Martin Suthers

About Martin

Councillor Martin Suthers OBE was elected to represent the Bingham division on Nottinghamshire County Council in August 2000. In June 2009 he was elected as Deputy Leader of the Council. 

Martin has a long history of local government service and community involvement. He was previously a Nottingham City Councillor 1967-69 and 1976-95, and was Lord Mayor of Nottingham in 1988-89.

Councillor Suthers was born in Swindon and educated at Dulwich College and Christ's College, Cambridge, where he studied history and law. He is a consultant at the Bingham office of a Nottingham firm of solicitors. 

Martin is a keen opponent of government centralisation and wants to see more powers given back to local communities and more local democracy. 

Martin holds a surgery on the 2^nd Thursday of each month at The Old Court House, Bingham, 10:30 a.m. - 11.30 a.m. He attends meetings of Bingham Town Council and the four Parish Councils in his division on a regular basis. Whenever possible he also takes up invitations to attend the Parish Meetings held in the seven smaller parishes in his area.

He is available to meet constituents at any mutually convenient time at a suitable venue. His contact details are displayed on the left of this page.  

Martin's latest Councillors' Divisional Fund awards...

Each Nottinghamshire County Councillor now has an annual fund of £10,000 to support worthy initiatives in the division they represent. The Councillors' Divisional Fund aims to make use of each councillor's 'grass roots' knowledge to identify projects, events, people and clubs that work hard to benefit and promote their local area, but often lack access to resources. Even a small amount of funding can sometimes make a huge difference. 

If you know of a deserving initiative in the Bingham division that might be eligible to receive a CDF grant, please contact me. You can click the following link to read the eligibility guidance criteria.   

Follow this link to the Councillors' Divisional Fund web page to see some of the latest projects I have been able to support. 

Martin's latest news...

Council plans to adopt a committee system

Pending approval at the Council’s Annual General Meeting on 17^th May 2012, Nottinghamshire County Council plans to exercise its new power under the Localism Act 2011 to adopt a committee system of decision-making. This will replace the current Leader and Cabinet model adopted under the Local Government Act 2000.

The rationale for a committee system is that it is the most democratic and transparent form of governance. It ensures all 67 democratically elected Councillors are able to fully participate in decision-making and shaping the policy of the Council. It ensures greater transparency in that all reports are publicly available prior to any decision being made, and all decision-making meetings are held in public.

Reports were taken to the Full Council meetings in January and March (Item 11), with final approval being sought, as stated above, in May.

(Posted 17/4/2012)

Council tax frozen again in 2012/13 

At the Nottinghamshire County Council budget meeting on 23^rd February it was agreed to freeze county council tax for a third consecutive year. With public finances under strain across the country, the council has saved £87 million so far, £44 million of which has been reinvested directly into frontline services. In the coming financial year we will spend: -

• £2.8 million more safeguarding children;
• £5.2 million more on care for older people;
• £2.7 million more on adults with mental health & learning disabilities;
• £1.4 million more on adults with physical disabilities; and
• £1 million more to support young carers.

 

 We are also committed to invest £289 million in capital over three years on:-

• Improving school buildings;
• Modernising day centres;
• New youth clubs;
• Improving libraries;
• Improved broadband services;
• Improved roads and pathways;
• New and improved bus stations.

 

Councillor Reg Adair is the council's Cabinet Member for Finance & Property. In his speech presenting the budget, he outlined the results of the council's budget consultation. In response to public feedback, we are: - 

• providing additional library opening hours at 15 locations across the county;
• holding Meals at Home charges at £3.95 for 2012/13; and
• not increasing charges for Blue Badge holders in 2012/13, unlike many other local authorities. 

 

(Posted 28/2/2012)  

Success!  The A453 gets the green light!

I am absolutely delighted by the Chancellor’s announcement that the Government is fast-tracking the widening of the A453. This is the best Christmas gift that businesses and residents in Nottinghamshire could have, bringing a £540m boost to the East Midlands economy.  

In May this year, Nottinghamshire County Council pledged £20m towards the scheme if it was bought forward. Since that pledge was made, the campaign to widen the road has garnered support from the local business community and other local councils, including a pledge of £500,000 towards the scheme from Rushcliffe Borough Council in October.

The A453 has been on the Council’s wishlist since the 1970s. At last it is going to happen and I am thrilled for local businesses and commuters alike. I want to particularly thank East Midlands Airport, Boots, RH Freight, Hardstaffs, the Nottingham Post newspaper and partner authorities for their support in this campaign.

