Minutes:
The Chairman delivered an update to the Committee in relation to key developments that had taken place between Committee meetings from services within the Committee remit.
It was reported that the response to Covid-19 had continued to affect services within the Councils responsibility and Members would be aware that the national restrictions had meant that Council leisure centres had closed once more.
The Managing Director of Active4Today – Andy Carolan, provided an update on the agenda in relation to the impact Covid-19 was having on the business and its finances.
Even before the national restrictions, the regulations in both tier 2 and tier 3 were having a detrimental impact and the Council would therefore be closely monitoring what the exit plan from the national restrictions looked like post 2 December. During October, colleagues from public protection were heavily involved in supporting businesses across Newark and Sherwood to meet the new requirements that tier 2 brought to their operations. This also involved joint work with colleagues in the police to undertake weekend visits to pubs to ensure that they too were operating in line with the new regulations. Whilst the vast majority were, one pub was issued with an enforcement notice. Again, the team would be closely monitoring the exit plan post 2 December, as they were likely to be involved once more in ensuring compliance with whatever the replacement regulations would be. Despite the operational challenges that Covid continued to bring, the Chairman was pleased to be able to inform Members about a number of positive developments which had been achieved.
Four of the Council’s parks, which were maintained by the Council’s grounds maintenance team, had been awarded Green Flag Status once again. The Council was rightly proud of the parks and open spaces and this award showed that the Castle Gardens, Sconce and Devon, Vicar Water and Sherwood Heath were being looked after to the highest standards. On the agenda was a report recommending that spaces within HRA land were looked after once more by the Council which was a great opportunity to ensure greater consistency in standards and better accountability for more of our open spaces. The Council also continued to make good progress with the new pool at the Dukeries Leisure Centre in Ollerton, which was currently on programme to complete the works in June 2021. This week the steels for the superstructure were set to go in, this would make the development even more real for the community in what would be a very positive facility. The chairman also informed Members regarding the report on the Council’s Climate Emergency Strategy and Action Plan, which would go to Full Council on 15 December 2020. Once approved, a number of interventions that were proposed to reduce the Council’s carbon footprint would be in the gift of this Committee, including reducing the footprint from the Council’s biggest emitters – the leisure centres. The Chairman looked forward to receiving a report next year setting out how the Council would proceed with this.