Our Sustainable Community Strategy 2010-2020
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Positive People - Positive Leadership - Positive Partnerships Broxtowe Borough Partnership A Better Broxtowe OUR SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITY STRATEGY 2010 - 2020 Positive People - Positive Leadership - Positive Partnerships Positive People - Positive Leadership - Positive Partnerships Foreword by the Chair The”Broxtowe Borough Sustainable Community Strategy” is a long term plan for the area covered by Broxtowe Borough Council. It guides the future activity of all public, private and voluntary sector agencies operating in the area. It aims to ensure good co-ordination, best possible outcomes for local people and the most effective use of resources. This is the first Broxtowe Borough Sustainable Community Strategy which has been drawn up in parallel with the development of the higher level Nottinghamshire Sustainable Community Strategy, a document which covers the area of the whole of Nottinghamshire. By working together we are aiming to ensure our plans are consistent with each other. We are entering a period of spending constraint following a severe recession. There is bound to be a lot of change in the next decades, not least in how public services are best delivered to local people. One of the best ways we can prepare to face this challenge is by ensuring we work well with each other, understanding the needs of people in our local area and concentrating on those things which matter most and which will make the biggest difference to our communities. It is important to have this long term focus for our efforts to enable us to plan ahead to cope with significant changes to demographics and climate change, building employment opportunities and enabling the skilled workforce of the future, exercising leadership in relation to the health challenges of the population as well as rebutting threats from crime and disorder. Thank you to everyone who has contributed to the development of this document. I look forward to being part of its implementation and I hope you do too. David Watts Chair of Broxtowe Borough Local Strategic Partnership and Leader of Broxtowe Borough Council Positive People - Positive Leadership - Positive Partnerships What is the Broxtowe Borough Local Strategic Partnership and how is it organised? The Broxtowe Borough Partnership is a group of representatives of public sector institutions including Broxtowe Borough Council, Nottinghamshire County Council, NHS Nottinghamshire County, the Fire Authority, Police Constabulary, the Rural Community Council, further and higher education sector, representatives of the voluntary sector (the single infrastructure body for the area), the Citizens’ Advice Bureau; and a representative of the private sector. This group seeks to co-ordinate the delivery of the Broxtowe Borough Sustainable Community Strategy, ensuring all the agencies represented reflect the shared priorities of the Nottinghamshire and Broxtowe Community Strategies. The Partnership meets on a quarterly basis. There are a variety of task groups which report to the Partnership, covering the main themes and issues contained in the Strategy. These are: • Environment task group • Children and Young People’s task group • Positive Communities task group • Health task group • South Nottinghamshire Community Safety Partnership It is proposed to set up a theme group to focus on employment issues, but one is not currently active. The Partnership has an Operations Group to which it delegates various operational tasks. At each meeting of the Partnership a performance report is given from each task group and performance management information, collated through the Covalent software system, helps the Partnership to see whether it remains on track to achieve its goals. The partnership elects a chairman/vice-chairman every two years. The Broxtowe Borough Partnership is represented on the Nottinghamshire Partnership, which is the Local Strategic Partnership for the County of Nottinghamshire. Positive People - Positive Leadership - Positive Partnerships Achievements so far There have been many significant achievements through partnership working under the first Broxtowe Borough Sustainable Community Strategy. Here are some examples: • The formation of the South Nottinghamshire Community Safety Partnership has led to the reduction of crime by 30% over the last three years, during which time Broxtowe moved from 15th out of 15 in our most similar family group to 6th position. • The Broxtowe Action Fund was formed using donations from partnership organisations and through this £164,000 has been distributed to local voluntary groups since 2000, in ways which advance the Sustainable Community Strategy’s objectives. • Recycling of household refuse has risen from 35% to 43% in 5 years • Partners have worked together to identify ways of encouraging physical activity and healthy eating. Local health projects have been supported through choosing health funding to support creative ways of promoting health at a local level • Ecoteams have worked with 546 households since August 2003, helping to reduce CO2 emissions per capita in Broxtowe by an average of 18.1% or 681kg of participating households per year • Young people in Broxtowe worked to produce a borough wide questionnaire and action plan for young people’s issues, which was funded and implemented, providing more facilities for young people in the borough. Young people have gone on to launch peer education projects on subjects like homelessness and alcohol misuse which have received national recognition. • Work done through the “positive communities“ group to build relationships between people of different backgrounds has contributed led to a rise in the extent to which local people think that people in Broxtowe get on well with each other (from 67% to 82%) • Investment in environmental improvements, particularly in the borough’s town centres of Beeston, Kimberley, Stapleford and Eastwood, have helped to promote improvements in public satisfaction with these areas. Positive People - Positive Leadership - Positive Partnerships How we developed the Broxtowe Borough Sustainable Community Strategy 2010-2020 In developing our new Broxtowe Borough Sustainable Community Strategy, we have built on the foundations laid by our previous document, the Broxtowe Community Strategy 2006- 2012. We took account of evidence derived from: • The condition of Nottinghamshire (Jan 2009) • Local futures data (Jan 2009) • Joint strategic needs assessment and health profile for Broxtowe • Nottinghamshire community safety strategic assessment and South Notts community safety strategic assessment • Single economic assessment 2009. • Updated borough profile (document 1) • National and local context (document 2) If you want to see the supporting evidence behind the strategy and more facts and figures, you should look at these documents. We also listened and consulted – we collated, reflected on and analysed responses to consultation exercises conducted with local people the results of which, including detailed facts and figures, are contained in document 3. The key messages we think local people want us to hear and see reflected in the strategy are: • Community safety should be a high priority. Whilst crime rates are improving, people don’t feel as safe as they should feel or want to feel. • There is too much anti social behaviour: People don’t respect each other enough and they need to be better informed about the way in which the police and local authorities work together to tackle anti social behaviour. • Young people need more access to a range of activities to make the most of their free time. • Local people want high levels of recycling and composting and good quality parks and open spaces. Positive People - Positive Leadership - Positive Partnerships • Whilst people are generally satisfied with local public services, there is scope to improve the extent to which people feel they can influence decision making. • The extent to which people are satisfied with provision in town centres varies and could be improved in all areas. • Local people want good provision in terms of street scene cleanliness and good road and pavement maintenance. Nottinghamshire Sustainable Community Strategy The members of the Local Strategic Partnership in Broxtowe have worked closely with Nottinghamshire County Council in the development of the Sustainable community strategy for the county. There is a paragraph about Broxtowe in that strategy which summarises the priorities that are set out in more detail in this document. The County Council’s strategy sets out six themes. These are: • A greener Nottinghamshire • A place where Nottinghamshire’s children achieve their full potential • A safer Nottinghamshire • Health and well-being for all • A more prosperous Nottinghamshire • Making Nottinghamshire’s communities stronger Broxtowe’s Sustainable Community Strategy echoes these themes exactly, with one additional theme of housing. Links with other strategies and documents The Broxtowe Borough Sustainable Community Strategy forms a strategic framework under which other documents sit. The Council’s corporate plan is consistent with the Community Strategy and other partners’ plans will also reflect the shared priorities. The Local Development Framework is the spatial expression of the Sustainable Community Strategy. Strategies like the Housing Strategy take their cue from the Sustainable Community strategy. Contracts with government, such as the Local Area Agreement, reflect the priorities of the Sustainable Community Strategy. Positive People