Meeting Details

a)    Questions to Nottinghamshire and City of Nottingham Fire Authority

b)    Questions to Committee Chairmen

This Council wishes to express its sincere gratitude to all school teachers, teaching assistants and school support staff who have worked tirelessly alongside parents and carers during the Covid 19 pandemic to continue educating and caring for our children in Nottinghamshire. In addition, our thanks are extended to our nurseries, childminders and early years' providers, local charities and voluntary organisations, council officers and key workers who have all played their part in supporting our children and young people's health and well-being during this challenging period.

However the impact of Covid has been significant on our children's learning and on many of our children and young people's mental health.

This Council accepts the Government's own Education Recovery Commissioner Sir Kevan Collin's estimate that £15bn is needed to help our children catch up with their learning. On this basis this Council determines the current allocation of £1.4 bn to be wholly inadequate.  The Education Policy Institute have calculated that this amounts to £50 per pupil per year.  This contrasts with £1,600 per pupil in the USA and £2,500 in the Netherlands.

This Council wishes to emphasise that no child's education should be blighted by this pandemic: no child should be left behind.

Therefore this Council resolves to write to the Prime Minister and the Secretary of State for Education to call on the Government to scale up its ambition for our children and young people in Nottinghamshire, ensuring that our education system has the resources it requires.

Councillor Michelle Welsh    Councillor Kate Foale

This Council recognises the evidence base that exists demonstrating the significant health and safety benefits to the public from a reduction in vehicle speed to 20MPH.

This Council resolves therefore to task the Transport and Environment Committee with exploring the feasibility of implementing a 20MPH speed limit and any other new measures that could help improve road safety in all its residential conurbations.

Councillor Penny Gowland       Councillor Neil Clarke MBE

This Council acknowledges that - prior to the unanimous declaration of a Climate Emergency by the County Council on 27 May 2021 - the Nottinghamshire Pension Fund Committee has had a long history of engagement on climate related issues as it seeks to manage the financial risks of climate change.

This Council further notes that, over the last year, the Nottinghamshire Pension Fund Committee has:

• implemented a Climate Risk Action Plan
• published a Climate Strategy, a Taskforce for Climate-related Financial Disclosure report and a Climate Stewardship Plan, and;
• continues through its partners, to work with companies to implement strategies aligned with the 2016 Paris Climate Accords.

This Council recognises that the Nottinghamshire Pension Fund's approach is in line with comments made last year by the Independent Chair of the Local Authority Pension Fund Forum: "Divestment: No. Engagement: Yes" - to proactively encourage investment in environmentally friendly research, technology, and approaches in order to transition to Net Zero. This was reinforced by the Pensions Minister, Guy Opperman MP, who said in March 2021 that "Merely selling your stocks that make you look bad from a fossil fuels standpoint is a reverse greenwashing because it doesn't actually fix the problem."

This Council endorses the Nottinghamshire Pension Fund's strategy to reduce the portfolio's carbon footprint through responsible investment and engagement with partners, ahead of their Climate Risk Workshop to be held in the near future and any other work that they are undertaking on this topic.

Councillor Mike Adams     Councillor Eric Kerry

Nottinghamshire County Council notes with regret that tens of thousands of families claiming Universal Credit and Working Tax Credits in the county will lose more than £1,000 a year when the uplift to the benefits is lifted. The Government plan to remove its £20 per week uplift - brought in to support struggling families through the pandemic from October 6.

It will mean a loss of £1,040 to the current, overall annual package received by claimants in Nottinghamshire, or around £86.66 per month.  This Council believes that these plans mean the biggest overnight reduction to a basic rate of social security since the modern welfare state began more than 70 years ago.

This Council notes that families with children will be disproportionately impacted and six in 10 of all single-parent families in the UK will be impacted. In Nottinghamshire, this cut will adversely impact 58,770 families. This Council notes the figures released by Parliamentary Constituency of families currently in receipt of Universal Credit or Working Tax credits in our County by the Joseph Roundtree Foundation:

• Ashfield - 9150
• Bassetlaw - 8770
• Broxtowe - 5600
• Gedling - 6910
• Mansfield - 10380
• Newark - 6390
• Rushcliffe - 4040
• Sherwood - 7530

This Council believes:

1. That failing to maintain the recent uplift will have a devastating effect on 58,770 families in Nottinghamshire at a time when they need financial support the most and will increase hardship and poverty for people who are already struggling.
2. That reducing benefits will have an adverse impact on child poverty, other poverty levels and the financial health and well-being of people of the poorest in our County.

This Council therefore resolves to write to the Chancellor of the Exchequer - The Rt Hon Rishi Sunak MP, the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions - Therese Coffey MP and to all Nottinghamshire's Members of Parliament to ask for their support in reversing this decision and to strengthen the support offered by Universal Credit and Working Tax Credits.

Councillor Jason Zadrozny    Councillor Samantha Deakin

This Council recognises the immediacy of the challenge of poor nutrition and the need to encourage healthy eating in Nottinghamshire and beyond. Without radical change, we risk failing to achieve our statutory goals of improving the health & wellbeing of our residents, supporting the NHS, and tackling longstanding inequalities in our communities.

This Council therefore wishes to see nutrition developed as a key part of our 2022-2026 Health & Wellbeing Strategy, and asks Health & Wellbeing Board to consider in detail with partners how best to include this element appropriately, including plans for how officers can actively engage with residents on this key issue.

This Council will further set out to make Nottinghamshire a "Healthy Food Sustainable Shire" and ensure that these principles are considered and reflected appropriately in the development of the forthcoming Council Plan, overseen by the Deputy Leader, with actions arising from it to ensure that our communities are empowered to make positive choices about their nutrition and health.

Councillor Dr John Doddy Councillor Bruce Laughton

Nottinghamshire County Council notes that Government plans to make it mandatory for voters to produce photo identification before they can cast their votes. It further notes a Cabinet Office impact assessment that estimates the policy will cost up to £180million. £180million would buy 15,316 hip operations, 5,986 new ventilators or 9.9million hours of tutoring in schools.

This Council acknowledges that there were 171 allegations of in-person voter fraud at polling stations in Local and Parliamentary elections from 2014 to 2019 - of which three led to a conviction. This Council believes that at a time when the country is facing huge financial challenges due to COVID-19, spending up to £180million over ten years on a Voter ID scheme to make it harder for people to vote in elections is wrong both morally and shows a lack of priorities.

This Council notes the views of charities including Save the Children, independent campaign groups such as Greenpeace, and the trades union movement, who have condemned the Election's Bill as "...an attack on the UK's proud democratic tradition and some of our most fundamental rights".

This Council believes that thousands of residents in Nottinghamshire do not own photo ID. These are often poorer residents, the elderly, the young and people with disabilities. According to a Cabinet Office study, around 4% of people in the UK - about 2.1 million - lack a recognisable form of voter ID.

This Council therefore agrees to write to the Secretary of State for Justice, who is responsible for constitutional affairs - the Right Honourable Richard Buckland QC MP and all Nottinghamshire MPs requesting that they oppose the photo identification element of the Elections Bill currently going through Parliament.

Councillor Helen-Ann Smith Councillor David Shaw