In the five years up to October 2010, there were 185 accidents involving personal injury on just the Nottinghamshire part of the A453. The Nottinghamshire section of the road is the second most congested part of the national road network after a short section of the M25. This congestion has been costing larger businesses as much as £100,000 a year because of increased fuel usage, difficulty reaching customers, abandoned journeys and accident costs.

Finally, we can look forward to smoother and safer journeys on this vital road link through Nottinghamshire from the M1 and I am immensely pleased that the Government has listened to our determined campaign.  

(Posted 29/11/2011)

Grant Aid

At Full Council on 3^rd November I presented proposals to reduce bureaucracy and make it easier for Nottinghamshire voluntary organisations to apply for grant aid funding from Nottinghamshire County Council. Our aim is to cut the red tape and make it easier for groups to access funding so they can concentrate on carrying out their services for the benefit of Nottinghamshire residents.

The local voluntary sector was consulted over a four-week period from 15^th August on the authority’s Corporate Grant Aid Strategy 2011-15 which included an online feedback form and focus groups with affected organisations in the county’s seven districts. Around 80 percent of online respondents agreed with the proposal for the new small grant allocation of £500 to £5,000 instead of up to £1,000. The same percentage of online respondents also supported plans to simplify the application process, including standard applications forms for small grants and grants over £5,000 which will be available online. The proposal to award the majority of grants for a period of up to three years was welcomed by 90 percent of respondents.

The Council will be introducing an annual small grant pot available from June 2013 for innovative projects in response to concerns that the sector also needs access to short-term funding for new initiatives that may arise. 

A budget of approximately £1.6 million is available for 2012/13 and interested organisations can apply for a share by Wednesday 16th November 2011.

(Posted 11/11/11)

Deputy Leader's reports

As Deputy Leader of the County Council I present a report at most Full Council meetings giving details of my activities during the preceding weeks. All of these can be found by visiting the Council Diary, or you can read the latest three by following these links:- 

November 2011

September 2011

June 2011

(Updated 11/11/11)

More grass cuts

Nottinghamshire County Council is increasing the number of times it will be cutting grass verges this year.

As part of this year’s budget savings it was originally intended to reduce the frequency of routine grass cutting in urban areas from six to four times a year. However, we have listened to public feedback and have now increased that frequency to five cuts. In rural areas the frequency remains at two cuts a year.

At the same time we have issued guidelines for a growing number of residents who are happy to cut the grass verges outside their homes. Again, this is a direct result of feedback from the Council’s Big Budget Conversation consultation process, when hundreds of people said they would be prepared to cut verges if it helped to release money for use on other priorities, such a repairing potholes. 

The guidelines highlight what needs to be considered when cutting grass near the roadside.  They can be found online at: www.nottinghamshire.gov.uk/roadverges

(Posted 14/7/11)

Pledges of support sought for A453 widening

As you may have seen in the Nottingham Post newspaper, Nottinghamshire County Council has stepped up the campaign to convince the Government of the urgent need to improve the A453. A letter has already been written to transport secretary Philip Hammond pledging £20m towards the cost of widening the route.

The Leader, Councillor Kay Cutts, has now also written to major businesses in the region, urging them to support the bid. The importance of improving the A453 to Nottinghamshire and the regional economy cannot be underestimated.

In order to maximise our chance of success we need to gather pledges of support from as many local people and businesses as possible. There is now a dedicated A453 web page on the Nottinghamshire County Council web site where you can read about the campaign and sign up to pledge your support.

(Posted 17/6/2011)

Street lighting project

Nottinghamshire County Council has started work to alter 1,257 street lights in Bingham and eight nearby villages as part of its street lighting project to save over £1 million a year and cut carbon emissions and light pollution.

All the lights in Flawborough, Granby, Hawksworth, Orston, Shelton, Sibthorpe and Thoroton (a total of 158) plus 49 of the 53 in Whatton and 1,050 of the 1,278 in Bingham will be turned off between midnight and 5.30am.  The remaining four in Whatton and 228 in Bingham will not be altered.

The work will involve swapping the light sensor on each lamp for one with a timer.  It should take several weeks.

Proposals for Aslockton, along with the comments received about them, are still being considered.

In March, the first lights were altered in Scarrington, Hockerton and Flintham and then 100 of the 120 in East Markham were turned off at midnight.

The Council is working closely with the emergency services and will monitor the project to make sure crime and collision rates do not rise. The County Council will also work with Nottingham City Council on streets that cross the county/city boundary.

