Newark and Sherwood District Council

Mentor authoring: Nottinghamshire County Council
Mentee authority: Newark and Sherwood District Council

Summary

Nottinghamshire County Council mentored Newark and Sherwood District Council, a predominantly rural district. The most important results for the mentee were:

• stronger corporate commitment 
• improved energy and carbon data capture 
• benchmark improvement targets

Background

Newark and Sherwood was already doing good work. It is home to sustainable energy exemplars such as Sherwood Energy Village and Hockerton Housing project. In 2003, the council won a Beacon award, ‘tackling fuel poverty’, for work on energy efficiency in housing.

The council improved even more through the mentoring process, and by using the toolkit and benchmark.

Key issues

When Newark and Sherwood’s lead officer completed the benchmark assessment exercise, it was clear where the council needed support.

The main barrier to increased action on sustainability was the lack of an authority-wide coordinated approach and big picture.

Furthermore, the natural turnover of councillors and senior officers made it difficult to maintain momentum on sustainable energy issues. Corporate commitment needed to be refreshed and formalised.

The main issues identified during the benchmarking process were to:

• secure stronger corporate commitment to sustainable energy by establishing a task group, and through a Newark and Sherwood report
• examine opportunities to lift benchmark issues that scored one
• increase access to funding opportunities by sharing information
• improve efficiency and effectiveness by exploring further areas of collaboration with the mentor, and with neighbouring and other councils
• assist with rejuvenating the council’s 2001 ‘travel plan’

Supporting the council

Newark and Sherwood’s sustainable energy officers undertook a baseline assessment of all the Beacon toolkit benchmark issues. They reviewed this with the mentor officers, fine-tuned it and agreed priorities.

The mentoring period was short, so they decided to focus on a few issues and came up with five objectives. These were:

1. to increase corporate commitment to sustainable energy at Newark and Sherwood District Council 
2. for Newark and Sherwood to form sustainable development task group
3. to send an up-to-date report on sustainable energy to the sustainable development task group at Newark and Sherwood
4. for Nottingham County Council to provide further information on funding to Newark and Sherwood
5. to improve travel planning

Commitment to sustainable energy

Signing up to beacon peer mentoring secured the leadership’s commitment – including that of the deputy leader, who has cabinet portfolio responsibility for sustainability. This meant that the chief executive and most of the corporate management team attended the Beacon Peer inception meeting.

Nottinghamshire advised Newark and Sherwood’s lead officer on:

• improving the robustness of their corporate energy and carbon data
• improving data management processes, resulting in a sustainable energy service level agreement (SLA) with all Newark and Sherwood’s building managers
• engaging member support including providing a copy of ‘An inconvenient truth’ to share with members

Newark and Sherwood have purchased nine more copies of ‘An inconvenient truth’ for members and staff.

Following May’s elections, induction training for members of the new council on sustainability, has been organised for early July 2007.

Forming a sustainable development task group

Nottinghamshire provided further information about the Climate Heroes Campaign. Newark and Sherwood’s Energy and Environmental Awareness Officer, Chris Gilchrist is also part of the Local Authority Energy Partnership (LAEP) and involved with Climate Heroes. He was therefore acted as liaison.

An up-to-date report on sustainable energy to the sustainable development task group

Nottinghamshire provided information on regional and national targets for renewables. Newark and Sherwood consulted Nottinghamshire on the draft report to this group.

Further information on funding

Nottinghamshire prepared and provided a list of funding resources relating to sustainable energy.

Improve travel planning

As Newark and Sherwood is very rural, it was difficult to promote alternatives to car use to staff.

Nottinghamshire’s employee transport coordinator provided support, information and tools. This gave Newark and Sherwood the confidence that alternative transport could work for their staff. They rejuvenated their travel plan, promoting car-free alternatives such as cycling and car share schemes, and ‘greening’ their fleet.

Critical success factors

Newark and Sherwood were keen to improve their performance, even though they were already performing well in most areas.

The inception meeting brought together councillors and officers, who added momentum to the project. They had sufficient knowledge of the benchmark theme areas to complete the self-assessment.

Newark and Sherwood used the benchmark innovatively, by:

• scoring themselves to one decimal place
• indicating how to improve their score rather than giving themselves a static performance score – for example, 'one but possible to get to three within 18 months'
• using a graphical representation of their benchmarking scores on the ‘Getting on target’ diagram – transforming it into a clear executive summary for reporting to their key decision makers

Nottinghamshire provided a Microsoft Word version of the benchmark, which was relatively easy to complete.

Outcomes

There were some things Newark and Sherwood could do without the mentor’s help.

The mentoring meetings helped them crystallise their aims and objectives, and also gave them a good overview of their current performance. They improved all their lowest scoring areas.

David Pickles is Sustainable Energy Manager at Newark and Sherwood. He said:

“The toolkit was a significant ‘research and evaluation’ staff timesaver. It provided a clear route map and, because of its authors’ Beacon pedigree, provided the council’s members and officers with the confidence to trust, commit and move forward.”

What is next for Newark and Sherwood District Council

Newark and Sherwood has established a Sustainable Development Task and Finish Group, chaired by Councillor Roger Blaney, Deputy Leader. This group has developed an action plan with priorities.

The sustainability team at Nottinghamshire County Council is organising a stark analysis on three sites owned by Newark and Sherwood. These are metered half-hourly. Newark and Sherwood has signed up for this service beyond the peer mentoring project end date.

Contact details

Farida Marano, Environmental Officer
Sustainability Team, Communities Department
Nottinghamshire County Council
Trent Bridge House
Fox Road
West Bridgford
Nottingham NG2 6BJ
telephone: (0115) 977 4664
email: beaconenergy.en@nottscc.gov.uk