Plan sets out ‘a very different council’ but maintains climate pledge
NOTTINGHAM City Council says it is “fundamentally” changing to become a much smaller organisation in the coming years, but is still pledging to stick to goals including the hitting of carbon neutrality by 2028.
In the wake of effectively declaring bankruptcy last year and the multi-million pound budget cut plans from April, the city council has had to refresh its strategic plan for Nottingham, which covers several of its key ambitions until 2027.
Goals it is sticking to include making Nottingham the UK’S first carbon neutral city by 2028. Other pledges include ending the use of hotels as temporary accommodation for homeless families and “proactively” tackling damp and mould in council houses.
But describing the next few years in Nottingham overall, a foreword to the plan from the council’s leader and chief executive says: “Significant savings have been incorporated for 2024/25 and these savings, based on delivering statutory minimum service standards, are reflected in this plan and will alter what we can deliver. “We face some very difficult decisions which we must make to get our finances onto a stable and sustainable footing. We must change how we work, reshaping or reducing the services we provide so that the council is financially sustainable in the long-term.”
Commitments still included in the strategic council plan include maintaining at least 100 playgrounds across the city, cleaning graffiti on public buildings within two working days and using CCTV to tackle fly-tipping.
The plan, to be discussed at a full council meeting on Monday, also pledges that a “comprehensive” library service will be maintained and that the Embankment paddling pool will be restored.
The foreword from Councillor David Mellen and Mel Barrett adds: “Over the next few years, these decisions will create a very different council. In due course this plan will be subject to further review and change to reflect the significant anticipated budget gap over the period of the plan which will require additional savings to be found so that our priority actions remain aligned with the resources that we have available.”