Agenda, decisions and minutes

To approve, as a correct record, the minutes of the meeting of the Cabinet held on 6^th October 2025.

The minutes of the Cabinet meeting held on 6^th October were approved as a correct record.

To receive questions and statements from the public, if any.

None.

To determine any other items of business which the Chairman decides should be considered as a matter of urgency pursuant to Section 100B(4)(b) of the Local Government Act 1972

None.

Members are asked at this stage to declare any interests that they may have in any of the following items on the agenda. The Code of Conduct for Members requries that declarations include the nature of the interest and whether it is a disclosable pecuniary interest (see attached guidance and flowchart)

None received.

To receive oral questions from Members, if any

The Chair advised members that they could ask questions as matters arose during the meeting.

To consider any recommendations referred to the Cabinet by the Overview & Scrutiny Committee for consideration by the Cabinet in accordance within the Overview and Scrutiny Procedure Rules

There were no recommendations from the Ovrerview & Scrutiny Committee to Cabinet.

Decision

RESOLVED:

To recommend the following to Full Council:

-        To increase the 2025/26 capital budget for the Holt Country Park Eco Learning Space to £140,000. This is to reflect the apportionment of £40,000 from external S106 contribution towards the scheme.

Cabinet to acknowledge the increased Customer Services C3 Software 2025/26 capital budget to a total of £32,600. This is following approval of an additional £9,200 towards the project from the Delivery Plan Reserve by the Director of Resources/S151 Officer.

Reason for the decision:

To update members on the current budget monitoring position for the Council.

The Chair invited Cllr L Shires, Portfolio Holder for Finance, to introduce this item. Cllr Shires began by explaining that this report came at the middle point of the financial year for budget monitoring. She said that as at 30 September 2025, the General Fund Forecast Outturn position for 2025/26 was a surplus of £0.354m. This was due to a number of factors, set out at section 2.6 of the report.

Cllr Shires drew Members’ attention to the second recommendation: to increase the 2025/26 capital budget for the Holt Country Park Eco Learning Space to £140,000. And explained that this was due to the apportionment of £40,000 from external S106 contribution towards the scheme.

Looking ahead, Cllr Shires said that some factors remained uncertain, including the cost of the food waste contract and the funding settlement from central Government. There was also a level of uncertainty about the business rates pooling arrangements.

The Chair thanked Cllr Shires and acknowledged the achievements of officers in gaining the additional funding for Holt Country Park.

Cllr A Varley, Portfolio Holder for Climate Change & Net Zero, said that he wanted to highlight the reduction in staff mileage claims due to the success of the electric car pooling arrangements.

It was proposed by Cllr L Shires, seconded by Cllr T Adams and

RESOLVED:

To recommend the following to Full Council:

-        To increase the 2025/26 capital budget for the Holt Country Park Eco Learning Space to £140,000. This is to reflect the apportionment of £40,000 from external S106 contribution towards the scheme.

-        That Cabinet acknowledged the increased Customer Services C3 Software 2025/26 capital budget to a total of £32,600. This is following approval of an additional £9,200 towards the project from the Delivery Plan Reserve by the Director of Resources/S151 Officer.

Reason for the decision:

To update members on the current budget monitoring position for the Council.

Decision

RESOLVED

To recommend to Full Council:

• To adopt the revisions to the Environmental Charter
• To adopt the Decarbonisation Strategy and associated action plan.

Reasons for the decision:

documentation and a clear direction to meet its climate goals in support of the declaration of a climate emergency.

To support the corporate plan theme: Continue our journey to Net Zero and associated objectives

To meet the audit recommendations

The Chair invited Cllr Varley, Portfolio Holder for Climate Change & Net Zero, to introduce this item. Cllr Varley began by thanking the Climate & Environmental Policy Manager for all her hard work in preparing the documents. He explained that The Environmental Charter had been developed to provide context to the Council’s declaration of a Climate Emergency in 2019 and it included the Council’s 2030 and 2045 Net Zero targets. Subsequently, the Council’s Net Zero strategy and action plan were adopted in 2022 and now required a refresh to align with the new corporate plan and revised central government targets and policy.  In addition, many of the actions have been completed or superseded.  The need for a new strategy and action plan was confirmed by a recent internal audit.  The Net Zero strategy had been renamed to the decarbonisation strategy to fit with the name and aims of the decarbonisation board.  The separation of the action plan to allow frequent review and updates was also a recommendation of the recent audit. In conclusion, he said that each year the Council calculated its Carbon Footprint using the carbon accounting tool developed by the LGA.  The resulting report presented a breakdown of the calculation and the projects and changes that the Council had made during the year which had affected the footprint both positively and negatively. It helped to define the direction of future Council services and the actions needed to mitigate emissions to meet Net Zero targets. He added that the Council was on an ambitious journey and it was important to stay focused and on track.

The report would go to Overview and Scrutiny Committee for consideration and then Full Council for approval.

Cllr N Dixon referred to page 56, section 5.1 of the report and asked for clarification about the resource implications that were mentioned. He specifically asked for further information on what had already been allocated and committed but not yet spent. Cllr Varley said that he would provide a written response.

