Manifesto Pledges 2007 Draft 1

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The Liberal Democrats believe that Nottingham City Council needs new ideas - and a new push to improvement.

Some council services are well run and well delivered, others less so and some provide poor services. Overall, despite being a high spending authority, most Council services are performing below average. Whilst there has been improvement, and that is welcome, Nottingham Council is getting better at a slower rate than other councils and we are falling further behind.

The main theme of this manifesto is getting the basics right - a focus on good quality basic services. Liberal Democrats think that in Nottingham there has been too much emphasis on high profile `one off' projects, such as the new Old Market Square, and not enough on the basic day to day services that the Council provides. The people of Nottingham deserve services as which are as good as other authorities deliver not just hyped up statistics showing part of the picture on bus shelters and banners across the City.

There are a number of areas which we are particularly concerned about and where we have a clearly different approach to offer. These are:

We believe that our proposed improvements can all be afforded within the current levels of expenditure, by identifying areas of waste within the Council. The money for our pledges is not intended to come from Council Tax rises.

The manifesto concentrates on those areas where we are looking to see changes in what the Council does. There are areas of the Council's operation which we think are going broadly in the right direction e.g. education, lines 2 & 3 of the tram. These areas are not covered in this manifesto.

Nottingham Council, under Labour, has a history of concentrating on high profile `flagship' projects. Some of these, such as the tram, bring real benefits to Nottingham. Others, such as the recent £8 million spent of levelling the Old Market Square and giving away a million (flower) bulbs have been badly run or do not offer substantial benefits to the people of Nottingham.

No one, any longer, disputes that many of the Council's basic services need to improve. In last years budget Labour set aside £500,000 to help improve basic services in those areas where it is needed. However, at a recent scrutiny meeting the Lib Dems pointed out that the main business of the team set up to deliver this improvement was now how to do well in the next external (CPA) inspection rather than how to improve basic services. The Labour leadership was using the money to make the Council look better in the eyes of the inspectors rather than delivering better services for the people of Nottingham.

The Labour Council has set five main themes, including `Ambitious for Nottingham'. None of these include a drive to improve basic services. The Liberal Democrats, in the full council meeting, proposed adding a theme of `good quality basic services'. The Labour Group rejected this.

Liberal Democrats believe that the people of Nottingham deserve good quality services at a reasonable cost. Until this basic aim is achieved the Council should have far fewer `flagship' projects and concentrate of getting everyday services right.

Crime in Nottingham has been going down in recent years, though violence/criminal damage is up. However steep rises in early part of decade mean `All Crime' as measured by the British Crime Survey has only recently fallen to below the levels seen in the year 2000. There has been a mixed record of tackling crime - with some good ideas for short term, but little long term vision beyond dry statistics and targets being set.

Overall, the enforcement end of tackling crime and anti-social behaviour (ASB) is being targeted by the Council for extra resources and greater scrutiny to ensure results are delivered.

In the short term this has had an impact - and indeed more needs to be done to address the immediate problems. The Liberal Democrats propose that the Council provide more wardens (Community Protection Officers) over the next four years. However this still leaves a gap around long term solutions.

Locally, there needs to be a long term vision - the current strategies only talk about reduction of 5% here or 7% there over a time span of a few years. The vision needs to tackle the causes of crime, as well as dealing with and reducing the symptoms.

We need to break the cycle of crime - young people grow up in circumstances where crime is the norm. It seems to be only option for some young people. “Round here there's full employment, man. £50 to slash some tyres, £100 to tack a packet round the corner” - anon. teenager from Radford quoted in an Observer Magazine article 28/1/7.

There is a perception that crime in Nottingham is getting worse despite some recent improvements. `All Crime' BCS (i.e. total crime) was just under 68000 for the year 2000/01. In 2005/06 it was 63000. However in 2002/03 it reached a high of 74000.

The long term vision has to include both dealing with the causes of crime and the City valuing its young. Not all crime/ASB is committed by young people however the perception is that young people are mostly at fault. What is true is that many young people are at risk of being involved in crime either as victim or perpetrator or often both. If young people could be kept away from crime, the cycle of crime broken, then the rewards can be reaped long term.

Liberal Democrats have a vision of a city where people feel safe and secure, actual crime is low, perception of crime is low and young people are engaged in society. They need to be provided with the skills and opportunities to fulfil their goals.

Over the last 4 years the amount of location based youth provision has fallen, this should be reversed and the number of youth workers increased. There needs to be increase youth support - useable facilities open at times they will get used, youth bars, permanent youth worker teams in areas to allow long term relationships to build up to draw young people into facilities.

Also, because of funding issues, many youth workers are on short term contracts and are, all too often, moved to a different area of the City just when they have got to know a group of children in one area.

There has finally been recognition from the Council and Government that in order for some parents to do a good job bringing up children we need equip them with parenting skills. The Council has increased parenting provision but only to a small number of families the Council selects - those where problems are already well established. There is little, or no, help for those who start to have difficulties bringing up their children. We think help with parenting should be available to all for example parenting classes taught at school, and evening sessions in community centres.

