kent County Council. 

Cabinet received a report on the Kent Environment Strategy: A Strategy for environment, health and economy, which had been the subject of a public consultation from 27 July to 25 September 2015, as agreed by the Environment and Transport Cabinet Committee on 21 July 2015. Following on from the consultation, the strategy was updated to reflect feedback and the final draft of the strategy was endorsed by the Kent Leaders’ Group on 24 November and the Environment and Transport Cabinet Committee on 4 December 2015. The report now before the Cabinet recommended formal adoption of the Kent Environment Strategy.

Mr Balfour, Cabinet Member for Environment and Transport stated that this had been an extremely good piece of work, which had evolved through consultation and he praised Carolyn McKenzie and her team for achieving co-operation and agreement from Districts and other key stakeholders.

Carolyn McKenzie, Head of Sustainable Business and Communities, was present and gave an informative presentation, which outlined the high level priorities, which were derived either through legislation, partner priorities or stakeholder and customer needs. She added that the strategy was very much a Kent strategy, a partnership document with Kent County Council as the facilitator and leading by example. The strategy contained key links to other areas, such as health and economy and there were shared risks and opportunities from climate and wider environmental factors such as population and land use change. Members were advised that the rapidly-changing policy environment over the last 3-5 years, coupled with a recession and severe public sector cuts had driven the need to review the strategy as well as the needs of the public health agenda. With regard to the approach, Carolyn McKenzie explained that the strategy was very much evidence-based with strong engagement through a range of workshops, partner meetings and a full consultation exercise, including a public perception survey.

She explained that there were a number of significant opportunities and challenges, mainly due to the high level of growth in Kent; these issues included poor air quality in some areas, 8% of residents in fuel poverty, severe weather impacts such as flooding and severe pressure on ground water supplies.

On the positive side, she explained that a high proportion of respondents to the survey had stated that they regarded the Kent countryside as important to them and eco-tourism, which included visits to public parks and the coast, was worth £2.5bn to the Kent economy.

More than 75% of the respondents to the survey supported the high level aims and many of those who didn’t wanted a stronger focus in some of the same areas. One of the most important areas of public feedback was the need to balance development with the needs of the environment. Other key issues going forward related to making the coast more important/prominent and noise, specifically airport noise. All of these factors had been included within the strategy.

The next stage in the process would be to develop a detailed implementation plan to support the high level priorities within the strategy, which would be reviewed annually.

Once Cabinet had approved the strategy, it would be owned by the Kent Leaders and Chief Executives and there would also be a cross-party informal Member Group set up to monitor delivery of the strategy as well as the Kent Environment Board of senior managers.

Finally, she thanked Sarah Anderson and Adam Morris in her team for their hard work on the strategy.

The Leader thanked Carolyn for her presentation and stressed how important it was for the Cabinet to receive an annual report on the progress made towards achieving the key priorities within the strategy, particularly given the pace of development within the county.

Mr Balfour stated that the focus now would be on getting the implementation plan right and addressing the appropriate matters as they came forward and he would be happy to support an annual report to Cabinet. He stated that the difficulty would be persuading our colleagues across Kent that we had a growth agenda through the Growth and Infrastructure Framework (GIF) and what the Districts were bringing forward in terms of housing numbers; which was going to put enormous pressure on the environment. He stressed the health benefits of enjoying the natural environment and the need to promote this. Mr Balfour also stated that he had invited Carolyn or Sarah Anderson to attend the Infrastructure Funding Group, which oversaw the GIF, to ensure that their voices were heard from the point of view of the Environment Strategy in relation to infrastructure development within the County.

Mr Sweetland, Cabinet Member for Commercial and Traded Services echoed the comments of Mr Balfour in seeking to make sure that good progress was being made on the high level priorities and the strategy reviewed on a regular basis. He endorsed the comment about development not being at any cost and that improving air quality particularly on the motorway corridors was an important strategic aim.

The Leader endorsed the comments made and reminded Members of the importance of the strategy given the projected rise in Kent’s population of 17% and 300,000 new homes by 2031. He asked Carolyn McKenzie to bring forward an annual report to Cabinet in a year’s time to update Members on the progress made towards achieving the high level priorities.

No further comments were made.

It was RESOLVED that: