Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were submitted by Councillors Sarah Butikofer and Mike Hankins.

Councillors Phillip Bailey and Peter Fisher substituted for Councillors Butikofer and Hankins.  

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 requires that declarations include the nature of the interest and whether it is a disclosable pecuniary interest.

None received.

To consider a Call-In request regarding the decision made by the Cabinet on Rocket House, Cromer at its meeting on Monday 15 April 2024.

The Chairman, Councillor Dixon, referred the committee to the procedure set out in the report on the way in which the committee would consider the call-in request.

The Monitoring Officer confirmed that no further information had been submitted in relation to the CalI-in prior to the meeting.

The Chairman welcomed Councillors Cushing, Vickers and Fitch Tillett to the meeting and Councillor Cushing speaking on behalf of all three Councillors stated that they had called in the decision on the Rocket House, Cromer as they felt so strongly about the Cabinet decision that they had no other choice to request the call in.

Councillor Cushing added that it was the process and information that the Cabinet had considered and not the decision itself that was the subject of the call in as council decisions should be transparent to the residents who fund the council. When considering projects that involved significant costs it was not unreasonable for there to be an examination of options available along with a detailed business case and this was lacking at the April Cabinet meeting.

Councillor Cushing drew the Committee’s attention to the previous Cabinet reports on this subject at its meetings on 4 September 2023 (which included papers that were exempt and not available to the public) and 8 January 2024.

Councillor Cushing added that the report to the Cabinet meeting on 17 April 2024 was a five-page report on work on the building that would cost the council £830K although it may well cost the council more than that. The report did not specify the exact work that this money would be spent on. There had been mention of the need to get external funding, but it was not addressed whether this was achievable.

Councillor Cushing queried whether the £830K would meet all the costs of the works that would be necessary and would have expected a Cabinet report that explained why repairing the building was the best option with a detailed business case for the work that listed all the work, the costs involved, the timescale involved, as well as potential future costs and revenue.

Councillor Cushing added that a risk assessment was missing to cover all the potential risks to the building especially in relation to storm surges and the impact of such surges and the necessary remedial work would have on getting and the cost of insuring the building.

Councillor Cushing questioned whether further work was needed on the building’s lifts as mobility scooter had changed in size since the lift was built.

Councillor Cushing stated that he felt it had been a flawed process and bearing in mind the Council’s financial position there needed to be a proper audit trail of the decisions that had been made and urged the Committee to send the issue back to the cabinet so that the further information that is required can be publicly made.

The Chairman asked the Leader of the Council, Councillor Adams, if he had any comments at this stage.

Councillor  ...  view the full minutes text for item 164.

To pass the following resolution, if necessary:

“That under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972 the press and public be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraph 3 of Part I of Schedule 12A (as amended) to the Act.”

Paragraph

3. Information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person (including the authority holding that information)

The public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosure for the following reasons:

Paragraphs 3: The documents contain information relating to the business affairs of third parties and of the Council and it is considered that those interests in withholding the information outweigh the public interest in disclosure.