Newark and Sherwood District Council’s 2023 to 2027 Community Plan to be presented to full council after cabinet approval

A council’s four year plan for leisure, housing and sustainability is progressing.

Newark and Sherwood District Council’s draft Community Plan for 2023 to 2027, is due to be presented to full council after it was reviewed by cabinet members on Tuesday, October 31.

The plan was described by council chief executive John Robinson as “overarching” and the council’s way of “directing energy, focus… and resources”.

It has been formulated using residents’ feedback as well as advice of council committee chairmen and vice chairmen.

The plan was previously presented to the Policy and Performance Improvement Committee, who put forward a number of changes to the document including making specific mention of leisure provision in Southwell, and changing the mentioned names of portfolio holders to their titles.

A full list of the committee’s comments can be found here.

The plan’s main objectives are health and wellbeing, housing supply and standard, skill building and employment opportunities, tackling crime and anti-social behaviour, protecting and enhancing green spaces, climate change, community spirit, and how the council is run.

Plans include the Yorke Drive regeneration scheme, developing options for improving Southwell Leisure Centre, including the provision of a new centre, redeveloping the Clipstone Holdings site with high quality, environmentally sustainable industrial units and maximising the use and effectiveness of CCTV to deter crime and bring offenders to justice.

Among the climate change aims is a proposal to deliver a council-wide decarbonisation plan including heating systems within its corporate and leisure buildings.

Rhona Holloway acknowledged the work put into the draft plan, and said: “I’m really pleased to see so much of the previous plan coming through.”

She explained decarbonisation had not previously been included in the previous community plan due to the expense of decarbonisation — which she claimed was £44m.

She told members the technology was relatively new at the time, and the previous council had wanted to wait until they could take advantage of Government grants for the work.

Leader Paul Peacock confirmed the council was working with the Carbon Trust to determine the cost and extent of the work.

“We do need to be aspirational,” he added.

“It is the right thing for our tenants and it is the right thing for our residents.”

He added that the document would continue to be reviewed based on changing circumstances — and offered the pandemic as an example of an event which changed the delivery of the previous plan.

Councillors supported the draft and moved for it to be presented to full council.