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Ambition 6 Making Nottinghamshire somewhere people love to live, work and visit

Nottinghamshire is known for its rich history and heritage. It’s the land of Robin Hood, Sherwood Forest and the origin of the Mayflower Pilgrims, and today is a destination for world-class sport, culture and leisure.

With a colourful past and exciting future, our County is a place people are proud to call home – and we want to play on its strengths to make it an even more attractive place to live, work and visit.

We have beautiful natural spaces and countryside for everyone to enjoy, as well as pretty market towns and villages, good living standards, and unrivalled connectivity. We’re also home to some of the fastest-growing companies in the Midlands, with a diverse range of businesses based here in our County. We’re determined to make more of these assets for both residents and visitors, and will prioritise the places in Nottinghamshire that would benefit the most from regeneration. We’re creating a more vibrant, attractive Nottinghamshire and want to share our urban and rural environments with more people than ever before.

 

The Big Notts Survey

  • Over 1 in 3 (35%) people named more affordable housing as one of their top priorities for Nottinghamshire
  • 1 in 5 (20%) people said improved parks and open spaces were one of the main things which would make Nottinghamshire a better place to live. The same proportion said improving access to green spaces in their local communities was a top priority
  • Over 1 in 4 (26%) people said that more investment on local high streets was a top priority for improving the places where they live, while 1 in 5 (19%) people and 39% of young people said it was making the local area more attractive.

Over the next four years we will:

We’ll develop and deliver a Housing Strategy for Nottinghamshire, alongside district and borough partners. This will help us build more sustainable homes that meet people’s needs, including specialised accommodation, and speed up and coordinate housebuilding across the County. We’ll also supply sites for new housing developments.

We’ll work alongside our district and borough partners to ensure attractive, sustainable and well-planned residential and commercial developments. We’ll also deliver the infrastructure our communities need, such as waste and recycling sites, transport connections and school places.

We’ll develop Levelling Up projects that boost Nottinghamshire’s economy, where investment is needed most. We’ll make sure those projects take advantage of Government funding opportunities and attract other sources of investment to help our priority communities.

We’ll improve public access to our natural environment, so more people can enjoy what Nottinghamshire has to offer.

  • We’ll look after, and improve, our public rights of way network and promote access to our Country Parks, so residents and visitors can make the most of nature in Nottinghamshire.
  • We’ll designate five new Local Nature Reserves for people and wildlife and support opportunities for people to actively engage with their local Green Spaces, including volunteering.
  • We’ll work with our partners to shine a spotlight on our County’s special landscapes and heritage, so that we can attract investment to protect and enhance them.

We’ll use our cultural venues and libraries to share our art, heritage and unique stories, helping grow a shared enjoyment of Nottinghamshire. This will promote pride and ownership among residents, and create an appreciation of our cultural heritage among visitors.

We’ll also take care of our many heritage sites on our land and aim for 75% to achieve ‘favourable management’ status. We’ll also work to prevent our built heritage suffering neglect, decay, or unsuitable or unsympathetic developments, to protect and preserve our County’s history.

We’ll deliver our Nottinghamshire Visitor Economy Strategy [PDF] to grow tourism in our County. We’ll promote our beautiful country parks and green spaces, like Sherwood Forest, and Rufford Abbey, as well as our sporting venue, the National Water Sports Centre. We’ll look for more opportunities to invest in and improve them too.

We'll develop and deliver a Nottinghamshire Food Charter and partnership action plan that shows the role food can play in creating healthier lives, richer economies and a sustainable environment. We'll also make the most of the planning and transport system to make local areas safer and easier places to be active and socialise. This will improve health and wellbeing and benefit the environment.

In 2024-25, to achieve this, we will deliver the following actions:

So that Nottinghamshire’s residents can access high quality services in their communities.

So that we can better support our visitor economy and local communities, by maximising the number of people who can access, use and, where applicable, stay on our sites, both from inside and outside of the county.

So that we secure long term major public and private investment, jobs and increased prosperity for Nottinghamshire.

So that we can generate jobs, growth, and opportunity for local people, as well as supporting small independent businesses in Nottinghamshire.

So that we can be confident that our land holdings are being reviewed and managed to maximise benefit for Nottinghamshire residents.

To find out more about what we’ve got planned for the current year, you can read our full Annual Delivery Plan 2024-2025 [PDF].

Our other ambitions

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