‘Businesses and families need to look at their own behaviours’ says South Kesteven District Council joint waste and environment lead Rhys Baker
Our focus on members of the new cabinet at South Kesteven District Council continues with Councillor Rhys Baker, joint portfolio holder for environment and waste.
Coun Baker is one of Lincolnshire’s first Green councillors following the May local elections, and represents the Bourne Austerby ward along with wife and fellow Green councillor Emma Baker and Independent Councillor Paul Fellows.
The 36-year-old is a biology teacher and special education needs co-ordinator at Bourne Grammar School.
He shares the portfolio for environment and waste with Coun Patsy Ellis (Green).
Coun Baker is originally from Telford and moved to Bourne in 2015. He made the decision to get into politics last July when 43C temperatures were recorded in the UK.
Here, he answers questions on the biggest environmental challenges facing the district, and some of the changes that have been made so far.
How have your first few months as a councillor been?
It’s been wonderfully mad.
The training’s been fantastic. I’ve learned a huge amount about the area.
The first few months have been wonderful. You can’t please everyone all of the time. Obviously, I am the face of the new bin roll-out and I never knew the vitriol that could come your way, but within that there’s a lot of really important concerns that residents have, and it’s really useful that that comes across to me and I can raise it with officers.
It’s been a tight learning curve but I’ve really enjoyed it. It’s been difficult balancing council with full-time work, which has meant a huge amount of support from my headteacher, line manager at my school and a lot of understanding from the council.
How important is it to be a Green councillor and in the cabinet with a role that is directly linked to the environment?
I think having four [Green elected councillors] shows that the district is taking green issues seriously. They had a look at the offers from other candidates and parties, and decided that, actually, we need to rise to this challenge and we need people who are focused on those green issues.
We were blown away with four. It was the Green Party’s most successful night in politics ever. Having that critical group of people who can bounce ideas off each other, rather than being a lone Green, is very important.
The offer to have a Green voice in the cabinet was incredibly generous from [SKDC leader Coun Richard Cleaver] and it was another way of showing an alternative way of doing politics. As soon as we were offered that, we came back as a group and said we wanted to job share it, because we want as many diverse opinions there as possible; having a male and a female opinion is really important.
By having this job divided between the two of us, it allowed Patsy and I, who are both full-time workers, to provide that perspective that otherwise might not have been in the cabinet. I’m just really grateful to Richard. He didn’t have to do this. I think it shows that the cabinet and leader is serious about tackling green issues.
What are the biggest environmental issues facing the district?
The biggest challenge we’ve got at the moment is our low recycling quality and our low recycling uptake. That’s why we’re starting this roll-out so early for the twin-stream recycling. We know it’s a big change, but we also know it’s a quite meaningful change. Second to that is how we use our energy in the district.
What does your portfolio as cabinet member for environment and waste entail?
Environment and waste is all encompassing, it touches so many different areas. I seem to have more meetings with officers than almost any other member of the cabinet, simply because we cross over.
The big issues we’ve got at the moment are the new recycling roll-out, the twin-stream recycling. I also am responsible, along with Patsy, for the maintenance of SK-owned green spaces.
Taking EnvironmentSK in house has been the big project, because that was an at-arm’s-length strategy.
Climate change is Patsy and mine’s responsibility and because SKDC has declared a climate emergency, that now feeds into absolutely everything the council does, in much the same way that a financial check would. We have to have due regard to what impact any new policy would have on our climate change commitments.
Then, as far as some of the most irritating aspects of residents’ lives, fly-tipping comes under our remit as well and that is a real bee in our bonnet at the moment. We’ll clear a site and then a day later, there'll be more stuff there, so to the casual passer-by it looks like it’s been left there for weeks and weeks.
How can SK meet carbon neutral aims? How big a challenge is this?
It is an incredible challenge, but it’s one that we have no option but to meet. We are all on spaceship earth, hurtling through the solar system. No one gets off, not even Elon Musk.
That’s not to be glib, and say that there’s easy wins and that we’re going to change everything and meet our target, and our lives will carry on exactly the same as they have done. I can’t make that promise because I don’t have a crystal ball. There’s lots of really easy things that people can do that aren’t in control of the council.
Our climate change policy that has been out for consultation over the last couple of weeks, that is focusing on what levers the council can pull, for example, could we put solar panels on council office roofs? Could we look at how energy is expended in local leisure centres? Could we electrify all of our gardening tools rather than having petrol powered? It’s completely comprehensive, but that’s only a very small percentage of the emissions that come out of the landmass of South Kesteven.
That is where businesses and families will need to look at their own behaviours. One of the biggest things that we can do to lower our carbon output is have one day off meat a week. You don’t need to go vegan or vegetarian, but one meat-free day is like taking planes out of the sky. It’s such an impactful way of residents lowering their carbon emissions.
How we deal with our waste, even if we deal with it slightly better and not let perfect be the enemy of good, that’s going to bring down our carbon emissions hugely.
What noticeable day-to-day changes will be/have been made?
Front-facing, you could make the argument that a lot of it is business is usual, but that’s important.
It is important that residents have their bins emptied, green spaces cut and all the services that they rely on.
They need to carry on as normal. Where we’re putting our focus at the moment is in some of the really boring, really important democracy stuff.
This is changes to how we structure things like council meetings and allowing more people to attend, rather than it being conversations between members. We’re changing rules to allow residents to speak more freely, without having to submit questions in advance and also be able to come back on their answers.
Before, the resident could not comment on the reply to their question. We’re changing that because you can’t be accountable if you can’t talk. We’ve been in the district’s towns as a cabinet and have run a drop-in session so people can speak to us in that locale.
Climate-wise, the biggest change that has been seen is the £300,000 that has been allocated to climate change specifically. Patsy and I have a budget now where we don’t need to beg, borrow or steal the money from somewhere else, we’ve got the funds.
Are you optimistic for the future?
It’s the only way you can be, because if you are pessimistic, you end up paralysed and you don’t do anything, which just accelerates everything coming down the road.
The only sensible way to be, is to be optimistic.