To support the Campaign by DorsetAction to get Dorset Council to divest from fossil fuels and specifically to instruct its Pension Fund Manager (Brunel) to do so, DorsetCAN organised a Flood of Questions to Dorset Council. Here's the report from the Questions Team:
 
Context &Action
‘Over three-quarters of local councils have declared a climate emergency. For the majority of councils, their largest carbon emissions will come from their pension fund investments.’ (UK Divest)

This statement made a deep impression on me when I read the report published by Platform, Friends of the Earth Scotland and Friends of the Earth England Wales and Northern Ireland, in February 2021.

In support of Dorset Action’s 21 month long Climate-Friendly Pensions Campaign, the DorsetCAN Questions Team coordinated a series of questions from concerned individuals, both pension fund members and concerned Dorset residents which were submitted to the Dorset Council Pension Fund Committee virtual meeting on June 15 at 10.00 am .

One question from a pension fund member was
‘Will you please poll Pension Fund members to see if there is a demand among us for an ethical investment option , rather than us having to continue to invest in fossil fuels when we don't want to ?’ which as far as we could see had not been asked before.

Another was:
 ‘Brunel has made a 'net-zero by 2050' commitment.There is a clear contradiction here between Brunel’s date and Dorset Council’s own target of 2040. Surely this is a ‘direct action’ and Dorset Council should instruct Brunel to invest in order to meet their 2040 date?’ – this is also a new and fair question to ask the Pension Fund.

And there were several other pertinent questions around the committee’s accountability to their pension fund members as well as enquiries about relevant actions in progress, for example:
‘In Dorset Council’s ‘Making it happen action plan’, the Council’s Objective 1 includes the following action:
“Investigate decarbonising Dorset Council pension scheme” with the stated target:
“Investigations carried out and reported to EAP  by March 2021”. #
Have those investigations been carried out and have they been reported to the EAP? If so, what did the report say?’

Report
First of all, despite the following information to be found online: "All questions, statements and responses will be published in full within the minutes of the meeting" a couple of questions from the public which received acknowledgments were not to be found in the minutes at the time of the meeting.
Secondly, despite the following statement: "Questions will be read out by an officer of the council and a response given by the appropriate Portfolio Holder or officer at the meeting. "(my bold italics), Cllrs Andy Canning and Peter Wharf announced at the beginning of the meeting that they had decided between them (in consultation with “Member Services” (inaudible..?)) not to have any of the questions read out, but that the questions and responses would be published online and responded to individually.
The reason given was that ‘the topic’ of divestment was discussed in September 2020 and we were referred back to those minutes. This generalised reason ignores the pertinent specifics of many of the June questions and the fact that that discussion took place 9 months ago. The Chairman did then make a statement clarifying Dorset Council’s current position and affirming that they are responsible both for their pension fund members contributions and for investing that money as wisely as possible. Quote: ‘This duty overides any other considerations.’ He also mentioned that Brunel would not be reconsidering their strategies around de-carbonisation until 2022.
The lack of direct response to the questions at the committee meeting was disappointing and to date no responses have been published/given to any of the questions. I shall be following developments and shall complete this report in our next newsletter.
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Thought for the Future
I read the transcript of COP26 President Alok Sharma’s speech at the first Net Zero Pensions summit, published June 1, 2021 . Here is what he said:
"Today, green investments are smart investments.
In the majority of the world, renewables are cheaper than new coal and gas.
Putting your money in fossil fuels creates the very real risk of stranded assets."
He then supports and urges financial institutions to take the following steps:
 
First, commit to exit coal finance.
So that, together, we make COP26 the moment we consign coal power to the past where it belongs.
Second, increase investments in climate action in developing and emerging markets.
Thirdly, protect nature.
By 2025 ensure none of your investments contribute to deforestation.
And by 2030 ensure your investments are contributing to the restoration of the natural world.
Finally, disclose your climate risk in line with the Taskforce on Climate Related Financial Disclosures, or TCFD.
He also  points out that this will become mandatory across most of the UK economy in 2023 and that the UK government will shortly introduce regulations on what this means for pensions, to ensure trustees take account of climate change risk in each and every decision.
There is a real advantage in getting your house in order.
And early.
And that in this vital year for climate action, the year of COP26, you are playing your part in keeping 1.5 degrees alive.
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The draft Local Plan for the whole of Dorset, published in January, has attracted wide concern across the county because of the sheer scale of proposed development – over 39,000 new houses between now and 2038, new industrial estates, roads and other infrastructure.  In Dorset CAN’s formal response, submitted in March, we pointed to the impact which this would have on the landscape and natural resources of the County, encroaching on the Green Belt and the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and making heavy use of greenfield land, including a proposed estate of 3,500 homes on the north side of Dorchester.  It would add greatly to the challenge of cutting greenhouse gas emissions to zero, which is the central aim of Dorset Council’s Climate Strategy, published only 3 months before the Local Plan. 

