Minutes:
Councillor Samantha Deakin - Portfolio Holder for Parks, Town Centres and Neighbourhood Services
· Officers have been busy administering the Welcome Back Fund and the Senior Covid Information Officer is with the Council until the end of September
· The organisation of events is well underway with a planned Food Festival and Tabletop Sales.
· Footfall is increasing at all town centres with Kirkby making a slow start but increasing steadily
· Projects continue with £550k being spent on the Council’s parks and open spaces and a further £500k investment imminent
· Replanting of 1000 trees
· The success of the 2021 Spring Clean, Bag It and Flying Skip Campaigns and a thank you to all staff involved
· New proposals for the Big Spring Clean 2022
· Recent works being carried out at Kings Mill Reservoir by a Youth Voluntary Charity
· The installation of a rapid electric charger at the Depot and plans to replace the diesel fleet with new hybrid vehicles.
Councillor Matthew Relf – Portfolio Holder for Place, Planning and
Regeneration
· Work well underway to purchase vacant High Street properties as part of the Towns Fund programme
· The imminent opening of the new Moor Market at Kirkby in Ashfield
· Proposals for walking and cycling improvements within Ashfield
· Creation of a Centre of Excellence for disabled people in Sport and Theatre, at Portland College
· The recent award of £62.6 million for investment in Kirkby and Sutton Town Centre with 17 projects being included in the business plan
· Members’ meeting arranged to discuss further ideas for Towns Fund investment
· The Discover Ashfield Board continued to meet monthly with the Graduate Officer doing an excellent job supporting the Members
· Work continuing on the Railways Bid for the Maid Marion Line.
Councillor Daniel Williamson - Portfolio Holder for Customer Services, Corporate Change and Digital Transformation
· The Risk and Emergency Planning Team continued to work hard to keep the Council safe following relaxation of the Covid distancing rules
· Improvements continued to be made to the Council’s online payment facilities with the provision of a user-friendly website
· 60,000 online payments made in 2020/21 which showed a 16% increase on the previous year resulting in a 23% reduction in pay point and post office transactions
· Digital transformation was continuing with the Office 365 rollout to employees and installation of a new telephone system resulting in a £37,000 saving
· Work was now focussing on improvements to the Central Customer Portal.
Councillor Kier Barsby - Portfolio Holder for Environmental Improvements, Corporate Communications and Cross Portfolio Support
· Democratic Services and Scrutiny were now back to normal and facilitating face to face meetings with their Mod.Gov office software being upgraded and shifted to a cloud-based system
· Members were due to have their IPads updated to facilitate the new improvements
· The Legal Team were busy with Community Safety enforcement work and Freedom of Information requests were still being processed at a high level
· Elections were currently delivering the 2021 annual canvass and were making preparations for the imminent Polling Places review
· The Communications Team continued to keep the District informed with 97 press releases being sent out and support continuing for the roll out of Covid vaccinations.
Councillor John Wilmott - Portfolio Holder for Licensing, Environmental Health and Regulatory Services
· The Licensing Team were currently facilitating a 28 day consultation for amendment to taxi fees and charges
· Licensing applications continued to increase and digital upgrades were underway to enable applications for licences to be completed online
· The Environmental Health Team were busy dealing with 2,346 requests from members of the public and local businesses and 163 food premises registrations had been completed
· There had been a recent increase in illegal encampments within the District
· A Selective Licensing review was due to be undertaken within the next few months.
Councillor Helen-Ann Smith - Deputy Leader and Portfolio Holder for Community Safety and Crime Reduction
· Enforcement action continued at pace with a 6% overall reduction in crime within the District
· Fixed Penalty Notices (FPNs) were now being issued daily
· The success of the recent Operation Springboard in conjunction with the Police
· £550K to be invested in ‘Safer Streets’
· Community safety training within schools was developing and healthy relationships were being formed.
Councillor Jason Zadrozny – Leader of the Council
· Reopening of Leisure Centres in April 2021
· Proposed capital improvements to the Lammas and Hucknall Leisure Centres
· Progress in relation to the Kirkby Leisure Centre build by Keir Contractors and their arranged activity days and community events including local school visits to site and learn to brick lay days
· Progress regarding the Council’s Health and Wellbeing Strategy
· The Council’s gold award achievement for the Defence Employer Recognition Scheme
· Additional funding for the ‘Feelgood Families’ Scheme of £10,000
· Open Air Cinema events.