NCC has a poor record in the collection of council tax compared with similar councils and, whilst current rent collection performance by the ALMO is quite good, there is nearly £20 million owing from when it was a Labour Housing Department.

As ward councillors Liberal Democrat councillors became aware of a number of people who owed the Council money and either could afford to pay but didn't fully understand how to pay or were not getting the benefits they were entitled to - often because of complicated central government processes. Because of the concerns about collection rates and about the impact on vulnerable people the Liberal Democrats requested a 2Task and Finish Panel2 to look into this area.

The “Review of Debt Collection” Task and Finish Panel October 2006 was chaired by Lib Dem councillor Tony Sutton.

Current Council policy is an assumption that people who “don't pay won't pay”. Whilst this is true of some people Nottingham has many vulnerable people who are not getting the support they are entitled to.

Also the debts are all chased up by letter. Given that over half of Nottingham's adults have numeracy skills at or below that expected of an 11 year old, and one in six have literacy skills at or below that expected of an 11 year old writing to people about money is not likely to be very effective. More needs to be done to directly approach people and, where appropriate, offer support.

The Council's services to vulnerable adults is one of the most critical areas of service provision. As people live longer a higher and higher proportion of Nottingham's residents are elderly. Nottingham also has problems in recruiting and keeping staff in some critical areas.

One particular area of concern is the long delays in providing aids and adaptations for the elderly and disabled. Currently there is a 31 week wait after people have been assessed. This is unacceptable. Despite promises over a number of years by the Labour Portfolio Holder that the situation is being addressed the problem is still there.

Liberal Democrats will invest £220,000 a year in the Occupational Therapy service to provide more occupational therapists, more community care officers and fund more aids and adaptations. This will clear the backlog in providing aids and adaptations to the elderly and disabled.

We will prioritise the recruitment and retention of more field social workers, particularly Occupational Therapists and Residential Carers and Home Carers for older people. It is not acceptable that staff turnover in NCC is higher than other councils and that staff vacancies are double that of other councils (reference: Commission for Social Care Inspection October 2006).

We need to understand the implications of an ageing population and adopt a pro-active approach to planning and funding of the service requirements needed We will conduct a far-reaching cross party review of the future needs for adult social care in the context of an increasing proportion of older people in Nottingham City.

For years city residents have had to make do with patching up the worst roads while general standards fall. The budgets for this important work have been much too small to do all that was needed.

Five years ago the Council was resurfacing its roads at a rate of once every 50 years - and pavements once every 100 years. More recently this has improved and now roads are being resurfaced at a rate of once every 25 years and pavements every 50 years.

The improvement is welcome, but there is still a large backlog. There is too much patching, and too many claims from people tripping and falling. And each fall has other costs - costs in suffering and pain of those injured, costs on the NHS to set broken bones, costs to the economy of days missed at work.

Liberal Democrats would clear the backlog of full resurfacing of the City's roads and pavements over the next 10 years. We estimate that this would cost £4 million a year for 10 years.

Much of the City's street cleaning is ineffective. The methods used and the equipment provided to the Council workforce have not changed for many years. The standard method of picking up leaves is still with two pieces of cardboard! In our inner city areas the road sweepers drive along the middle of roads, unable to clear the gutters because of the parked cars. Because of this our streets are not being cleaned properly.

Many other places, both in this country and abroad, use modern equipment to clean streets and public places. Equipment that can pick up litter from under parked cars, from difficult corners and down alleyways. Nottingham Council should be providing its workforce with this equipment. Liberal Democrats are committed to investing the money to be able to do this. Our latest budget amendment found a `one off' sum of £500,000 to do this.

Over the years the budget for tree care has been reduced. Trees on City roads are now pruned once every 6 years. Those on park and other Council land are only dealt with when there are problems.

The Council is currently not meeting its statutory duty of care that it has to users of parks, open spaces, recreation and highway land.

In the 1990s, Nottingham City Council made an early name for itself in environmental issues setting up a scheme called the Nottingham Declaration which encourages other local authorities to take the issue of climate change seriously. Unfortunately the City Council failed to follow through on the early promise and the issue dropped out of view in recent years until a scrutiny investigation brought the issue back to the mainstream again in 2005. In these years with our eye off the ball, other authorities have taken up Nottingham's lead and overtaken the Council in terms of the environmental agendas.

Now it is up to the Council to play catch-up in many different fields at once to regain our position nationally as a leader in sustainable issues. In October 2006, a new green policy for the City was launched with great fanfare that was enthusiastically endorsed by the Liberal Democrats. The Council has signed up to a far-reaching policy that will affect many different areas. We will work to ensure that this time the policies are put into practice across the Council and not allowed to slip down the priority list.

It is also vital that the Council does as much as it can to help ordinary householders play their part. The Liberal Democrats will provide and staff a “Green Living Centre”. We will find a building, preferably a city centre shop front, to be a centre of excellence teaching and supporting local people, schools, businesses and community groups to “go green” at home and work. We will draw on local expertise in Nottingham Energy Partnership and Nottingham University.