So, we called on Dorset Council to ‘Re-think the Plan’, cut the number of new houses to 20,000, avoid encroachment on the Green Belt, avoid heavy use of greenfield land, and use more ‘brownfield’ land in the towns.  We followed this with public questions to Dorset Council meetings, receiving only ‘stonewall’ replies from Councillor David Walsh, Cabinet member responsible for the Plan.  So, we decided to launch a campaign to pressurise the Council towards re-thinking.  We wished this campaign to be realistic;  and therefore asked the leading Council officials for a meeting so that we can understand what is driving the proposals in the Plan.   

On 14 June, a team of four from Dorset CAN – Rob Waitt, Michael Dower, Giles Watts and Rosemary Lunt – had a Zoom meeting with Hilary Jordan, Service Manager for Spatial Planning and Terry Sneller, Strategic Planning Manager.  This meeting was candid and friendly.  The officers made plain that local planning authorities are required by the Government to support the drive towards building houses, and must use the Government’s formula for calculating the number of new houses unless ‘exceptional circumstances’ apply.  We had argued that Dorset’s unique combination of scenic, natural, geological and historic heritage amounted to exceptional circumstances which would justify an alternative calculation of housing need.  The officers advised, from experience of decisions by planning Inspectors and Ministers, that this would not suffice.  They recognised that development on the scale proposed would have the impact and implications that we described.  They stated that there may be room for reduction in the number of houses, in the face of public reaction and of continuing studies by the Environment Agency and others.  The Plan will be reviewed in the light of the very wide response to the public consultation : but they could not promise any substantial reduction.

This discussion, plus the answers to our detailed questions which the planners have readily answered, will help us in mounting a vigorous campaign.  We expect to launch this campaign in late July, following a meeting on the evening of Tuesday 13 July of county-level and local organisations whom we are inviting to contribute to it.  We will be appealing, through e-mail and social media, to Dorset CAN members and all Dorset citizens to support this campaign of pressure upon Dorset Council.  If your organisation wishes to take part in the 13 July meeting or in the campaign, please contact Giles Watts at wattsgft@gmail.com.

On 11th June, the Dorset Echo reported as follows:

DORSET Pension Fund is being lobbied to further reduce the carbon footprint of its investments.
Several letters have been sent from fund members and campaigners for next week’s meeting (June 15) calling for changes.

Committee members have been lobbied in the past by Extinction Rebellion campaigners and have also entertained two Dorset GPs, Drs Rebecca Smith and Ruth Arnold, who in 2019 lobbied for the committee to reduce the fund’s reliance on any investments which could cause environmental harm.
Some changes have been made to investment policy as a result but the campaigners say the fund managers should go further and act faster.

At its meeting in September 2020, the committee agreed to a strategy of decarbonisation which should result in a gradual reduction in allocations of investment to companies which are high carbon emitters.
Said Sandra Reeve from Charmouth in her letter to the committee: “BH, BP and Shell account for 40 per cent of total direct investments across all local authority pension funds in the UK.

“It is becoming clear that investing in fossil fuels is increasingly costly. It is a financial risk—with UK Public Pensions losing £2 billion on oil investments in the last 4 years. It’s also a political risk—with the UK public more concerned about climate change than ever before.”

She claims that at the current rate of a 7 per cent reduction a year it will take 15 years for the fund to divest completely from fossil fuel funds.

Fund pensioner, Pam Rosling from Hazelbury Bryan has asked the committee to poll all fund members to establish what demand there is for an ethical investment option, rather than investment in fossil fuels.

Read the full article on the Dorset Echo website

Lyme Regis town councillor Belinda Bawden feels the Impact Carbon Footprint Toolkit could be a significant help to town and parish councils as well as business and community groups trying to plan for net zero carbon futures. The toolkit shows the main sources of local emissions so local action can be directed effectively. For example, housing accounts for almost half the territorial emissions in Lyme Regis with transport the second largest contributor.

Consumption emissions per household in Lyme Regis compared to Bridport
Once the effect of consumption is taken into account, however, the housing contribution is reduced to the fourth largest, with the emissions caused by the consumption of goods and services; travel; and food & diet categories exceeding those from housing.

The scale of the consumption-based emissions seems daunting but there are personal and family-based Carbon Footprinting Toolkits, for example, Giki Zero (see Local News for Corfe Castle’s initiative with Giki Zero) which are fun as well as functional to use.

Using the Impact Toolkit at a community level alongside encouraging households to adopt small lifestyle changes (with Giki Zero) can create genuine community engagement as individuals realise the impact their personal consumption habits can have in the overall carbon footprint of their towns and villages.
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The Impact Toolkit also allows comparisons with national and county averages, as well as other towns. A preliminary analysis of neighbouring and similar towns in Dorset seems to show that towns with more balanced reliance on local and visitor services have lower carbon footprints than those more dependent on the visitor economy. 

