Henry Nottage

Tell us a little bit about yourself

Hi. My name is Henry Nottage. I run a cycle business in Hillsborough, talk to local people daily and know this area very well. I have helpful experience from previous jobs working for Sheffield City Council and Sheffield NHS Primary Care Trust.

I joined the Green Party because we are facing an unprecedented challenge in terms of how we look after our natural environment and how we manage the economy. I want to help create a lasting, sustainable future in which we can all thrive.

What do you think makes a good local councillor?

Councillors should be open and accessible to everyone in the ward and work collaboratively with all councillors to deliver the change that Hillsborough needs. Supporting vulnerable people must be a priority.

Identifying sources of funding available and fully supporting community groups and organisations is especially important in these times of severe cuts to the central budget.

I need to inform local residents of council plans and actions and involve them in decision making.

Tell us three things you're aiming to focus on or achieve for your ward during your term as councillor

Many people in Hillsborough have a lot of energy and drive for improving their own communities. I will help enable individuals and groups to achieve their goals by identifying and directing funding and support. This is especially important for services, opportunities and activities for young people, an area of public provision that has been massively reduced by cuts since 2008.

Community gardens that may be focused on plants and flowers, community food production or wildlife habitats are a great way to bring communities together and achieve a real bonus. Hillsborough Greens have been involved in facilitating and supporting 3 community gardens in the last 12 months, encouraging links between them for mutual benefit and support.

I aim to focus on listening to residents concerns and hopes and ensuring that the new Local Area Committees become a working, effective mechanism for improving local democracy and feeding local issues into a cohesive city-wide plan for Sheffield.

Tell us three things you're aiming to focus on or achieve for the city of Sheffield during your term as councillor

I plan on taking any steps I can to help Sheffield create sustainable, rewarding and lasting jobs in new industries such as green energy development. Looking to the future and the urgent need to address the climate emergency. Not get stuck in the past. Supporting local independent businesses and helping them thrive keeps money in the local economy and allows people to shop local. We support Hillsborough Together who are funded to make this happen. We need clean, safe, accessible, public transport and safer cycling and walking options so people can choose to leave their cars at home. This would reduce congestion for all road users while improving dangerous air pollution and road safety. We urgently need to get public transport back under public control with increased investment to improve local bus, rail and tram services.

Transport: “Air pollution contributes to 500 deaths a year in Sheffield. Living alongside a busy road carries the same risk as passively smoking 10 cigarettes a day.”. Supported by better public transport and disabled accessibility, do you think private motor traffic should eventually be excluded from Sheffield city centre?

• Yes
• Unsure
• No

If you'd like to add details on your position, please do so here

Yes, as far as possible but supporting the needs of businesses and those disabled people and others such as the elderly and vulnerable who need private motorised access.

Repeating from my city-wide priorities: We need clean, safe, accessible, public transport and safer cycling and walking options so people can choose to leave their cars at home. This would reduce congestion for all road users while improving dangerous air pollution and road safety.

Housing: "The introduction of Selective Licensing can bring widespread benefits to the local community. In particular it will ensure that all private rented property within the designated area is safe and well managed". Do you think Landlord Licensing in Sheffield should be extended, from currently applying to Abbeydale Road, Chesterfield Road and London Road, to covering more wards?

• Yes
• Unsure
• No

If you'd like to add details on your position, please do so here

Privately rented accommodation forms a large part of our housing stock in Sheffield, but the both the price of houses and the rents charged by landlords have accelerated dramatically away from average wages. This has made it harder and harder for people to buy their own homes whilst massively increasing inequalities in the City. Sadly in some areas landlords have unscrupulously charged high rents for sub-standard properties.

I believe that selective licensing should be explored as an option across the City whilst we also focus on brownfield regeneration and the conversion of unused building to increase the available housing stock and address the supply/demand imbalance that has driven so much of the rental and purchase price increases of the last decade.

Local Democracy: “The primary purpose of the Local Area Committees (LACs) is to promote the involvement of local people in the democratic process and to bring decision making closer to local people.” Do you think Local Area Committees should be further developed?

• Yes
• Unsure
• No

If you'd like to add details on your position, please do so here

The success of the ‘It’s Our City’ referendum showed that the people of Sheffield felt out-of-touch with the way the Council was run at the time. We are now at a critical point where the design and operation of the LACs is being decided. I am keen to play my part in ensuring that the committee system provides a better voice for local residents and is developed in a way that allows effective change to be delivered from the bottom up. As a councillor I know I need to listen to people outlining issues affecting them in the ward and take these forward to the LACs making sure that the information is fed upwards.

Local Economy: Community wealth building (CWB) is a people-centred approach to local economic development, which redirects wealth back into the local economy, and places control and benefits into the hands of local people." Do you think Sheffield City Council should support community wealth building?

• Yes
• Unsure
• No

If you'd like to add details on your position, please do so here

Community Wealth Building is in our manifesto! It’s Green Party policy that “revival and support of the local economy is of the greatest importance”. It means local people having more say over how areas get developed, and encouraging social enterprise that really benefits neighbourhoods, and encouraging shared ownership.

As Greens, we have always promoted the economy based on local businesses, that develops local skills and talents. That builds an economy by training local people and increasing wealth from the bottom up and circulating that wealth in the city. We need to reduce and stop the practice of multi-nationals top slicing money out of Sheffield.