Agenda of Environmental Sustainability Policy Committee

ORANGE CITY COUNCIL

MINUTES OF THE

Environmental Sustainability Community Committee

HELD IN Committee Room 3, Civic Centre, Byng Street, Orange

ON 3 August 2018

COMMENCING AT 8.00am

Attendance

Cr S Nugent (Chairperson), Cr J McRae (Deputy Mayor), Cr M Previtera, Ms Shahreen Alford, Mr Robert Alford, Mrs Neina Campbell, Mr Ronald Finch, Mr Gavin Hillier, Mrs Kate Hook, Mr Andrew Kennedy, Mr Nick King, Dr David Mallard, Ms Melanie McDonell, Ms Annella Powell, Mrs Anne Salter, Mr Cyril Smith, Mr Peter West, Mrs Kate Willoughby, Director Development Services, Director Development Services, Water Treatment Manager, Manager Waste Services and Technical Support, Divisional Administration Manager – Development Services

1.1 Apologies and Leave of Absence

RECOMMENDATION Ms A Powell/Ms M McDonell

That the apologies be accepted from Mrs Melissa Brown, Mr Daniel Fock and the Project and Research Officer for the Environmental Sustainability Community Committee meeting on 3 August 2018.

1.2 Acknowledgement of Country

1.3 Declaration of pecuniary interests, significant non-pecuniary interests and less than significant non-pecuniary interests

2 Previous Minutes

RECOMMENDATION Mr N King/Mr A Kennedy

That the Minutes of the Meeting of the Environmental Sustainability Community Committee held on 4 May 2018 (copies of which were circulated to all members) be and are hereby confirmed as a true and accurate record of the proceedings of the Environmental Sustainability Community Committee meeting held on 4 May 2018.

3 Presentations

3.1 Subgroup Updates

TRIM Reference: 2018/1862

A verbal update was given by a representative from each of the five subgroups, as summarised below:

Education (Annella Powell)

· The subgroup’s name was changed from “communication” to education.

· The group recommends that all members of the Committee look at Council’s strategic plans as these will give a good overview of projects that Council is involved in. The group would also requested that all members “Like” Council’s Facebook pages.

· The group will continue to work with Council’s communications team and wants to be seen as “advocates” for that team.

· Cr Nugent sees the education project team as a facilitor and educator of all the other subgroups/project teams – all of the project teams would have an education component.

Energy (Director Development Services)

· Damian West has joined Council as the Manager Building Services, largely to work on energy.

· The group’s efforts have been focussed mainly on the Cities Power Partnership.

· Installation of the NRMA Supercharger is imminent.

· Council is applying for Smart City Grants for the installation of LED lights amongst other projects.

· Staff are preparing a project to install a significant number of solar panels – this will need to go to Council.

· Bob Alford is getting E21 together – we need to get the base work and all information together first before commiting the huge amount of money.

3.1 Subgroup Updates (cont)

Biodiversity (Peter West)

The group’s first activity will be to schedule a planning meeting to go over the biodiversity priorities as follows:

· mapping biodiversity

· threatened and endangered species and communities

· strategies to rehabilitate

· develop a research project with a local university?

· utilise information for future planning

· find out who holds and who is reponsible for holding information about threatened species etc – and how could the Committee access it

· determine what has and hasn’t been done

· gap analysis

· look at the Council website

· introduced species are a high priority – foxes, mynah birds, feral cats etc

· what opportunities exist for school education?

Plastics (Kate Hook)

· A Facebook page was created for “Plastic Free July” – the footage on the page was great for creating community awareness. It was suggested that the title of the page could be changed to “Plastic Free Orange”.

· there were articles in Orange City Life and Central Western Daily, and Kate will be meeting with Prime TV to look at what plastics have come in (plastics collected in July and taken to the ELF).

· Annella Powell suggested that the community should be made aware that this initiative came from a Council committee.

· It was suggested that the Water Treatment Manager do an analysis of what plastics are in creeks, and this analysis should focus more on Orange plastic use and pollution rather than what is happening around the world.

· Nick King stressed the need for legislation to enforce reduction of plastic use. Council does not have a policy on plastic use – these things are voluntary and Council does not have the authority to enforce “plastic free” on the community.

· There is a need to get producers in Orange to reduce their plastic packaging – perhaps there could be a reward system or incentives.

3.1 Subgroup Updates (cont)

Plastics (Kate Hook) (cont)

ACTIONS:

1 There needs to be a meeting between the Plastics and Education teams – where are we going from here, encourage businesses etc.

