Nottinghamshire County Council has set out its 10-year vision to make the county more “healthy, prosperous and greener”.
The authority’s leader has warned there are both “opportunities and difficult decisions ahead”, including managing resources and ensuring the “right choices” are made.
It comes as the council outlines its new Nottinghamshire Plan, due to be discussed in full on Thursday ( 25 November ), which reveals its new vision to improve the county over the coming decade.
Council documents state the authority will focus on improving health and wellbeing for communities, growing the economy, improving living standards, reducing its impacts on the environment and helping people to “access the best of Nottinghamshire”.
It follows the authority’s Big Notts Survey, conducted over the summer, which asked thousands of residents on what improvements they would like to see countywide.
The council says it wants to improve the standards of the county and it has set out nine ambitions to act as a “framework” across all its actions.
These include helping people to live healthier, more independent lives and to offer more support to communities and families.
It comes alongside plans to continue keeping children and vulnerable adults safe and building skills to “help people get good local jobs”.
Under the plan, there is also an ambition to strengthen business and improve the quality of jobs, attract investment in infrastructure and the economy, improve transport connections and reduce the authority’s carbon footprint.
The 44-page plan also states the council wants to act as a “forward-looking and resilient” authority, developing technology to help people access its services more easily in the future.
And the plan adds the authority wants to “listen to our communities”, support independence, reduce inequalities, make decisions “based on evidence” and, crucially, to “spend money wisely”.
Councillor Ben Bradley MP (Con), leader of the council, says respondents to the survey were “really honest” in their feedback.
But he warned the authority will have tough decisions to make moving forward, requiring partnerships with communities, the private and voluntary sectors.
“There are both opportunities and difficult decisions ahead,” he said.
“We’ve got ambitious plans to secure greater investment in Nottinghamshire through a devolution deal and major infrastructure projects like HS2 and the East Midlands Freeport.
“We’ve also committed to making all council activity net carbon neutral by 2030 and to improving our roads and pavements.
“But we still face financial pressures and, while we work out the best way to use our resources, we’ll keep on listening to help us make the right choices.
“We have a strong track record as a forward-looking and resilient council, and we want to continue on that journey as we take forward our learning from the pandemic, work in new ways, and continue to improve our services.”
All 66 councillors will discuss and debate the plan on Thursday, with a recommendation to adopt the 44-page document and regularly monitor its progress.