The Council expects to save 26% of the energy used, 5,800 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions and an estimated £1.25 million (based on last year’s electricity prices) a year.  The cost of altering the lights will be £3.22 million, so the project will pay for itself in just a few years.  An added benefit of reduced street lighting will be much better views of the night sky and the project is supported by Nottinghamshire Campaign for Dark Skies.

More information is available at www.nottinghamshire.gov.uk/streetlightingenergysaving.

(Posted 31/5/2011)

D²N² Local Enterprise Partnership

I am very pleased that Nottinghamshire County Council has secured the full backing of our neighbours in Nottingham, Derby and Derbyshire for a joint Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP), which will cover the two cities and counties.

This puts us in a very strong position nationally, an LEP at the heart of the country with major infrastructure and business assets on our doorstep.

Following the Government announcement on 28^th October 2010, the Coalition Government endorsed the new Derby, Derbyshire, Nottingham and Nottinghamshire LEP, known as D²N² . The LEP's initial priorities are:-

• Build on the area's reputation for internationally competitive science, manufacturing, engineering and creative industries, driving better productivity and growth as we develop a low carbon economy;
• Develop our distinctive cultural, sport and tourism offer to world class standards;
• Share the benefits of our economic growth across our cities, towns and rural communities;
• Meet employers' current and future skills demands through our highly rated and ambitious education partners;
• Secure investment in regeneration and infrastructure projects that stimulate private sector growth.

 

We have listened carefully to the Derbyshire/Nottinghamshire Chamber of Commerce and the Federation of Small Businesses. They firmly supported a joint approach and it is important to emphasise that this partnership will be lead by the business community. We will work together to ensure the Partnership is able to deliver strong and tangible economic growth for the two cities and counties, by winning new investment and encouraging businesses to prosper.

(Updated 31/5/11)

Council Budget 2011/12   

At the Nottinghamshire County Council Budget Meeting on 24^th February 2011 I joined my Conservative colleagues in voting to freeze Council Tax for a second successive year. In doing so, I approved £4.1 million of changes to the Council’s original budget proposals in direct response to the outcomes of the Big Budget Conversation. Extra money has now been found from reserves for the Supporting People programme, grant aid to voluntary groups, libraries, country parks and welfare rights advice.

With less formula grant funding from the Government, Nottinghamshire County Council has to find more than £80 million of savings in 2011/12 by reducing management and administration costs and reviewing expenditure on non-essential services. Just over half of this is being reinvested to meet growing demand for our most vital services, including: -

• £15 million more for specialist foster care placements;
• £6.3 million more to look after adults with acute learning disabilities and mental health needs;

• £2.8 million more on children’s social workers;

• £2.8 million more on services for older people;
• £1.5 million more to care for adults with physical disabilities; and
• £1 million more for young carers.

 

The budget was approved at the Council meeting by 34 votes to 29.

(Posted 28/2/2011)

Gritter Twitter

Nottinghamshire County Council will now be advising the public of when the county’s roads will be gritted, using Twitter. During the cold weather last winter there were a number of calls to the Council’s Customer Service Centre asking when the roads would be gritted. Now people can sign up to the Council’s Gritter Twitter feed to receive the latest gritting alerts.

In an age of social networking and 24-hour news, the Council recognises the need to give people ‘live’ information that will help them plan their journey. You can sign up to follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/nottscc

(Posted 11/11/2010)

Improvement Programme latest 

At the full meeting of Nottinghamshire County Council on 21^st October I joined my Conservative colleagues in supporting the recommendations for action contained within the Nottinghamshire County Council Improvement Plan Progress Report.

As Deputy Leader of the Council, I set out the financial challenges facing local authorities across the country and stated that Nottinghamshire County Council needs to save £150 million over the next three years.  

I said this would require savings of £69 million in 2011/12, to be achieved through a series of major initiatives including reprioritisation of services, improvements in business management and a review of property owned by the Council. 

Of this £69 million, it is intended to reinvest £39 million largely in services for our most vulnerable service users. The council has faced a 59% increase in children’s social care referrals over the last year and a 25% increase in the number of children in care over the last two years.  

For Children and Young People, a proposed reinvestment of £22.5 million will provide:-

• more specialist foster placements for children

• more support to young carers
• more children’s social workers
• development of free school transport for secondary school children.

  

Our Adult Social Care & Health services are under similar pressure, with 500 extra people aged over 80 and 4,000 extra people over the age of 65 in Nottinghamshire every year. Our proposed reinvestment of £13 million in 2011/12 will provide: - 

• the care and support services necessary to meet this increased demand
• more support for adults with physical disabilities
• more support for adults with learning disabilities and mental health needs
• extra resources for independent sector care.