2 A report needs to go to Council on this issue, compiling everything that has been done and also including proposals as mentioned above.

3 A report is to be prepared for the next meeting of ESCC about the possiblity of Council developing a policy around plastic usage – what are other Government agencies doing?

Water Cycle (Anne Salter)

· Would like a generalised water cycle project localised to Orange – from the catchment, through to storage, treatment and the consumer’s tap. The group would like to get this information into Orange City Life, organise a display and also put it onto the website (to supplement the water cycle information that is already there). The group would like to use it as an education program – basic information for the community.

· A film night is being organised for 20 September about the wetlands – “Buffers and Moderators” and “The Importance of Swampy Meadows”.

4 General Reports

4.1 Cities Power Partnership Progress

TRIM Reference: 2018/1851

The Director Development Services elaborated on the information contained in his report. He has four or five suggestions for partnering councils – he will get these down to a couple and report back to the Committee.

NRMA Supercharger

The NRMA has a network of Superchargers – they are no more than 150km apart and the NRMA is keen to target tourists. The energy for the Superchargers is not coming from renewables yet, but this is the plan for the future. The NRMA are keen to install other Superchargers in Orange, with the new DPI site being a possible location. It was agreed that there needed to be a launch for the Supercharger.

National Energy Guarantee

Bob Alford spoke about the National Energy Guarantee (NEG). There are moves to cut subsidies for solar and other initiatives. Committee members need to read up on this and lobby politicians now. A decision will be made at the 10 August Commonwealth meeting with the States. The Committee needs to get something to Council stating their concerns and making Council aware of the seriousness of what it happening.

It was suggested that the Committee send an open letter to the Central Western Daily – Kate Hook will facilitate this.

The disadvantaged in the community need assistance in reducing their energy usage and costs. ECCO and other organisations such as Mission Australia are running programs and packages in this regard. It was suggested that electronic media be used to get the message out – education and behaviour change etc.

Committee members were encouraged to speak on matters in the Council paper at the Open Forum at the Council meeting of 7 August. They will need to register before they speak.

RECOMMENDATION Ms M McDonell/Ms S Alford

That the report by the Director Development Services be noted.

4.2 RECYCLING INITIATIVES UPDATE

TRIM Reference: 2018/1852

The Manager Waste Services and Technical Support elaborated on the information contained in his report as follows:

· In 1995 Orange became the first council west of Sydney to introduce kerbside recycling.

· The former Material Recycling Facility (MRF) is now a transfer facility.

· The organics/composting collection has been successful – the Euchareena facility is used for this.

Recycling Update

Six other councils currently bring their recyclables to Orange.

China has introduced a 0.5% (half of 1%) contamination threshold for non-recyclable products, which restricts taking collection. Orange’s threshold is 7%, which is good.

VISY currently takes our recycling via JR Richards and outsources it. VISY wanted to stop taking it, but would continue to for an extra $60/ton. Netwaste has lobbied very hard with the State Government, which provided a $47 million assistance package to help with the extra costs – but Council can only access the funds for four months in a calendar year. The difference will come from rates. Council’s grant application for this assistance was successfully, so it will receive funding for four months of approximately $94,600 (in total, not per month).

VISY and other companies need to be forced by the government to improve their processing to do more in Australia, rather than shipping recyclables overseas.

There also needs to be improved education about what “contaminated” really means – that is, it’s not about a little bit of food, it’s bulk non-recyclables mixed in with recycling.

Return and Earn

The Return and Earn facility in North Orange is 12th in the top 20 facilities in the State with regards to the volumes collected. The questions was asked “Do we breach the contract with JR Richards by having another Return and Earn facility on Council owned land?” The answer was “No” – it is an agreement with the landholder, and a facility can be established on Council or private land.

Prohibitive Cost of Recycling

Kate Willoughby stated that it is not financially viable for many businesses to recycle because JR Richards charges by bin pick-up. An example is Orange High School – all rubbish from the school goes into landfill because the school cannot afford to recycle. The Manager Waste Services and Technical Support stated that JR Richards is a business and cannot provide a service at no cost. It’s a cycle that we cannot get out of. He said that work needs to be done on price differentiation to try to make recycling more attractive.

Recommendation Ms S Alford/Mr A Kennedy

That the report by the Manager Waste Services and Technical Support be noted.

