Minutes:
The Council received a notice of motion moved by Councillor Jason Zadrozny and seconded by Councillor Dale Grounds as follows:-
“This Council notes the positive difference that Ashfield District Council made to so many lives during the COVID-19 Lockdown. We are incredibly proud of the efforts of all staff and volunteers of this authority.
This includes being the only Council in Nottinghamshire to have maintained a full waste collection service. In fact, this Council offered an enhanced service with the ‘Bag It’ and ‘Skip into Summer’ campaigns – the only Council in the country to have done this.
This Council also paid out nearly £20million in business grants in quick time, we answered over 40,000 enquiries from residents, dealing with tens of thousands of problems. We ensured that our Housing Tenants continued to receive an excellent service with all emergency checks done and the vast majority of housing repairs done. Whilst many, bigger Councils went into lockdown. Ashfield District Council went into overdrive.
This Council would like to place on record its thanks to each and every member of staff in the Ashfield District Council family. We note that in uncertain many of our staff put their lives at risk to continue to provide the services that residents desperately needed.
Never before has the importance of local Councils like Ashfield been demonstrated than during the current Coronavirus Pandemic. They worked alongside other key organisations to ensure that the most vulnerable received continued service. This Council welcomes the fact that preparatory work has already been started by the COVID-19 Response and Recovery Scrutiny Panel for a permanent memorial to all key workers.
This Council is bitterly disappointed that Nottinghamshire County Council have now started the process of scrapping Councils like Ashfield District Council. Our brave workers are being rewarded by the Conservatives by being told their jobs are under threat. This Council is hugely concerned about the lack of engagement from the County Council. They only engaged with Chief Executives of the seven authorities in the County at the last minute.
This Council notes that the Leaders of all 7 Boroughs and Districts in Nottinghamshire are against these proposals. Now is not the time for a massive reorganisation of local councils. Mass reorganisation at this time risks scarce resources being diverted away from the Covid recovery and other vital public services.
We therefore call for the Chief Executive and Leader of Ashfield District Council to write to:
To express that this Council is firmly against any proposals to scrap Ashfield District Council and the six other Boroughs and Districts in Nottinghamshire.”
Having been fully considered, the motion was put to the vote and it was
RESOLVED
that the Chief Executive and Leader of Ashfield District Council write to:
· the Chief Executive of Nottinghamshire Council
· the Leader of Nottinghamshire County Council
· Robert Jenrick, Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government,
to express that the Council is firmly against any proposals to scrap Ashfield District Council and the six other Boroughs and Districts in Nottinghamshire.