PRE_SUD

1
Sustainable Development in Nottingham
Peer Review 21 25 October 2002
2
The PRESUD project

• Involves 9 partner cities Birmingham, The Hague,
  Leipzig, Malmo, Newcastle, Nottingham, Tampere,
  Venice, Vienna
• Along with 2 Universities, IDeA and Eurocities
• Project aims to
• evaluate the performance of all partner City
  authorities on sustainable development, through
  peer review
• help them to improve, in a measured way
• develop and test a new methodology for potential
  wider use
• Led by Newcastle City Council supported by
  European Commission (LIFE fund)

3
The PRESUD Benchmark

• Performance on sustainable development is
  examined by a peer review team against a
  benchmark, comprising 13 themes

• Technical and integration themes
• Air
• Water
• Waste
• Natural Resources, Nature Soil
• Energy
• Transport
• Regional Co-operation
• Social Economic integration
• Social Environmental integration
• Environment Economic integration

• Corporate Themes
• Leadership
• Democratic and Community Engagement
• Performance Management

4
The Peer Review Team

• The Peer Review Team spends a week in the City
• Considering a range of documentary and physical
  evidence
• Interviewing a range of members and officers
• Talking to other other stakeholders
• Analysing their findings
• The Nottingham Review Team included
• Julia Brown, Birmingham City Council, UK
• Laura Fagarazzi, Venice City Council, Italy
• Mandy James, Improvement and Development Agency
• Carina Nilsson, Malmo City Council, Sweden
• Christian Schrefel, 174 Consulting, Vienna,
  Austria
• Antonia Sucksdorff, Tampere City Council, Finland

5
Leadership

• Sustainability is a core value of the council
• Council Leader is seen to be committed to
  sustainable development
• Evidence of effective leadership in a number of
  OECD areas transport and economic social
  integration
• Range of good quality strategies and development
  of a corporate plan
• Leading light e.g. Nottingham Declaration for
  climate change
• However.
• What does sustainable development mean for the
  council?
• With recent changes - is it still a priority for
  the organisation as a whole?
• Need to follow through e.g. where is the climate
  change strategy?
• Departmentalism need to be more cross cutting
  in this area

6
Democratic and Community Engagement

• Council is committed to consultation and
  engagement e.g. Citizens Panel
• Range of partnerships in place e.g. Green
  Partnership, Greater Nottingham Transport
  Partnership, Nottingham Energy Partnership
• Area committees in place for seven years
• Development of a consultation strategy attempt
  to improve the co-ordination of consultation
• However
• Need to be clear about what things can be changed
  and what cannot
• Education is also a key part of consultation and
  engagement
• Build on good scrutiny work looking at health
  impact of local transport plan
• Scrutiny can also be used to evaluate progress in
  key strategies

7
Performance Management

• Good project management on large scale capital
  schemes
• Evidence of target setting e.g. corporate plan
• This area is a key priority for the council
• However...
• Need to develop a performance management
  framework
• Commitment to EMAS?
• Develop key sustainability indicators and measure
  the things you really care about

8
Air Management

• 3 Air Quality Management Plans will be ready in
  12 months
• Good regional and cross-sectoral cooperation
• Environmental Department policy to maintain high
  media profile
• However
• Need to integrate data on GIS
• Noise strategy?
• Climate Change strategy?

9
Water Management

• Campaigns to reduce water consumption e.g.,
  Turning the Tide
• Cooperation between the Nature Conservation Team
  and the Environment Agency
• Quality is good and has improved
• However
• Fragmentation of responsibilities and
  competencies across many different bodies
• No targets to achieve reduction in use in the
  Councils buildings
• No overall water management strategy
• Need to improve cooperation between planners and
  water team whose knowledge of local rivers is
  more detailed than the Agency
• No plan for flood prevention

10
Waste Management

• A new Waste Strategy January 2003
• Some examples of Waste Minimisation Projects
  School Programme
• Positive Best Value Review inspection report
• Tendering process encourages construction
  contractors to recycle building waste
• However..
• Recycling rate of 3
• Pressure for kerbside recycling
• Awareness raising of the need to recycle
• Incinerator viable?
• Neighbourhood Renewal Fund
• Should be more waste minimisation projects
• EC Directives, Waste Electrical goods, Batteries