4.3 THE ENVIRONMENT AND COUNCIL OPERATIONS

A verbal update was given by a the Director Development Services and a flowchart was distributed to Committee members. It was suggested that an agenda item be included for the next meeting to discuss the issues/ matters that Council is involved in.

4.4 Focus Issue - Trees

TRIM Reference: 2018/1860

Cr Nugent advised that a Notice of Motion on this matter was going to the next Council meeting.

The Director Development Services needs to write a report to Council, and he needs input from Committee members.

Cyril Smith commented that the term “significant” as it relates to trees needs defining. Just because there may only be a few trees, it does not mean that they are not significant.

Recommendation Dr D Mallard/Ms A Powell

That the report by the Director Development services be noted.

5 GENERAL BUSINESS

Meeting Frequency

It was agreed that the Committee needed to meet more often due to the amount of work going on. It was decided to meet every two months, with the next meeting scheduled for Friday, 5 October 2018. The subgroups/project teams will still continue to meet in the interim.

Communication

Discussion was held on what method is the best to communicate. Committee members are drowning in email communications and feeling overwhelmed with “watch this now” and “take action now” directives. Google Chat was suggested as an alternative. It was commented that the tone used in emailing is very important, and members needed to be careful and not assume that everyone thinks the same about every issue. The Education subgroup will come back to the next meeting with some suggestions about email communication.

The Meeting Closed at 9.35AM.

Environmental Sustainability Policy Committee 4 September 2018

3 General Reports

3.1 Progress Report - Waratah Wetland

RECORD NUMBER: 2018/1885

AUTHOR: David Waddell, Director Development Services

EXECUTIVE Summary

A new wetland in the Waratahs area is being built by Orange City Council in conjunction with the Waratah Sports Club and is supported by Central Tablelands Local Land Services (LLS) through funding from Catchment Action NSW.

A grant of $42,000 from LLS has kick-started the project.

The area south of Platinum Parade, which is a former swamp, will be replenished with native plant species and furnished with recreational facilities and paved walkways to create the Waratah Wetland. The area to the north will become a community friendly parkland.

This report provides Council with an update on the works.

Link To Delivery/OPerational Plan

The recommendation in this report relates to the Delivery/Operational Plan strategy “1.2 Live - Maintain and renew recreational spaces and infrastructure to encourage an active and healthy lifestyle”.

Financial Implications

Nil

Policy and Governance Implications

Nil

Recommendation

That the information in the report by the Director Development Services on Progress Report - Waratah Wetland be acknowledged.

further considerations

Consideration has been given to the recommendation’s impact on Council’s service delivery; image and reputation; political; environmental; health and safety; employees; stakeholders and project management; and no further implications or risks have been identified.

SUPPORTING INFORMATION

Work is well under way on Orange’s newest constructed wetland, the Waratah Wetland project. The new wetland is being built by Orange City Council in conjunction with the Waratah Sports Club and is supported by Central Tablelands Local Land Services (LLS) through funding from Catchment Action NSW.

A grant of $42,000 from LLS has contributed to the project. Funds from developer contributions are also adding to the project. The project is expected to take two years to complete.

The area south of Platinum Parade, which is a former swamp, will be replenished with native plant species and furnished with recreational facilities and paved walkways to create the Waratah Wetland.

While the new wetland will not be part of Orange’s stormwater harvesting scheme, like the other constructed wetlands across the City, the new project will enhance and beautify the area.

The slow movement of water through the wetland will cleanse storm water from the bypass and North Orange housing estates. As well as improving water quality, the main purpose of the new wetland is to enhance the area for residents as well as provide a habitat for native wildlife.

Many residents whose properties backed on to the original wetlands are constructing rural style fencing or removing their Colorbond fences and replacing them with see-through barriers that allow them to take in the water views, and this trend is happening again around the Waratah Wetland.

Community participation has been a key feature in the planning and development of this project. Activities to date include:

· seven community days onsite, (approximately 77 volunteers in total)

· one information day at the North Orange Shopping Centre highlighting World Wetlands Day and the Waratah Wetlands

· planted 9,000 wetland plants

· planted 50 semi advanced Eucalypts

· planted 10 advanced exotic trees

· installed 50 metre boardwalk

· installed 150 metre granite pathway

· physically removed all hawthorn in the wetland area on the southern side of Platinum Parade

· removed rubbish/logs on the southern side of Platinum Parade

· installed two signs in the area

· plans to install logs around the edge of the dam

· wetland signage installed.

Boardwalk and walking track

Logs to be placed in the dam