Agenda and draft minutes

South West Wales Corporate Joint Committee - Energy Sub-Committee - Monday, 28th April, 2025 2.00 pm

Venue: Via Microsoft Teams

Contact: Chloe Plowman - Email: c.plowman@npt.gov.uk 

Items
No. Item

1.

Welcome and Chairs Announcements

Minutes:

The Chairperson welcomed everyone to the meeting.

2.

Declarations of Interests

Minutes:

The following declaration of interest was received:

 

Cllr A.Lewis

 

 

General declaration – As she is a Board Member of the Swansea Community Energy and Enterprise Scheme

 

3.

Update on Regional Energy Strategy Delivery pdf icon PDF 619 KB

Minutes:

Members were provided with an update on the Regional Energy Strategy Delivery.

 

The Chairperson was pleased to note that the Regional Energy Team had recently been awarded a further year of funding from Welsh Government until March 2026.

 

Officers provided an overview of the report and reminded the Committee that the Local Area Energy Plans (LAEPs) were the framework for delivery of the Regional Energy Strategy. It was noted that although the LAEP are public documents, there were plans to publicise them further through a public forum at the beginning of July 2025; this will be an important stage for public engagement and transparency, as it will demonstrate progress made, challenges and specifics around delivery.

 

Despite the positive news about additional funding from Welsh Government, it was stated that the funding was only available up until March 2026 and there were a number of concerns in terms of resourcing the delivery.

 

It was explained that there were limited resources across all four Local Authorities for delivering this workstream, with many Officers working on the delivery as part of their day jobs; there were also limited targeted employees carrying out this particular piece of work.

 

Following on from the above, Officers highlighted that the Regional Energy Team were critical in terms of delivery and continuing progress. It was noted that discussions would need to take place in terms of staff resource; particularly the need for more permanent roles in order to provide consistent progress.

 

Members were informed that Officers were currently waiting for the Welsh Government statement regarding Carbon Budget 3, which should be provided by the end of the year.

 

It was stated that the current position, from an Officer level, was that although delivery was moving forward, it was currently on a low level due to the highlighted difficulties and challenges.

Officers provided detail in regard to serval ongoing and planned projects:

·        Parc Gelli Werdd Launch Events – As previously mentioned, there was a planned launch event for LAEPs at Parc Gelli Werdd, a sustainable business park in Cross Hands, which was funded by a joint venture between Carmarthenshire County Council and Welsh Government. In addition to this, Officers explained that they were developing LAEP webpages and creating online training for staff within the Local Authorities in order for them to engage with the LAEP documents.

·        Innovate UK Application – Officers were working in Pembrokeshire, with Bluestone and the Port, to produce an application for Innovate UK to support Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) within the tourism supply chain; this piece of work sought to obtain their carbon reporting and decarbonisation plans. It was noted that this work provided support to these organisations in order to assist them in improving their sustainability, reducing their carbon footprint and providing a combined decarbonisation plan; it also enables Officers to aggregate that data and look for opportunities where smart energy systems could be created.

·        Regional Transport – The Regional Energy Team were linking in with the Regional Transport Team to ensure  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.

4.

Urgent Items

Any urgent items at the discretion of the Chairperson pursuant to Section 100BA(6)(b) of the Local Government Act 1972 (as amended).

Minutes:

There were no urgent items received.