Councillor Ndukwe Onuoha, Cabinet Member for Streetpride, Public Safety and Leisure looks back on 2024 and ahead to 2025.
What a year it’s been for our key frontline services in the city. From delivering enhanced street cleansing services to hosting the Men’s Tour of Britain there’s much to celebrate across my portfolio.
Back in June I was particularly proud to see Derby come together peacefully while other areas of the country experienced riots. This was an example of our city at its best, and a tribute to the significant partnership working which goes on in the background between the Council, Police, and our communities.
More recently, we’ve worked alongside Derbyshire Police to crack down on the illegal use of e-bikes and e-scooters in the city. Residents across the city had raised concerns about their use and at the end of November, the Police undertook an operation and seized 39 e-scooters and e-bikes in one day. We’ll continue to work alongside Police colleagues in 2025 to tackle this issue.
Also in the summer, six of our beautiful parks retained their green flag status. This international quality mark is a clear demonstration of the incredible work that our Parks team do to deliver fantastic green spaces for residents and visitors. But it’s a joint effort, and I was delighted that our community groups and park volunteers were also recognised with seven Green Flag Community Awards. For the fourth time, Derby Arboretum was awarded Green Heritage Site Accreditation, supported by Historic England, for the management of its historic features.
In August, we completed a manifesto pledge and launched an enhanced street cleansing routine in inner city areas including Normanton Road. This work has reduced fly tipping and other anti-social behaviour and increased communities’ pride in their area. As part of the initiative, we also worked alongside local businesses to encourage them to report anti-social behaviour.
Achieving this pledge complimented partnership work that started earlier in the year with Kingdom Local Authority Support. The team have worked alongside our existing Public Protection Officers to tackle environmental crime such as littering and fly-tipping and issued an impressive 400 fines during their first month in the city. We hope this sends a clear message that we won’t tolerate people damaging our communities and environment by dumping rubbish.
Throughout the year, Derby Arena has hosted international cyclists and Olympic athletes both on and off the track. On Friday 6 September, residents across the city came out in force to support the start of The Men’s Lloyds Bank Tour of Britain which set off from the Midland’s hub of track cycling, Derby Arena. It was the first time in over 20 years that the city had hosted a starting stage of the race and we hope to see them back soon.
Meanwhile, Moorways Sports Village has been going from strength to strength, and was rated ‘excellent’ for service quality in its first Quest assessment, which is overseen by Sport England. Encouraging community participation played a big part in this, which is down to the work of the Moorways team and Everyone Active, which manage Moorways for the Council.
Lastly, this year saw a big increase in our recycling rate to 40.1%, bucking the national trend. I want to thank all our residents who have taken the time to reduce, reuse and recycle. I’m hopeful that next year, we can recycle more than ever. As the new year begins we’ll be reviewing the results of our Community Safety survey so we can focus on measures that will make our city feel safer for everyone. Together, we can create a stronger, cleaner and greener Derby.