I am proud that Nottingham City Council Teams keep getting recognised for their innovative work which is helping Nottingham become carbon neutral as well as boosting the reputation of our council and our city nationally.

This week the City Council has defended its ?Best Local Authority? title at the East Midlands Energy Efficiency Awards. The accolade recognises one ?exceptional? council which has shown a true commitment to promoting energy efficiency. It is particularly pleasing to retain this title for 2021, when staff have had to go above and beyond due to the impacts of Covid-19.

Nottingham City Council?s Catering Team won a national accolade for championing environmental issues through school menus, winning the ??Green? Menu & Marketing Award 2021 at the annual LACA Awards for Excellence. It recognised the Catering Teams? success in reducing their carbon footprint with changes to menus, cooking equipment, production, waste, customer engagement, staff training and marketing.

The Council?s Fleet Management Team has also recently won two awards. Firstly, they won Clean Van Fleet Operator of the Year at the Motor Transport Awards, due to their push toward an electric vehicle fleet and their work in supporting other public sector bodies, individuals and companies to do the same. They were also successful in winning the Dr Will Murray Award for Analysis and Action at the UK Fleet Champions Awards for their commitment to a greener fleet.

Congratulations again to all the teams involved and I?d like to pass on a huge thank you to all the staff who are helping deliver a greener future for Nottingham.

Further testament to our leading role in green issues is Nottingham?s hosting of a National Clean Air Conference tomorrow, with organisations around the country coming together to hear how investing in public transport can have a huge beneficial impact on air quality. A number of speakers from the City Council will outline how our Workplace Parking Levy has played a part in our success ? and delegates and the public will be able to see a selection of the electric vehicles in the Old Market Square which make up an increasing proportion of our fleet.

Nottingham?s trial e-scooter rental scheme has proved popular in terms of use, and it?s clear there is potential for e-scooters to offer a greener, affordable and convenient way to travel, especially as a replacement for shorter car journeys. With this in mind, we?ve confirmed today that the trial will be extended until November next year, in line with the other Department for Transport-led trials taking place across the country.

As you would expect from a trial, the scheme has raised a number of issues, in particular pavement riding and irresponsible parking. This extension will give us time to strengthen and introduce new safety measures, working with the operator Wind Mobility, meaning that if the Government decides to legalise e-scooters in the long-term we?ll have been able to develop a controlled, safe way of managing their use.

Read more

We are seeing cases of Covid-19 rising across the country ? and while the increase is slower in the city, it?s clear we need to take action now to avoid harsher restrictions later. This time last year, the virus spread throughout our communities and we moved into different ?tiers? that had increasingly-tighter limits of what we could and couldn?t do. No one wants to see that again.

Our ask is this: please take care of yourself and others? wear a face covering in busy indoor spaces and try to make sure there is plenty of ventilation. Take a free Covid test twice a week ? and, if you haven?t already, get your vaccination. Having the protection of the vaccine is something we didn?t have last year. It?s making a difference, but we need more people to join the two-thirds of us in Nottingham who have had their jab.

If we work together now, we can keep our level of Covid-19 as low as possible ? and that way we will continue to safely enjoy all the things we want to do this winter.