Nottingham City Council has formally adopted a renewed Strategic Council Plan for 2021-23, setting out an ambitious agenda for Nottingham and local people as the City Council looks to help the city recover from the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and build for the future.
The wider context is challenging, with Covid-19 still present, rising demand for our key services, and ongoing uncertainty around local government finances and a non-statutory review of its financial and governance arrangements on behalf of the Ministry of Housing and Local Government. The council took stock in light of these issues to look afresh at its 2019-2023 Council Plan.
The Strategic Council Plan clearly sets out what the council aims to deliver for local people over the next two years, based on the key outcomes expected to have the most significant impact on tackling the long term challenges the city faces, and the things that matter most to local people about their community, neighbourhood and city.
This is the document that sets out a vision for the council’s focus over a five-year period, its key aims and ambitions and how it intends to deliver services and meet its targets. It outlines its commitment to improving Nottingham for everyone who lives, works, studies, invests and visits here, while keeping citizens at the heart of everything it does, within a value framework of equality, fairness, and inclusivity.
The council remains committed to those values and its overall ambition for the city and local people – but the context in which it is operating has changed dramatically since its Council Plan was adopted in 2019. In response to the non-statutory review, the council has produced a Recovery and Improvement Plan in which it has committed to refresh the council’s ambitions in the Council Plan, to reflect its renewed thinking on what it does and how it does it.
The refreshed Strategic Council Plan 21-23, approved at a meeting of the full council today (September 13th) is still full of ambition, and previous commitments have been reviewed to ensure they continue to be relevant and deliverable. It will also ensure that the council’s finances are sustainable over the medium to long term, so that modern, effective and value-for-money public services can continue to be delivered. The plan outlines a set of eleven high leveloutcomes that are key to delivering its ambitions for Nottingham:
- Clean and Connected Communities
- Keeping Nottingham Working
- Carbon Neutral by 2028
- Safer Nottingham
- Child-Friendly Nottingham
- Healthy and Inclusive
- Keeping Nottingham Moving
- Improve the City Centre
- Better Housing
- Financial Stability
- Serving People Well.
City Council Leader, Cllr David Mellen, said: “We set out our Council Plan for this period in 2019 but a lot has changed since then, including a global pandemic and a Government review of the council, so it was important for us to look again at it.
“Our Recovery and Improvement Plan is clear that if we are to achieve our aims and live up to our aspirations for Nottingham, we must be prepared to rethink what we do and how we do it. This refreshed Council Plan does that and helps us to plot a new course for the council which remains ambitious for Nottingham and its people while ensuring our finances are sustainable so we can continue delivering the modern, efficient services that local people deserve.
“We want Nottingham to be a great place to live, work, study and visit, so whether it is maintaining clean and safe streets and public spaces, supporting vulnerable children and adults, or leading the regeneration of key areas of the city such as Broad Marsh, we will be working hard to continue to deliver the good quality public services people expect, within the funding and resources available to us.”
The full council meeting also approved a new council constitution as part of its Recovery and Improvement Plan, to provide greater clarity, transparency and streamline decision making.
Cllr Mellen added: “The revised constitution addresses some of the key issues raised in the Government’s rapid review of the council, by establishing and embedding best governance practice throughout our decision-making processes and setting out clear lines of accountability for officers and councillors.
“This is the foundation stone on which we can build our recovery and improvement and ensure that sound financial and policy decisions are being made on behalf of the people of Nottingham.”