Home   News   Article

Subscribe Now

Newark and Sherwood District Council agree that £45,000 budget allocated towards activities for Motion for the Ocean be re-allocated into the Flooding Defence Reserve




Plans to improve ocean literacy in the area are set to receive £10,000, as opposed to the £45,000 budget originally allocated, which will be put towards preventing flooding.

The Community Plan 2023-2027 is the key document which will set the vision and direction of Newark and Sherwood District Council during a four-year term, which is regularly refreshed to ensure the plan reflects the projects which are ongoing or yet to be delivered.

At the council’s cabinet meeting on Tuesday (April 1), the refreshed Community Plan for the period of 2023-2027 was presented to the members, with the recommendation that the refreshed plan be referred to Full Council for approval and adoption on May 20.

Circo Rum Ba Ba theatre company’s giant sperm whale in Newark Market Place as part of ocean literacy .
Circo Rum Ba Ba theatre company’s giant sperm whale in Newark Market Place as part of ocean literacy .

Within the refreshed Community Plan, the district council’s objectives have been rebranded as ‘Ambitions’, which are reflected in seven statements to explain the council’s purposes including ‘reduce crime and antisocial behaviour’, ‘improve health and wellbeing’, ‘increase the supply of housing’, and more.

One such action in the refreshed plan is the update on the Motion for the Ocean Action Plan report, which was deferred from a previous meeting.

It was recommended before the meeting that the £45,000 budget allocated towards activities for Motion for the Ocean be re-allocated into the Flooding Defence Reserve to fund a further Community Resilience Grant Scheme in 2025/26.

It was suggested that the Motion for the Ocean will be granted £10,000, reallocated from the Cleaner, Safer, Greener reserve to Environmental Services to allow the motion’s day-to-day activities around growing ocean literacy.

Paul Taylor had been advocating for further funding for flood resilience for some time.

He said: “We need to increase in resources for flood resilience, it’s about offering parish support to prevent flooding happening.

“I know we’re not the flooding authority, the county council is, but I believe we have a responsibility to the people on our patch to do whatever we can to assist and we need to put money aside for that.

“I welcome having this available and hope we can assist the parishes again.”

Leader Paul Peacock described the decision as “common sense” and “if we go to speak to the general public, I think more people would appreciate flooding help than £45,000 on a theatre company going to schools when you can get that for free”.

Lee Brazier added that it wasn’t strictly necessary to spend the full £45,000 on this but it made sense to have the knowledge on how to spend the tax payers money.

“I’m happy we’re using common sense with this.”

Mr Peacock added: “A lot of work has gone into this and delivering a lot of change.

“Looking ahead to upcoming projects like the Newcatle Castle Gatehouse, the regeneration in Ollerton and Clipstone, there’s a lot of positives in this community plan and I’m more than happy to put forward the recommendation.”



Comments | 1
This site uses cookies. By continuing to browse the site you are agreeing to our use of cookies - Learn More