Here’s a quick summary of news, events and casework for December 2005
21st – City Council annual staff party; 1,400 people raise over £2,500 for the Lord Mayor’s Pakistan Earthquake Appeal;
20th – Co-Councillor Mo Munir hosts the Lord Mayor’s Civic Carol Service;
20th – Executive Board; Settlement for local government – it’s still hard to determine the exact impact on Nottingham; medium term financial plan has assumed a 5% Council tax increase for next year and the settlement will not relieve that because savings will have to be made to the equivalent of a further 6% increase – cos of increases in fuel bills and preparing for single status for staff; specific pressures on the City Council include the aspirations for social services – helping the people who need help most; there is good news – the settlement includes extended free travel for the elderly and the less mobile; and an above inflation cash per pupil increase of over 6%, even with obligations, should mean better staff-pupil ratios or more teaching materials at schools; performance report; treasury management – overrunning for the year but expected to balance by the end of March;
19th – Elliott Durham prize-giving;
16th – East Midlands Regional Assembly Policy Board;
15th – Elliott Durham full Governors;
15th – Agree Council’s electronic government progress report; the Council - does home-working; runs a GIS system (NOMAD) which brings maps and data together; supports e-procurement of gods and services with purchasing cards; runs a web-site praised recently by the GMB; has a good cttee on-line system to enable the public to access cttee papers; runs an on-line planning system (Plan4Nottingham); runs an on-line library service; has on-line payments; the next project is to hold all performance indicator data on-line;
15th – New ’scorecards’ published for every local authority by the Audit Commission as part of its Comprehensive Performance Assessment gives the council two stars out of four for both its overall performance and the improvements it has made over the last year; the Commission says the council has improved educational attainment at secondary level; significantly improved housing benefit performance; increased income collection levels; has continued to invest in successful public transport initiatives; has strengthened management capacity; updated its medium-term financial plan; and is targeting effort at partnership working; it also noted that the Respect for Nottingham initiative had resulted in improvements in community safety and the street scene which are ’noticeable to the public’.;
15th – Transport in Greater Nottingham has been given top marks by the Government for ’excellent’ performance; the Government has also awarded the City Council a transport budget for next year of £11.5 million, which includes £3 million for highway capital maintenance and £8.5 million for new integrated transport measures - including a 25 per cent bonus awarded in recognition of the excellent performance towards progressing its five year Local Transport Plan;
14th – City Council announce plan to create a new Eastern Academy, led by Greenwood Dale, and drawing upon Elliott Durham’s future intakes;
13th – meet officers of Nottingham Trent Student Union;
12th – Tony Blair praises “Respect for Nottingham” in the Nottingham Evening Post; ”Across the board, Nottingham is making full use of the new powers we have given the police, council and courts. In the last year in the city, there have been 80 parenting contracts agreed to ensure families take more responsibility for the behaviour of their children. There have been more than 30 eviction orders against nuisance families and 150 anti-social behaviour orders granted to control those making life a misery for their communities. New asbo powers were, for example, used quickly against louts known as the Sneinton Soldiers which has brought much-needed relief to the whole neighbourhood.”
12th – SIGOMA – a group of metropolitan authorities - meet to review the financial settlements for local councils; main concern is that increases in services for children and young people that would have helped metropolitan authorities have been delayed (“damped”) and as a result, metropolitan authorities have done relatively worse;
11th – the Buncefield oil terminal in Hemel Hempstead explodes; the largest peace-time fire in Europe follows; (the City Council is to adopt an emergency plan on pipeline failures at January full Council);
10th – official opening night of “Snow White” at the Theatre Royal, starring Claire Sweeney; bookings are already up on last year;
9th – Local Government Association hold a finance conference to review the financial settlements for local councils; some relief that Gov’t increased the overall amount before the announcement;
7th – statement on finances for schools announces an increase per pupil of over 6%; although falling rolls means schools won’t necessarily get the same increase, the extra money should mean better staff-pupil ratios and more equipment and better facilities for Nottingham’s children;
6th – the outcomes of the Second National Councils’ Climate Conference (from Monday) – including the Nottingham Call - are relayed to the Fourth Municipal Leaders' Summit on Climate Change in Montreal, an international event for local government that ran in parallel with the UN Climate Conference (COP11);
6th – Tories adopt 5th leader to face Tony Blair; David Cameron was an advisor to Norman Lamont during Black Wednesday;
5th – Gordon Brown’s statement on finances; local government settlement begins to be announced;
5th – Second National Councils’ Climate Conference – launches the Nottingham call for tackling and adapting to climate change; Environment Minister Elliot Morley congratulates Nottingham city for its commitment to taking independent action to cut energy use and waste;
5th – meet party from across Europe who’ve come to Nottingham to learn about best practice in partnership working leading to regeneration, focussing on the NET project and the work of Greater Nottingham Partnership and Nottingham Regeneration Limited;
1st – Penny Griggs and co-Councillor Mo Munir switch on the Sherwood Christmas lights at the Sherwood Shopping Centre Christmas tree; Nottingham City Centre is not having the usual Christmas tree cos of the reconstruction the Old Market Square; the switch-on is associated with a big pop event for which there isn’t space this year and at which constrained space in front of the stage could lead to some mild health and safety problems; the usual budget has been spent this year on better lighting and next year we should be back with a safer event in the new square;
1st – welcome new employees to Nottingham City Council;
Comments