Attendees

NICW

Dr David Clubb, Chair
Helen Armstrong, Commissioner (left at 1120)
Aleena Khan, Commissioner
Eurgain Powell, Commissioner
Nick Tune, Commissioner
Steve Brooks, Commissioner

Secretariat/Welsh Government
Stuart Ingram, NICW Secretariat
Nicola Britton, NICW Secretariat
Anjali Coombes, Internal Audit
Sally Gee, Internal Audit

Apologies

Jenifer Baxter Deputy Chair
Eluned Parrott, Commissioner

Welcome and declarations of interest.

The Chair welcomed Commissioners to the meeting with a check-in, celebration of success, declarations of interest, safety and futures moment. 

Futures Moment

The Chair attended a UK Government Office of Science event on new futures-based training.  He has enquired about NICW being offered this training

NICW Review

The Chair introduced Anjali Coombes and Sally Gee from the Welsh Government Internal Audit team.  He explained they are here to observe the meeting as part of the NICW review process.

Declarations of Interest

The Chair noted that he is retiring his declaration interest in offshore wind through Hiraeth Energy, as the company is no longer bidding for a lease, and is no longer carrying out any activity.

Nick Tune noted interest from the Development of Bank of Wales in his company Optimise – AI.

Action

Register of interest to be updated: secretariat and chair

Housekeeping

The action tracker was noted and updated. 

Minutes of previous meeting were approved.  Eurgain asked for impressions from the visit to Borth in June.  Helen and Aleena spoke about the value of the engagement with the local community on their experience of flood risk.

The Risk Register was reviewed and approved.

The Secretariat report was noted.

Commissioner Updates

Eurgain Powell updated on the Net Zero 2035 project, noting report launch is scheduled for 11 September

Consultation responses/ policy updates

None

Future Work Programme Updates

Year 1 Renewable Energy Report

The letter to Jeremy Miles MS, Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Energy and Welsh Language has been published on the NICW website.  It was noted a response is still awaited from an introductory letter to the new SoS for Wales.  There was a discussion about the implications to the planning system from realising the UK Government housebuilding ambitions.

Year 2 Flood Research

Eurgain Powell updated the group on progress with production of the final report and how they could engage and support the process.  There are four emergent themes of governance; resources; partnerships & community.

Year 3 Climate Change Communication

Steve Brooks confirmed the final version of the Cynnal Cymru report had been received.  The specifications for the next round of projects were live until 12 August. There was some discussion about a stakeholder group, what form it should take and Steve and Helen asked commissioners to suggest possible names for consideration. 

Steve and Helen also asked for Commissions to indicate if they wanted to be involved in the projects once the contracts are awarded in the autumn.

IWA Infrastructure Futures Essay Collection

Essays are being published weekly by NICW and IWA , with an anthology collection planned for September 2024.

Futures Map

Procurement for running an event in January 2025  is currently underway.

IWL Conference

NICW have committed to being a sponsor of this event and will  discuss ideas for a workshop at the September meeting.

Succession Planning

The Chair explained that due to his current term ending in Nov 2024 and the rest of the commission continuing only until June 2025, options for the future of NICW needed to be explored and communicated to the relevant Minister.  He would like to request a blanket extension to December 2025 for the current members of NICW to ensure the year 3 project could be seen through to completion.  Also, to ensure continuity some Commissioners have indicated they would be willing to commit to a longer extension to 2027. 

It was confirmed by Sally Gee that terms of office and succession were being covered as part of the review.

NICW Comms Requirements. 

The Chair introduced the item by explaining that currently NICW have no dedicated communication resource and his thinking on activity to address this.  He requested each commissioners commits to producing at least 1 blog post annually .  Commissioners also suggested ideas for other ways to increase engagement, such as trade publications, submitting the essay collection for awards.

He confirmed that a small amount of funding (£20k) had been secured to procure some external support.  This support would focus on developing an overall comms strategy for NICW and specific support for events such as the publication of the flood report this autumn.

NICW Strategy

The chair referred to a paper he had submitted on the developing NICW strategy.  Discussion focused on how to measure the success of a strategy, noting an impacts table has already been implemented.  The strategy document is open for comment, but the chair does intend to publish by the end of the summer.  The need for a stakeholder map was identified as a key activity.

Action

Circulate existing spreadsheet of stakeholders if available: Steve Brooks.

Year 4  – topics

Following on from the succession planning discussion the need to start preparing for year 4 (2025 – 2026) projects was noted. Initial thoughts focused on the importance of influencing 2026 election manifestos; transport was seen a key topic, but it was noted this is a crowded space and thought would be needed on where/how NICW could add value; cross cutting themes were suggested (finance/skills/futures/planning etc..) as well as building on existing projects. This topic will be discussed and refined further in the September meeting.

Mid West Wales Site Visit Feedback and Future Visit Plans

The value of speaking with community groups was noted from the mid Wales visit.

With regard to future visits a focus on the south Wales valleys incorporating the economics of the south east Wales metro/dormitory towns and more traditional valley towns dynamics.  The need to build experience of community activity was noted, especially as this could feed into the year 3 projects.  Coastal flooding was mentioned as a focus of a North Wales visit.  House building, place making and building with nature were also highlighted as being of interest.

AOB

A separate meeting is required to discuss the flood report launch event .