Agenda item

Management of Council gardens

A citizen asked the following question of the Executive Member for Carbon Reduction, Leisure and Culture:

According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), gas-powered lawnmowers can emit as much pollution in one hour as a car driven for 100 miles. These pollutants include carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Also, gardens that are heavily landscaped are bad for the environment. Would the Council consider the way they manage council gardens contributes to global warming, or might they adopt policies, like 'wilding' or using a lawn mower that causes so much damage?

Councillor Sam Lux replied as follows:

Thank you Lord Mayor and thank you to the citizen for your question. The Council’s greenspace operations team currently do not have any gas-powered lawnmowers. The majority of our mower fleet is either diesel or petrol powered. However, as part of the Council’s delivery of the Carbon Neutral 2028 strategy (CN28) over recent years the service has been moving more towards electric powered machinery whenever this is possible.  With regards to the maintenance of our landscape over recent years we have developed a stronger focus on biodiversity and as part of the implementation of new Environment Act Biodiversity Net Gain legislation the service has already identified 65 sites around the city that are now managed as wildflower or meadow grass areas. The majority of these meadows are small sites located around highways verges and within parks. These small sites have been identified in order to provide linkages between a network of 63 Local Wildlife Sites that cover over 690 hectors of the city and include 19 designated Local Nature Reserves & 3 Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI).  In addition, our Green Guardians volunteer programme delivers a wide range of environmental education and habitat management projects and has also been at the forefront of delivering the CN28 carbon reduction priority action plan that includes the planting 50,000 trees.  48,000 of these trees have already been planted to date and many more are scheduled to be planted during the coming winter planting season.  In addition, the Council will soon consider the adoption of the Greener, Healthier, Happier Greenspace strategy. Once its formal adoption has been confirmed, the greenspace service will continue to work with a wide range of partner organisations within the city to continue to deliver a programme of habitat improvements and the delivery of a continued programme of urban greening projects around the City. 

Social Housing

A citizen asked the following question of the Executive Member for Housing and Planning:

How can the Council justify kicking people out of their homes when they pay all their bills and don’t cause trouble, and then selling the houses on.  It’s not their fault that the Council took money from a ring-fenced pot and spent it on something else. Where are they supposed to live when the Council sells these homes?

Councillor Jay Hayes replied as follows:

Thank you Lord Mayor and thank you to the citizen for your question.  In 2022 the Council decided to directly manage the council housing stock and this question does not involve any council houses or council tenants. This question relates to Nottingham City Homes Enterprises Limited (NCHEL), which was incorporated in 2015 as a commercial subsidy of Nottingham City Home Group. It was set up to have a positive impact on the private rented sector in Nottingham. However, due to the financial challenges of the market rent offer provided by NCHEL, the decision had to be made to close NCHEL. The board of NCHEL and NCH Group made a regrettable decision to dispose of its assets to maximise income to make repayments of debt. NCHEL have continued to operate to ensure services are delivered to its market rent tenants, to support them while its properties are sold and NCHEL is ultimately closed.  Officers have visited every tenant to explain the reason for this action needing to be taken and offered advice and assistance in securing new rented accommodation. Some tenants have been able to buy their home at market value, stay in their properties with new landlords, or have been supported into other private rental accommodation. While I know this is a challenging time for those residents affected, ongoing support will be offered to all tenants affected in finding new, secure, long-term accommodation.  Thank you.

Plant-based food and drink at Council events

A citizen asked the following question of the Executive Member for Carbon Reduction, Leisure and Culture:

The science is clear that meat and dairy are major contributors to the climate and ecological emergencies. Other councils, for example Oxfordshire County, Oxford City, Cambridge City, Exeter City and Calderdale Borough, are ensuring that all food served at internal events is plant-based, and I’d like Nottingham City to do the same. Therefore, given the climate emergency and Nottingham’s stated aim to reduce their emissions and be net zero by 2028, will Nottingham City Council ensure that all food and drink provided at internal events is plant-based, as other councils have done?

