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DSP - Environment Theme Group 4th June 2008

 

Meeting of DSP Environment Theme Group
Corn Exchange, Dorchester, 4 June 2008
 
 
Summary of main items of business:
 
- Chairman: Simon Cripps, incoming Chief Executive of the Dorset Wildlife Trust, was elected chair of the ET Group.
 
- Dorset 2012 Games Environmental Legacy.  Gary Foulkes (DCC officer i/c Games Legacy Planning & Delivery) made a presentation on this topic, which was followed by questions and discussion. One outcome was that this group (DSP ETG) agreed to take responsibility for identifying legacy initiatives that will help Dorset achieve ‘step change’ in respect of climate change, environment, etc. This will remain part of DSP ETG agenda for coming meetings, and an Olympic Legacy Sub-Group was formed to look further into the matter meantime and to report back. A nomination was made for Mike Clark to attend the sub-group. Among the potentially relevant topics raised in the present meeting were:
            - Plastic: ‘bag-fee by 2012’
            - Green tourism (though this is already included in Coastal Corridor Action Plan)
            - Marine environment (seems especially relevant)
            - Make new walking trail, coast-to-coast, across SW England
            - Local food
[Re local food, an Olympic 2012 website apparently already exists for suppliers to make bids for food procurement for the Games. In Dorset, local producers should form associations to make bids, as most individual producers are likely to be too small for bids to be acceptable. Other, local issues here include: green food v. land-use impacts, polytunnels, etc; need to get planners onside.]
(S&E Forum members might like to comment on all this, make suggestions, etc.)
 
- Environmental Theme Group Action Plan. This follows from an item at our February meeting, noting that the ETG is supposed to seek to implement all environmentally relevant elements in the Dorset Community Strategy. To facilitate this, a spreadsheet has been constructed, to display this broad concept of ETG’s work and to be used as an aid to structuring discussion, identifying gaps, and identifying links to other DSP theme groups. A new draft of the spreadsheet was considered, and much of the discussion concerned its format, especially column headings (targets, indicators, risks, timescales, responsibilities, etc.)   In this correspondent’s view, there remain gaps in the content (environment action topics), but these are said to reflect gaps in the county Strategy document.
(All this is ongoing business; a new version of the Action Plan will be considered at the next meeting.) 
 
Mike Jones, 11 June 2008