Your Council Your Voice was launched at the beginning of November and is open until Sunday 17 December 2023.

Nearly 1,500 Derbyshire residents have already had their say by completing the survey but there’s still time for you to get involved and fill in the Your Council Your Voice Survey 2023.

The survey has 16 main questions asking for views on where residents think the we should prioritise spending, how satisfied they are with our services and which ones are most important to them, least important to them, and why.

We also want your views and ideas as to how we could save money or raise additional funds.

New figures show that recently improved Derbyshire bus services, under our £47 million bus service improvement plan, are proving popular with you.

One service, the X17, has a 44% increase in people using it.

Some of the bus services have had their routes extended to additional places, while others had services extended into the evenings or at weekends or increased from one bus an hour to two.

The extra services are being paid for by Government funding. We were awarded £47million to improve bus services in Derbyshire. We are working with all bus operators in the county.

Do you know which roads we grit?

There’s lots of info on our website, and a map which tells you when a road was last gritted. We grit around half of the roads in the county, with our gritting routes split into primary, secondary and tertiary routes.

Primary routes are treated during the day and night and we will ‘pre-treat’ before bad weather hits. Gritting continues 24 hours a day if necessary, as previously. They cover around 1,000 miles of road.

Secondary routes cover around 550 miles of road and are generally only treated in the day with the first run being completed by mid-morning. This helps overcome problems of parked cars getting in the way of gritter vehicles doing their job on residential roads at night.

When bad weather hits keep your eye on our social media channels, Facebook and Twitter and if main roads are closed you’ll find out here.

We've approved funding of nearly £400,000 to Rural Action Derbyshire to enable them to carry on supporting affordable food projects across the county.

Rural Action Derbyshire coordinates the Feeding Derbyshire Network and the funding will enable them to carry on this work.

The network has run since 2015 and offers help to people struggling with low incomes, debt and poor access to affordable, nutritious food.

Grants for tree planting projects are on offer from the ‘Branching Out’ programme run by the Tree Council.

Applicants can include community groups, schools, tenants/residents’ associations and other small charities.

The grants range from £250 to £2,500 and there’s a streamlined process of quicker decision making for those seeking funding below £500. Be quick though as the deadline for applications is Sunday 3 December.

And if you do plant some trees please add them to our Million Trees project – aiming to plant 1,000,000 trees across the county by 2030. The total now stands at 389,790 so we’re on target but keen for more! It all helps in tackling the effects of climate change.

A celebration of carers is taking place at the Crooked Spire in Chesterfield on Thursday 7 December, so, if you're an unpaid carer, you and your family and friends are invited.

There'll be carols, live music and refreshments. The service will start at 11am until 12:30pm – guests need to be seated for 10:45am.

For more information and to book your place, email info@derbyshirecarers.co.uk or call 01773 833833.

The event is hosted by Derbyshire Carers Association which supports over 6,000 adult carers and 350 young carers and delivers a wide range of services on our behalf.

Cold weather can cause health issues for older and more vulnerable people.

Can you help someone to keep healthy and safe this winter? Checking in older people to ensure they’ve got stocks of food and medicines can really help them stay well this winter.

There are many other things you can do to protect yourself, and the ones you love this winter.

Find out about this year's warm and welcoming spaces throughout Derbyshire

A green energy project which gained financial backing from our Derbyshire Grant scheme last year has won a prestigious award COMMUNITY ENERGY ORGANISATION OF THE YEAR 2023 – Derbyshire Dales Energy

The Community Energy Awards were announced last Friday night and  “shine a light on community energy and highlight achievements in the wider community energy sector.”

The Derbyshire Dales Community Energy Partnership (DDCEP) Hub supports the growth of community led energy saving initiatives across the county by providing expert advice and signposting to further help and sources of funding.

During a very successful first year DDCEP has worked with 17 groups whose projects focus on renewable energy, energy efficiency, low carbon transport and fuel poverty reduction. These groups have empowered many of our residents to do their bit to help tackle climate change. They include solar projects in Belper and Horsley Woodhouse and a hydro project at Calver Mill. Read about DDCEP and all the projects. The hub now has ambitious plans for its second year.

Sustainable Hayfield  did well to be shortlisted for the awards in another category but were not the eventual winners. 

Ripley Library has been announced as the winner of the prestigious Library/Librarian of the Year category by the Romantic Novelists' Association.

The RNA’s annual awards “celebrate the hard work and talent of any person, group or organisation who has championed the broad genre of romantic fiction in a positive way”.

The library, on Grosvenor Road, worked with the RNA to create displays promoting books shortlisted for the RNA 2023 awards and one celebrating 2022 winners. The displays proved very popular with Ripley Library users, and borrowing of romantic novels rose dramatically.

Derbyshire’s Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) is now consulting residents on the policing budget for 2024-25.

The PCC wants to know your thoughts on the amount of council tax you pay that goes towards policing in the county – how much council tax you think would be the right amount to pay to maintain the current standard of policing and to make improvements.

The short consultation closes in early January