Agenda item

The Committee received a report of the Interim Corporate Director of Regeneration and Local Services that provided members with information on External Low Carbon Funding opportunities.

The Chair introduced the Sustainability and Climate Change Team Leader who was in attendance to provide an update on external low carbon funding.  She notified the committee that there had been £20million received from the European Union that had funded numerous low carbon projects including BEEP1 and BEEP2. 

In addition, the Sustainable and Climate Change Team Leader noted that it was unclear as to whether the funding would come through for a further four projects that had been successful at the ERDF outline bid stage which included the Durham History Centre Project, the Louisa Centre Mine Water Heat project, the Zero carbon Depot Project and the Auckland Castle Deep Geothermal project.  She agreed that she would provide an update on these bids once she received any information.  She added that the Government was to create a Shared Prosperity Fund to replace some lost funding.

Councillor Adam stated that there were some interesting projects in the pipeline and the Government should be encouraged to fund them through the shared prosperity fund.

Councillor Avery found the use of mine water to heat Bishop Auckland Castle fascinating.  He thanked Officers who had undertaken the housing project at Dean Bank in Ferryhill as now the area looked very attractive.

Councillor Wilkes applauded the huge amount of good work that had been carried out.  He thought that there had been a lot of progress made on developing technology that would go into the new history centre to make it a low carbon building.  He enquired if new technologies were going into the new build County Hall at the riverside in Durham and asked retrospectively what could be done to make the new build more environmentally friendly and sustainable.   

The Sustainability and Climate Change Team Leader replied that new buildings could not apply for grants as they did not fit the criteria as there was an expectation that new buildings had low carbon emissions.  She noted that although she was aware of work going into the new HQ building, she was not involved directly on the project to be able to comment further with clarity.

Resolved

(i) That the report be noted

(ii) That a further update report back to a future committee meeting