The Liberal Democrats nationally take issues of climate change and environmentalism very seriously. Our parliamentary manifestoes have won many accolades from green lobby groups like Friends of the Earth. We have a strong commitment to reforming the tax system to provide a positive financial incentive to living a more environmentally friendly life. And we do not see the environment as a bolt-on, but as a core of our thinking, with a green thread running through all our policy.

Councils controlled by Lib Dems have contributed many policies to public life to mitigate against climate change, to reduce energy usage, and to promote better waste management. Nottingham's neighbouring city Leicester, now in Lib Dem control, has an excellent record of improvement through environmental monitoring, as well as many individual projects bringing sustainability to Leicester. North of Nottingham, Lib Dem controlled Chesterfield has much to boast about, bringing in a stringent planning policy, adding solar panels and other green technologies to existing buildings, and building new industrial buildings and a coach station with state of the art, money-saving green technology such as photovoltaics and ground-source heat plant.

The Government altered the planning system in 2004 to allow local authorities to make environmental statements in their Local Development Framework. The London Borough of Merton pioneered a policy of insisting that large developments find 10% of their energy requirements from renewable sources. This means that any large building must include a sustainable energy element, such as a ground source heat pump with coils buried under a car park, or solar hot water panels on the roof. Major developments are defined:

*Major Developments definition
For dwellings: where 10 or more are to be constructed (or if number not given, area is more than 0.5 hectares)

For all other uses: where the floor space will be 1000sq metres or more (or site is 1 hectare or more). Area of site is that directly involved in some aspect of the development. Floor space is defined as the sum of floor area within the building measured to the external wall faces at each level. Basement car parks, rooftop plant rooms, caretakers' flats etc. should be included.

Since its introduction in Merton, many other local authorities have followed suit. Some have even increased the percentage required to a higher figure such as 20%. Of the 121 local authorities that have amended their planning framework since the rule was allowed, over half have included a Merton style rule. Nottingham did not.

When the Liberal Democrats tried to have the rule introduced in Nottingham we were told that altering the planning policy framework is a lengthy process, and that it would take two years to be able to implement Merton in Nottingham. A paper presented to the Council's Executive Board in March 2007 mentioned environmental planning only briefly and did not set out a timetable for completion.

Nottingham City Council would have no powers to oblige developers to include green measures in new buildings until the formal policy is adopted. Writing and implementing planning policy is a lengthy legal process including formal consultation with developers and members of the public.

The Liberal Democrats would encourage all possible haste with the writing and adoption of this policy. In the mean time, a Lib Dem council would

A ensure that all developers are encouraged to consider environmental elements in their plans, with expert advice from trained planning policy officers

B ensure that any development in the city by the Council, on Council land, or financed from the public purse would include a minimum of 20% renewable energy.

Housing is one of the basic services that need to improve. Day to day operations is now the responsibility of Nottingham City Homes (NCH). The major problems faced by NCH were all inherited from the City Council Housing Department - and the ruling Labour Group have yet to accept responsibility for this.

Liberal Democrats support the efforts of NCH to improve the running of the housing function and to obtain 2 star status - both because funding for the Decent Homes Standard depends on this and because NCH tenants deserve a good service. Some issues we are particularly concerned about:

The Comprehensive Performance Assessment (CPA) Update in 2006 noted that in Nottingham “High spending levels are not matched by high performance levels”. The same report also noted that there is no comprehensive process for reviewing value for money.

The new Chief Executive's assessment is that the organisation is bureaucratic. He is currently setting up working groups to tackle this.

The Liberal Democrats are happy to support high spending in areas where the public want, and get, high levels of service. It is unacceptable to have the high spending where this is not so. Year after year the Labour leadership turns down Lib Dem calls for the Council to have a thorough going, fundamental review of spending across the Council.

The CPA update in 2006 noted that there was not enough involvement of councillors in challenging value for money. Lib Dems believe that this challenge should be lead by the portfolio holders who are responsible for policy in their areas. Scrutiny councillors also have an important contribution to this area - but this means that backbench, as well as opposition, councillors must challenge officers to demonstrate they provide the best service for the money spent.

We will increase the youth support across the City and have longer term arrangements for youth workers in local areas.

Liberal Democrats would invest £200,000 a year to improve the care of trees, meet statutory duties and trim highways trees every three years.

Liberal Democrats would invest £500,000 in modern, appropriate equipment to enable our streets to be cleaned to a much better standard.

Liberal Democrats would invest an extra £4 million a year for 10 years to clear the backlog of full resurfacing of the City's roads and pavements.

The Liberal Democrats will ensure that there is a full rolling review to cover every department over a four year period looking at areas of waste and low performance.

We will provide and staff a “Green Living Centre” to be a centre of excellence supporting local people to “go green” at home and work.

We will invest £220,000 a year to clear the backlog in providing aids and adaptations to the elderly and disabled.

Liberal Democrats would put a high priority on addressing the funding shortfall in meeting the Decent Homes Standard, communicate clearly with tenants and consult them at the earliest opportunity.

Liberal Democrats will monitor NCH to make sure that a tenant sign off is introduced so that repairs are not shown as complete without tenant agreement.