Agenda and draft minutes

None.

Members of the public wishing to speak to the partnership for up to five minutes must register with the committee clerk named above by noon on Thursday (the day before the meeting).

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Minutes attached                                                                5 minutes

Purpose: To approve the minutes of the meeting of the Oxfordshire Environment Partnership meeting held on 1 November 2013 and to receive information arising from them.

The minutes of the Oxfordshire Environment Partnership meeting held on 1 November 2013 were agreed as a correct record and signed as such by the Chairman.

Report attached                                                                  30 minutes

This report on the progress of the OxFutures project will be accompanied by a presentation by Mairi Brookes, Oxfutures Project leader, Oxford City Council and Anthony Simpson from the Low Carbon Hub.

Ms M Brookes, Oxfutures Project Leader, Oxford City Council and Dr Simpson from the Low Carbon Hub gave a presentation on the project including funding and the partners’ roles. This covered the focus of the project; funding; and targets. There was a launch event for the Oxfutures project on 24 January 2014.

The Low Carbon Hub helped develop projects with community and public buildings and with larger scale residential projects. Recent projects included helping Oxford Bus Company to fit large-scale solar panels. Schools, community, and commercial buildings around Oxfordshire could benefit from the hub’s expertise. While the hub was not actively sourcing new projects it was always open for discussions with groups who had projects to take forward within a reasonable timescale.

Report attached                                                                  15 minutes

Purpose: To give an update on Oxfordshire County Council’s progress toward recording and monitoring the impact of severe weather events on properties and services, and outlines opportunities to work with the county’s Community Action Groups to build community resilience to weather events.

The partnership considered a short update on Oxfordshire County Council’s progress toward recording and monitoring the impact of severe weather events on properties and services. The update also outlined opportunities to work with the county’s Community Action Groups to build community resilience to weather events.

Oxfordshire County Council was holding a summit on flood prevention for key stakeholders on 21 March.

The Environment Agency had proposed a major flood alleviation scheme for Oxford.

Members commented and noted that:

·          all of West Oxfordshire’s parishes which had experienced flooding had a parish flood plan;

·          the partnership’s emergency protocol had co-ordinated communications about waste collections to the public to reduce confusion;

·          waste partnership officers were collating information on the impact of flooding on waste collection and disposal;

·          the sand in sandbags could be reused (if uncontaminated) or returned for reuse as aggregate.

The partnership agreed:

1.      to ask the Environment Agency for information on their proposed flood alleviation scheme;

2.      that the outcome of the flood prevention summit should be discussed at a future meeting;

3.      to support building community resilience work through their local contacts; and

4.      to consider a report about participating in the Severe Weather Monitoring System (SWIMS) at a future meeting of the Partnership.

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Report attached to the agenda for the Oxfordshire Waste Partnership meeting.                                                                                 15 minutes

Purpose: To give an update on the procurement of community engagement and environmental education services.

This item is included in the Waste Partnership minutes.