It was proposed by Cllr A Varley, seconded by Cllr C Ringer and

RESOLVED

To recommend to Full Council:

• To adopt the revisions to the Environmental Charter
• To adopt the Decarbonisation Strategy and associated action plan.

Reasons for the decision:

documentation and a clear direction to meet its climate goals in support of the declaration of a climate emergency.

To support the corporate plan theme: Continue our journey to Net Zero and associated objectives

To meet the audit recommendations

Decision

RESOLVED

-           To agree that the plots of land in Edgefield and Mundesley are surplus to requirements

-           That NNDC enters into an option agreement with Flagship Housing (subject to Planning Permission) for sale of the land in Mundesley to be developed for affordable housing.

-        That NNDC enters into an option agreement with Broadland Housing (subject to Planning Permission) for sale of the land in Edgefield to be developed for affordable housing.

Reasons for the decision:

The development of these pieces of land offers the opportunity to make better use of land to deliver badly needed affordable homes and to reduce the current revenue liabilities at the sites.

Cllr W Fredericks, Portfolio Holder for Housing & Benefits, introduced this item. She began by saying there had been a lot of social media activity on this and she said that she wanted to reassure people that the affordable homes that would be built on this land would be allocated to people in the district.

Cllr A Brown, said that one of the sites (Edgefield) was in his ward and he welcomed that progress was finally being made after initial plans were made in 2018.

Cllr N Dixon referred to the ‘options’ section of the report and asked whether consideration had been given to including an overage arrangement within the agreement with the Housing Associations so that any increase in the land value could be protected in the longer term.

The Housing Strategy & Delivery Manager replied that the options were subject to planning permission but would not result in a sale until planning permission was granted. Permission would be for affordable housing in perpetuity and a valuation would be provided on the land at that point for that reason. She didn’t feel that an overage clause would be necessary.

Cllr Dixon said that planning permission was one stage in the process and overage was not normally connected to it. He felt that consideration could be given to an overage clause to protect the Council’s interests in the longer term.  The Housing Strategy & Delivery Manager said that she would speak to the Legal team about whether an overage clause was necessary.

Cllr Shires said that it was an interesting point raised by Cllr Dixon, and she agreed that retaining the value of the land for residents was something to be explored. One option would be for any future profit share on sale of the properties would be returned to the Council.

It was proposed by Cllr W Fredericks, seconded by Cllr A Brown and

RESOLVED

-           To agree that the plots of land in Edgefield and Mundesley are surplus to requirements

-           That NNDC enters into an option agreement with Flagship Housing (subject to Planning Permission) for sale of the land in Mundesley to be developed for affordable housing.

-        That NNDC enters into an option agreement with Broadland Housing (subject to Planning Permission) for sale of the land in Edgefield to be developed for affordable housing.

Reasons for the decision:

The development of these pieces of land offers the opportunity to make better use of land to deliver badly needed affordable homes and to reduce the current revenue liabilities at the sites.

Decision

RESOLVED

That Local Choice Functions are delegated to the Director of Service Delivery

Reason for the decision:

Following the recent review of the constitution, these local choice functions involve matters which are focussed on operational functions.

The Chair introduced this item. He explained that following the recent review of the Constitution, it was proposed that the ‘Local Choice Functions’ (as set out in Chapter 3, Part 3, Para 2(e) of the Constitution) and which were currently allocated to Cabinet were delegated to the Director for Service Delivery as they were largely operational in nature. The functions included such matters as the inspection of the district to detect statutory nuisances, as well as the investigation of complaints regarding such, as well as the service of abatement notices and obtaining particulars of persons with an interest in land. The Monitoring Officer therefore proposed that to ensure day-to-day operational matters could be conducted efficiently, and to ensure legal and procedural requirements were met by lawful and transparent delegation of functions, that the recently amended constitution was further updated to allow for these cabinet functions to be delegated to officers.

It was proposed by Cllr T Adams, seconded by Cllr W Fredericks and

RESOLVED

That Local Choice Functions are delegated to the Director of Service Delivery

Reason for the decision:

Following the recent review of the constitution, these local choice functions involve matters which are focussed on operational functions.

The Chair, Cllr Adams, introduced this item. He explained that it was a statutory report and would also be going to Overview & Scrutiny Committee for noting.

Cllr C Cushing referred to Section 5 of the report and the following: ‘The majority of decisions recorded have been delegated by Cabinet at a formal meeting and the financial implications have been set out clearly as part of the committee report. For any other decisions, financial implications are set out on the delegated decision form and summarised in Appendix A’. He said that the financial implications did not appear to be listed for some of the decisions.

The Democratic Services & Governance Manager acknowledged that this information was not included in the appendix and said that she would ensure it was included in future reports.

It was proposed by Cllr T Adams, seconded by Cllr W Fredericks and

RESOLVED

To note the report.

To pass the following resolution:

“That under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972 the press and public be excluded from the meeting for the following item of business on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraphs _ of Part I ofSchedule 12A (as amended) to the Act.”