Councillor Sam Lux replied as follows:

Thank you Lord Mayor, and thanks to the citizen for this question.  This is a topic that is really close to my heart, and I have recently had discussions with plant-based councils and our officers to see what can be done on this topic.  Our internal catering budget these days is actually really small, given the financial constraints that we are faced with. It’s largely just teas and coffees and light refreshments, but I am really happy to say that after discussing with officers at the end of last week, I can confirm now that from Monday 30 September we will only have plant-based internal catering from Nottingham Catering at Loxley House. This will include plant-based milks, biscuits and other foods, and we’ll also plan a week of promotion of dairy milk alternatives in October for staff to try plant-based milk in their drinks from the coffee bar at Loxley, substituting for all drinks unless specifically requested otherwise. This obviously is to encourage our employees to try these alternatives and potentially increase their uptake.

I’d also like to take the opportunity to mention that our Carbon Neutral 2028 action plan includes a list of food-related actions reflecting our awareness of its significant contributions to the city’s footprint, particularly the high carbon impact of meat and dairy products.  Over the last few years, the Council has introduced more plant-based options in school meal menus – actually winning a national award – and we’re also working on increasing plant-based choices in our external catering offers for events like weddings. The City Council became a signatory to the Glasgow Food and Climate Declaration in 2021 and we have an active staff vegan network who promote and campaign for adoption of vegan principles in the Council, not only for food but for animal rights and welfare issues too.  We know that the ambition to reduce the city’s carbon footprint isn’t just about the City Council, it’s about what other organisations are doing as well, so we routinely use social media, our monthly carbon-neutral newsletter, and other communications channels to promote the benefits of more plant-based options in everyday diets.  As I said, this is an area I really care about, and I encourage citizens and groups to get in touch with ideas about how we can go further as a city.  Thanks.

Reopening of Sherwood Library

A citizen asked the following question of the Executive Member for Carbon Reduction, Leisure and Culture:

In a recent newspaper article, the Local Democracy Reporter revealed a total of ‘134’ outstanding defects or snags, which still need to be rectified before the muchdelayed Sherwood Library can safely open. Given this, can the Executive Member outline what urgent actions she has taken with Hockley Developments, including the use of any redemption penalties, to get this contractual debacle resolved in the interests of local residents and families. In the spirit of transparency, can she please provide more details on the nature of the defects, an update on any progress in relation to fixing them, as Sherwood residents like me, are desperate for their local library to re-open.

Councillor Sam Lux replied as follows:

Thank you again, Lord Mayor. I’d like to thank the citizen for the question regarding Sherwood Library as part of the Spondon Street development work taking place.

I want to reiterate I am very frustrated around the delay of being able to reopen Sherwood Library and very aware that Sherwood has for a long time now been without a library service following its closure in 2020. It was exciting that through an innovative regeneration scheme approach the authority did find a way in 2021 to ensure its reprovision via a wider Spondon Street retail and housing redevelopment opportunity that was tendered and won by Hockley Developments. Unfortunately, due to several factors this project was delayed and of course more recently delayed further due to a number of outstanding snags identified which were not being rectified by the developer as specified in our contract to enable the library service to be able to commence its final fit-out works.  The Council is actively in correspondence with the developer to resolve the outstanding issues, but due to commercial sensitivities and the legally privileged nature of these discussions, it would be inappropriate for me to go into any further detail at this time. I can assure the citizen that the Council are exploring all avenues.  On a more positive note, the developer is now engaged and working with us to resolve the issues. Our Major Projects Team hold fortnightly meetings with the relevant actors to review progress on all of the snags identified. A programme of works has now been agreed and there is an ongoing regular correspondence and contact to check in on progress and this has reduced the list of critical snags considerably, and we hope these final works will be completed over the next three weeks. The final stage of the fit-out works can then take place.  We do understand the importance of providing library provision for Sherwood so that it can once again become an important community hub that provides resources, space, and activities that so many in the area have missed since the site’s closure.  Thank you.