 

I joined my Conservative colleagues in arguing that Nottinghamshire County Council must live within its means and ensure frontline statutory services are maintained.

(Posted 5/11/2010) 

More power to local communities at last?

As stated in my biography above, I am a keen opponent of government centralisation and have argued in this and other councils on many occasions that more power should be given back to local communities.

In my Deputy Leader's report to the County Council in July 2010, I informed council members of my attendance at recent meetings of the Nottinghamshire Strategic Partnership Board and the Local Government Group Assembly. I took the opportunity to welcome the speed and vigour with which, in my view, the new Coalition Government is pursuing the decentralisation agenda and seeking to return to local people an effective say over issues that concern them. I nevertheless cautioned members that the "death-bed conversion" of Westminster politicians to decentralisation has been so sudden and dramatic that it is hard to escape the conclusion that it would not have occurred but for the extreme gravity of the economic situation and the urgent necessity to share the burden of painful decisions as widely as possible.

I argued that an early test of the new localism agenda will come in the area of economic regeneration, with the disappearance of what I considered to be artificial and bureaucratic regional structures and their replacement by more practical, business led, sub-regional Local Enterprise Partnerships (see next item). 

(Posted 12/8/10)

Improvement Programme

Like every council in the country, Nottinghamshire County Council faces ongoing, significant and unavoidable increases in demand for key services. At the same time, it faces an unprecedented and long-term reduction in the resources available to it. Present forecasts are that the Council must reduce its current expenditure by at least £88m, or 18% of its revenue budget, over the next three financial years. Most of this reduction will be used to fund increased demand in other service areas. £30m of reductions have already been identified for 2010/11, leaving a further £58m to be found in 2011/12 and 2012/13.

In the past, reductions have been achieved through a process of allocating savings targets across departments. However, the scale of the financial challenge is now such that a more strategic approach is needed to achieve reductions in a structured and consistent way.

At the County Council meeting on 25^th February 2010 I presented and gained approval for a new Improvement Programme to deliver these aims, called ‘One Council - One Business - One Plan’. This will involve an estimated investment of £21 million over five years to deliver total aggregated savings of over £200m over a five year period.

The Improvement Programme will include: -

• a complete overhaul of the Council’s approach to procurement

• implementation of an integrated Business Management System and changes in processes

• rationalisation of the Council’s property portfolio and improvement in flexible ways of working

• a fundamental review of all services followed by a comprehensive programme of organisational redesign

• departmental improvement programmes that deliver service-specific developments and

• the Chief Executive’s own programme to deliver improvements in partnership working, communications and organisational development. 

 

The aim of ‘One Council-One Business-One Plan’ is to drive out inefficiency, target resources, minimise the impact on service delivery and create an organisation that is fit for purpose and financially sustainable in the long term. 

(Posted 8/3/10)

New Strategic Plan

Nottinghamshire County Council's new Strategic Plan 2010-2014 sets out our promise to the people of Nottinghamshire; our priorities for the next four years; and how we aim to support the people of our county to be aspirational, independent and to share with us responsibility for the future.

This Plan complements the wider Nottinghamshire Sustainable Community Strategy which is the collective plan that outlines how organisations in the county will work together to promote and deliver a better Nottinghamshire.

Our plan is ambitious. It is a plan based on what local people tell us they want, and what they want to see happen. The success of our plan relies on us working well together with local people and organisations. Whilst we face challenging financial times, nevertheless we have opportunities to promote and deliver a better future for Nottinghamshire.

(Posted 8/3/10)

Gritting

The exceptionally cold weather which affected Nottinghamshire and most other parts of the UK between December and February led to unprecedented pressures on local authority gritting supplies. Nottinghamshire County Council possessed stockpiles far exceeding Government recommendations and was able to keep its priority routes gritted even when other councils had exhausted their supplies. The biggest difficulty was obtaining replacement supplies, given the exceptional pressure on the two national companies who supply the country’s salt. 

Taking these events into account, it was agreed at the County Budget meeting to increase the gritting budget by £50,000 for 2010/11. It is also intended to use 6mm rather than 10mm salt, which will improve spread rate and increase our gritting capacity still further. 

(Posted 8/3/10)

Highway improvements

Although the Highways Agency's improvement scheme for the A46 is obviously the major development in the Bingham area, a series of smaller projects have already been delivered locally or are in progress. These include the resurfacing of Cherry Street, Church Street and the south side of Bingham Market Place, long overdue resurfacing of Conery Gardens and adjacent roads in Whatton and the introduction of a Toucan crossing on Nottingham Road in Bingham, soon to be followed by an interactive speed sign.

(Posted 25/1/10)