Councillors from across South Kesteven District have welcomed a decision to publish and monitor statistics concerning the Council's environmental performance.

Most of the statistics will be published quarterly and will include information on energy use, waste and carbon emissions as well as the number of fines issued for fly-tipping and litter.

The format and content of the 'environmental performance indicators' were discussed at a meeting of the SKDC Environment Overview and Scrutiny Committee (OSC) yesterday (Tue Oct 6).

Cllr Ashley Baxter (Ind – Market and West Deeping) first requested the committee monitor the environmental performance indicators in June 2019 but the issue was never allowed onto the committee agenda until July 2019 after the appointment of Cllr Nikki Manterfield (Con- Grantham Springfield) as the third new Chair of the Committee in less than fifteen months.

Cllr Baxter comments: "I am delighted that Cllr Manterfield is listening to councillors' requests for agenda items and allowing us to raise questions about the council's environmental performance which the Council's cabinet might find uncomfortable. This is the one of the main purposes of overview and scrutiny committees yet it has hitherto been lacking".

The Environmental Performance Indicators put a spotlight on the council's environment performance. For example, they show that:

• 30% of waste put into the silver recycling bins is 'contaminated' because of confusion around the rules for recycling

• The council's recycling rate has fallen from 52% in 2012 years ago to just 40% last year.

• Despite pledging, last June, to improve the energy-efficiency of street-lighting by installing energy-efficient LED bulbs, fewer than 20 (out of 3000) have been fitted so far.

• Between April 2018 and September 2019, the council's environmental enforcement team was issuing an average of over 25 fixed penalty notices for littering every month. Since October last year, when the officers were given responsibility for enforcing parking restrictions, the number of fines for littering fell to zero but an average of 250 fines per month were issued for parking violations (until the Covid lockdown).

• No fines have been issued for dog-fouling. Backing the decision, Cllr Phil Dilks (Ind – Deeping St James) said: "Public bodies like SKDC need to be much more open and accountable so I welcome any move which allows councillors and those we represent to more easily see what we're doing well on their behalf, but also where we need to do better. "Publishing this information regularly will help keep the focus on the changes and action we – and our residents – need to take to mitigate Climate Change, the biggest challenge to the way we do things now and in the coming years."