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Natural Resources

• Good cooperation with Nature Conservation workers
  and Environment Agency
• Agreement with University to monitor
  effectiveness of the Nature Conservation Strategy
• Wealth of natural resources including 63 sites of
  conservation value (SINCS) and 3 SSSIs
• A Contaminated Land Strategy has been prepared
• Good examples of remediated sites include the
  University Jubilee Campus
• However.
• City could take a lead in protecting sites of
  Nature Conservation value
• (that have no legal protection under national
  law)
• Planners too preoccupied with socio-economic
  issues
• Nature Conservation Strategy is not of equal
  value to other strategies

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Sectoral Integration - Energy

• Energy Management Database, Green Energy
  contracts, Energy Matters newsletter
• Energy Conservation fund pays for improvements
  with payback less than 10 years
• Energy Learning Centre best practice
• Good partnership working - NEP
• However.
• CO2 reduction commitment in Nottingham
  Declaration
• no targets for reduction in energy consumption
• Circumventing of air-conditioning policy
• More cross-departmental communication/working 

13
Sectoral Integration - Transport

• Citys strategic Transport vision is very good
• NET will be first fully DDA Compliant light rail
  service in the UK
• Innovative Workplace parking levy, Home Zones
• Greater Nottingham Transport Partnership
• Good quality and level of consultation on the
  tram
• Commitment to develop Cycle Planning
• However
• Still room for improvement
• Integrated ticketing, information provision

14
Regional Co-operation

• Numerous active Partnerships exist in the region,
  Greater Nottingham Partnership
• Robin Hood Line and the Tram
• Regional Quality of Life Indicators
• EMDA using Regional Assemblys Sustainability
  Checklist
• However...
• Too many partnerships and outside bodies - a
  network of networks
• Business sector warning of withdrawal
• Issue of Local Strategic Partnerships (5 of
  these) concern about parochial aims and
  objectives
• Evidence to suggest key regional bodies not
  working together EMDA, GOEM
• Potential changes to Regional Spatial Planning
  system diminution of NCC planning powers?

15
Economic and Social Integration

• This is one of the Councils key priorities and
  with success to date
• Very successful in attracting funding in this
  area, SRB, New Deal, Objective II etc
• Social Exclusion Framework and Poverty Profile
• Deliberate policy not to have a strategy
  developing evidence of what works through
  projects, training and referrals
• Creating access to City employment opportunities
• Equal opportunities policy
• GNP tries to integrate economic with social
  investment
• However.
• EMDA focus on economic regeneration not
  investing in social capital
• Access to benefits of economic boom of people
  from deprived areas

16
Social and Environmental Integration

• Nottingham Green Partnership highly active and
  numerous successful projects
• City Council Sustainability Team well-respected
  by stakeholders
• Chase Neighbourhood Centre Project
• NEP Health and Housing Task Group Affordable
  Warmth
• Food Initiatives Group work with Schools
• Transport and Health Initiatives Group Impact
  study on Local Transport Plan
• LA21 Strategy
• Environmental Review of Primary Care Trust
• However
• The Local Transport Plan needs to be integrated
  into Community Plan
• Nottingham Health Action Group could be merged
  with the NGP?
• build recommendations from Impact Study into
  Councils Scrutiny role of the Health Service

17
Environmental and Economic Integration

• The Green Partnership supports the Environmental
  Business Awards
• Code of practice for Employment Training in
  Construction Sector
• Good examples of Bulwell Hall Community Garden
  and NECTA
• However..
• Implementation of Green procurement policy
• Pressure on Greenfield sites for economic
  development commitment to protect such sites?
• economic boom brings in money and revellers
  versus environmental complaints noise. Is this
  having a negative impact on city-living?
• SMEs Financial Assistance Contracts why no
  sustainability criteria in these?

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Next steps

• Draft report with you within 6 weeks for comment
  and correction
• Public release to stakeholders of the assessment
  report
• Nottingham and stakeholders prepare and implement
  SMART action plan to advance sustainable
  development
• Back in 18 months to assess advances

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Finally...

• thank you...

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Information about the project, the other partner
cities and all the reviews can be found on the
project website www.presud.org