Their 2030 Pledge Campaign calls on local councillors to pledge:
“… to do everything in my power to ensure our local authority works in collaboration with the local community to:

• set a target date of no later than 2030 to reach net zero emissions for our District/County/Borough.
• develop and implement an ambitious Climate Action Plan that allows people, enterprise and nature to thrive.
• ensure that tackling the climate and ecological emergency is a priority in all the actions and decisions of the local authority.”

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Their Climate Engagement Trello Board collects examples of community engagement by local authorities on the Climate and Ecological Emergency. You can view the board here.


Their LOCAL AUTHORITY CLIMATE PLAN CHECKLIST – developed by Climate Emergency UK, Friends of the Earth, Centre for Alternative Technology & Ashden. Community groups (that’s us) can use the checklist to assess the ambition of their local authority’s plan. Has anyone got time to use this to assess Dorset Council’s draft Action Plan? Please let us know if you have.

Climate Emergency UK Newsletter March 2021

There was great coverage in the Dorset Echo of the questions that we and others put to Dorset Council’s Scrutiny Committee at their meeting on 24th March. Here’s an extract from Trevor Bevins’ piece:

“Caz Dennett, from Weymouth, has criticised the way questions were framed in the council’s climate consultation which, she says, gave respondents no chance to put forward some views about carbon neutral target dates in the short survey. She says that, as result, the conclusion of the report should be declared invalid because the two surveys, in her opinion, asked significantly different questions.

Corfe Castle parish councillor Josephine Parish claims that since Covid 19 Dorset Council has not held any ‘genuine two way public engagement’ on the climate and ecological emergencies. She says the authority also missed an opportunity by not sending out information about the issues with recent council tax bills. She says that although Dorset Council held no public meetings, where the public were able to ask questions, other organisations did so, proving that it could be done.

‘Given the response rate of less than 0.5% of residents that Dorset Council achieved in its consultation process, will the scrutiny committee recommend that Dorset Council work closely with Dorset-based climate and environmental advocacy groups and organisations (including Parish & Town Councils) which are clearly able to reach – and communicate with – concerned residents more effectively?’

Other questions to this week’s scrutiny committee ask why there is no implementation schedule for the Local Transport Plan. Helen Sumbler says dealing with transport matters is one of the best ways for the county to tackle climate change. She has also asked for an update on the Rights of Way Improvement Plan.”  
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Read the Dorset Echo article

Headlined "think again", Dorset CAN's detailed response was spearheaded by Prof. Michael Dower, who said:

 “The Council has made a heavy rod for all our backs by choosing - quite unnecessarily - a method which exaggerates the number of new houses and workspaces that are needed.  Before we are all dragged by this false start into a deeply damaging scale of new development, we plead with the Council to think again.”

Dorset Council’s estimate of need for over 39,000 new houses is based on a standard method of assessment used by the Government, plus a deliberate policy of over-supply adopted by the Council. But Dorset CAN says that Government rules, set out in the National Planning Policy Framework, allow local authorities to adopt an alternative method if they face ‘exceptional circumstances’.  It urges the Council to use the unique richness of the county’s landscape, wildlife, historic and coastal heritage to justify a different approach, focused truly on local need for housing and workspace.  

Read the response and press release here

It's here!

In a response to Cllr. Beryl Ezzard’s proposed amendment about how DC will fund its CEE strategy, Cllr. Ray Bryan issued a detailed statement, including:

“Dorset Council will need to invest many millions of pounds over the next 20 years to become a Carbon Neutral Council. However, we are off to a fantastic start: -

• We’re installing 44 Electric Vehicle Charge points across the county.
• We have changed to green energy in all our council owned properties where possible.
• We’re consulting in Weymouth on how to encourage safe walking and cycling along the harbour.
• Our Low Carbon Dorset Programme was extended with additional funding from MHCLG of £5m"

Read Cllr Ezzard’s Proposed Amendment and Cllr Bryan’s full response.

Act Now and Have Your Say! Help Create a Future Vision for Dorset : 
People's Assemblies on the Dorset Local Plan 

Caz Dennett says: "The Local Plan outlines the strategy for meeting the needs of the area such as housing, employment, community services and facilities including schools, shops, retail and leisure and is now out for public consultation which ends on 15 March 2021. 

The Plan will last at least until 2038, so will shape all development for the next 17 years – that’s a long time. And anything built in that time will leave a legacy lasting for several generations. We cannot afford to get it wrong.

Town and Parish Council’s across Dorset will be putting in submissions to the consultation. Some are also keen to hear everyone’s thoughts and ideas. So they asked if Assemblies could be arranged to do this. The Assemblies are open to all."

Please join one of our People’s Assemblies using these Zoom links: 
Sun 28th Feb 4pm-6pm - Dorchester Area 
Sat 6th March 2pm-4pm – Dorset wide 
Tues 2nd March 7.30pm - Corfe Castle Parish Council 

Come along and discuss with others. Everyone welcome! More information about these People's Assemblies is here.
Posters and social media banners are below and available to download or copy here.