To consider the recommendation of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee in respect of the Motion.

That, while we are appreciative that the motion recognises this Council’s climate change work, and we also recognise the important role locally produced electricity can provide if properly integrated, we do find the motion, at this current time, lacking in information on how it could work and it raises serious concerns over the infrastructure to deliver it, security of power supply delivery, cost and the potential financial and reputational damage implications for this Council. Consequently the motion is rejected.

70.1          The report of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee, circulated at Pages No. 42-58, provided a recommendation from that Committee to the Executive Committee as required by the Council at its meeting on 29 September 2020. The Executive Committee was asked to consider the Motion, and the recommendation of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee, and determine the response to the Motion.

70.2          The proposer of the original Motion was invited to introduce it. She advised that the Motion had asked the Council to sign up to the campaign to support the Local Electricity Bill and she had found the recommendation from the Overview and Scrutiny Committee highly disappointing, expressing the view that some Members seemed unable, or unwilling, to grasp the meaning of the Motion. She indicated that the report to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee had been factually incorrect in its suggestion that, by supporting the Bill, the Council would be committing itself to anything. In fact, other local authority failures highlighted the exact problems that the Bill aimed to fix as it would mean any Councils that wished to set up their own energy companies would face moderate rather than the extreme risk, that had led to Nottingham and others losing so much money. However, there would be absolutely no cost to Tewkesbury Borough Council if it was to show its support for the Local Electricity Bill and the Bill did not advocate any local authority to do anything. Rather, the Bill required the Office of Gas and Electricity Markets (OFGEM) to publish a right to local supply and, as part of that, to ensure that costs faced by local energy generators wishing to sell directly to local customers were proportionate, which they were not at the moment due to energy market regulations. She welcomed the solar panels that were on the Council Offices building to generate electricity but advised that, if passed, the Bill would allow the residents of the Borough to benefit as well; although, it was important to emphasise that the Bill did not advocate becoming a local energy supplier. She reminded the Committee that when a Bill was first presented it did not necessarily contain the final wording, for example, the Climate Change Act started as a draft of five pages but three years later when it became law it was 125 pages; the core principle however had remained the same. The organisations which already supported the Bill were doing so in principle and not necessarily in its exact wording, as the Power for the People’s website made clear, the wording of the Bill may change as the campaign progressed. Nevertheless, the Bill was now supported by 234 MPs including Tewkesbury Borough Council’s own MP, as well as 65 County and local authorities, Tewkesbury Town Council and the regional distributor, Western Power Distribution. The Tewkesbury Constituency MP had recently sent a statement to the proposer of the Motion which indicated that he welcomed and fully supported the campaign and stated that ‘as the UK  ...  view the full minutes text for item 70