Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Cllr Heinrich and Cllr Housden

None in attendance.

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

Mr Foster, Chair of the Stalham Town Local Plan committee and the Stalham Town Team, was invited to speak by the Chair.

Mr Foster addressed the Committee and stated that Stalham has created its own local plan as when the District plan was created Stalham was not happy with the way they were represented.

Stalham is keen to represent itself as it is felt that Stalham is at the bottom of the list for the District Council, with the highest level of social and economic deprivation in North Norfolk.

During the previous budget proceed Stalham were told that they could not expect high levels of investment as the District Council does not own many assets in Stalham.  Therefore, why are the toilets being proposed for closure given they are one of the few assets NNDC holds in Stalham.

The District Council asked Stalham to take part in the national high street task force set up by the Government. Residents have attended meetings and workshops and set up a town team to look at the high street. Three Government advisors have been shown the high street and they have been impressed by the changes and adaptations that the high street has made to meet changing needs.

The high street no longer only serves a retail function it now has a service and social function - Optician, Vet, every service is available.

Stalham has also started to introduce activities in the high street.

The committee want people to use Stalham high street and for this to be viable people must have access to a toilet.

Due to the ageing population in Stalham they have more need for the toilet than most. Access to a toilet is necessary to allow older residents to feel confident in coming to events on the high street.

To approve as a correct record the minutes of the meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee held on Wednesday 13^th November 2024.

The minutes of the meeting held on 13 November 2024 were approved as a true and accurate record and signed by the Chairman, subject to a change on Page 2 where the s had been missed off Cllr Hankins’ name.

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.

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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.

Cllr Dixon declared a nonpecuniary interest in the petition for Stalham as he currently sits as the County Councillor for Stalham.

To consider any petitions received from members of the public.

Petition against the closure of public toilets in Stalham

On 14^th October 2024 a paper and online petition with 787 signatures from residents stating addresses or post codes from within the North Norfolk District was provided to the North Norfolk District Council. Some of the other signatories may not fall to be accepted within the petition scheme where there is insufficient information to support that the signatory does not live, work or study within the North Norfolk District Council area. The petition has been accepted by the Council as a valid petition.

The following aims of the petition were stated:

Not to close the public toilets in Stalham until further consultation and new toilets are put in place.

A petition had been submitted in respect on the Stalham Town public toilet closure and approved by the Monitoring Officer. It was decided at the Overview and Scrutiny meeting on 13 December for this to be discussed.

The Monitoring Officer spoke and outlined the background for the petition.

A report went before Cabinet on 09 September which proposed full or winter closures of a number of public toilets. The Stalham toilets were one of these toilets, identified as having low usage and other facilities available in nearby businesses.

Subsequently the Council received a petition which the Monitoring officer confirmed was a valid ward petition.

The aim of the petition is to not close the public toilets in Stalham until further consultation has been undertaken and new toilets are put in place.

The Committee were advised that the potential options they could consider were:

                         i.         Note receipt of the petition and take no further action;

                       ii.         Agree that appropriate action has already been taken, or is planned, and no further action is necessary;

                      iii.         Request a report from the relevant officer;

                      iv.         Require to be undertaken a detailed scrutiny review, gathering evidence, prior to making recommendations to the relevant committee; Cabinet, or Full Council

                       v.         Refer the matter to another Committee, Cabinet or to Full Council where, in the view of the Committee, appropriate action has not been taken or planned, and it is significant enough to merit this

The Monitoring Officer also advised members that whilst there are no particular resource implication in the discussion of the petition, any outcome may impact upon the Council’s finances and resources and any recommendations should be commensurate and considered with regard to Council resources, including actions for officers.

It was noted that the management and maintenance of Council’s public toilets stock was considered by Cabinet in light of a worsening financial detailed in the MTFS.

Cllr Taylor, lead petitioner, was invited to present the petition.

Cllr Taylor began by thanking Officer Henry for his work behind the scenes on the petition.

The petition had one objective which was to highlight the strength of feeling following the decision to progress the closure of the toilet block in Stalham.

It was felt that this decision was a massive retrograde step, which had the potential to damage the local economy and harm the wellbeing and health of residents.

The availability of local and well-maintained public toilet facilities is intrinsically linked to the health of our communities.

This decision if actioned would leave Stalham as the only town in the District, without public toilet facilities.

Over 1,500 people signed the petition, some of whom live in Stalham, many of whom live in villages which Stalham serves and some who visit Stalham every year on holiday.

Tourism is the cornerstone of the economy in North Norfolk and the need for this provision in Stalham cannot be highlighted enough.

Stalham is a key gateway for those moving from inland locations to a wide swathe of the North Norfolk  ...  view the full minutes text for item 230.

To consider any requests made by non-executive Members of the Council, submitted to the Democratic Services Manager with seven clear working days’ notice, to include an item on the agenda of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

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To consider any responses of the Council or the Cabinet to the Committee’s reports or recommendations:

The recommendations from the last meeting were accepted in full by Cabinet.

Officer Stankley explained that the report provides details of how the Council sets the fees and charges. There has also been a request for a further fee to be included within the report. Legal advice to third party public service organisations which will be at the solicitor’s hourly rate.

Cllr Dixon confirmed that the Committee had considered car park charges and chalets and beach huts fees as separate topics.

Cllr Holliday expressed her pleasure at seeing the benchmarking undertaken by the Environmental Health Team. She asked if there were any other areas that would benefit from benchmarking or were due to have benchmarking carried out in 2025.

Cllr Shires answered that Officers always use some element of bench marking when looking to set the fees for the following year as the Council needs to ensure our fees and charges are competitive. Cllr Shires will ask that evidence is included as part of report moving forward.

Cllr Cushing enquired about the new fees for pre-planning advice and whether any calculations have been made as to the additional income this will bring in and any adverse impact this might have.

Cllr Brown responded that NNDC do charge for pre application planning advice, but it is at the discretion of the Council to set the fees. Can relax charges on a case-by-case basis.

Cllr Hankins asked why the waste collection fees have not yet been published.

Cllr Shires explained that the PFH was not in attendance and therefore a written response will follow the committee. 

Officer Stankley responded that due to the complex nature of the contract and discussions are ongoing. It is hoped to have the full details ready for Full Council in March.

Overview and Scrutiny approved the recommendations within the report.

To receive an update on progress made with topics on its agreed work programme, training updates and to receive any further information which Members may have requested at a previous meeting.

The Monitoring Officer provided an update on the ongoing problems within Democratic services.  The recruitment for the democratic officer has not yet been successful. This will be going back out to advert next week.

Steps are being put in place to assist democratic services.

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 _ of Part I of Schedule 12A (as amended) to the Act.”

None