Agenda item

            The Committee considered the undernoted report:

“1.0      Purpose of Report/Summary of Main Issues

1.1       At the meeting of the Climate & City Resilience Committee on 21st of June 2024, it was agreed that a retrofit workshop would be arranged for elected members in September 2024, with expert members of the Belfast Retrofit Delivery Hub invited to attend. The Committee agreed that a draft agenda would be considered by the Committee at its meeting in August.

2.0       Recommendation

2.1       To review and approve the proposed agenda and suggest amendments as required.

3.0       Main Report

            Belfast Retrofit Delivery Hub takes a consortium approach to catalysing retrofit activity across the public, commercial and private building sectors in Belfast. Belfast City Council’s Climate Team convenes and supports the Hub’s activities as part of the wider support the team provides for the Belfast Community Planning Partnership. Progress on the Hub’s activities is reported regularly to the Climate and City Resilience Committee (and to the Resilience and Sustainability Board) with their most recent meeting generating a request for a retrofit themed workshop for elected members.

            Proposed approach

            The Retrofit Hub and the Council’s UP2030 team recently ran a joint mapping exercise event with retrofit experts to help visualise the need and opportunities for a neighbourhood retrofit programme, focusing on the UP2030 pilot area which includes the Linen Quarter and adjacent communities living in Sandy Row, Donegall Pass, the Market and Barrack Street. This area was selected as significant groundwork has already been done with communities to help identify what a net zero community might look like, in order to develop a methodology that can be rolled out to other parts of the city.

            The activity used data from the Local Area Energy Plan to create maps that visualised existing buildings’ energy performance rating, building type and tenure, as well as retrofit measures already in place, to help participants understand the challenges and opportunities around retrofit.

            The Climate Team propose to repeat this approach drawing on Member’s diverse range of expertise and their working knowledge of community needs while also enabling Members to explore what a retrofit neighbourhood approach might look like when applied to real life settings across different building types and tenures in the UP2030 area. The event will be supported by Retrofit Hub members with expertise across the various building types, technologies and with experience of working with communities on retrofit and fuel poverty. The proposed agenda is shown below:

1.      Welcome & event outline (3 hour event). Date to be confirmed.

2.      Introduction to retrofit – Climate Team members and sectoral leads from the Retrofit Hub outline the main concepts, technologies, challenges and opportunities:

·        Public sector buildings

·        Commercial sector

·        Residential

3.      Mapping exercise – using detailed maps and a series of questions with support from expert Hub members, work in groups to explore case study sub-areas of the UP2030 area:

·        Public buildings – e.g. Cecil Ward building

·        Commercial buildings

·        Residential – selection of streets

4.      Group feedback – group leaders feed main findings back to wider group with scribes capturing key findings and future actions.

3.1       Financial and Resource Implications

            None at this point.

3.2       Equality or Good Relations Implications/

            Rural Needs Assessment

            None known.”

            During discussion, a Member requested that the workshop would be held in the evening to allow most Members to participate.  She also requested that all Members for the UP2030 area would be invited to attend.

            The Committee:

                            i.          reviewed and approved the proposed workshop agenda;

                          ii.          agreed that the workshop would be held in the evening to ensure high Member attendance;

                         iii.          agreed that all Members for the UP2030 area of the City would be invited to attend;

                         iv.          noted that Members were encouraged to spread the word of the workshop and to share the details with any experts to consider participating.