Agenda item

To receive reports from Cabinet Members on their portfolios:

Cllr T Adams - Executive Support & Legal Services

Cllr H Blathwayt – Coast

Cllr A Brown – Planning & Enforcement

Cllr W Fredericks – Housing and People Services

Cllr P Heinrich – Sustainable Growth

Cllr C Ringer – IT, Environmental & Waste Services

Cllr L Shires – Finance, Estates & Assets

Cllr A Varley – Climate Change & Net Zero

Cllr L Withington – Community, Leisure & Outreach

Members are reminded that they may ask questions of the Cabinet Member on their reports and portfolio areas but should note that it is not a debate.

No member may ask more than one question plus a supplementary question, unless the time taken by members’ questions does not exceed 30 minutes in total, in which case, second questions will be taken in the order that they are received (Constitution, Chapter 2, part 2, section 12.2)

The Chairman asked Portfolio Holders if they wanted to provide any updates on their written reports before she opened the session up to questions.

Cllr H Blathwayt, Portfolio Holder for Coast, referred to page 26 of the agenda and informed members that Cllr Peter Fisher had been unable to attend the LGA Coastal Special Interest Group (SIG) meeting due to unforeseen circumstances.

Cllr A Varley, Portfolio Holder for Climate Change & Net Zero, said that he wanted to express his thanks to the Climate Change Project Officer who was leaving the Council for another role. He said his dedication and commitment meant that the Council had exceeded its ambitions target of planting £110k trees, with £115k planted to date.  He wished him well in his new post.

Cllr A Brown, Portfolio Holder for Planning & Enforcement, said that he wanted to express his thanks to the Assistant Director for Planning who had recently retired. He commended his commitment and professionalism and wished him well for the future.

The Chairman invited members to ask questions:

Cllr J Toye asked Cllr L Withington, Portfolio Holder for Leisure, Culture & Wellbeing, if more could be done to promote historic and leisure activities for rural, inland parts of the District rather than just focussing on coastal areas. Cllr Withington replied that the new corporate plan included the promotion of cultural activities and also the development of a broader partnership across the whole District. She added that this linked to potential economic growth too as it would include small and medium size arts-based businesses. She referred to Visit North Norfolk (VNN), which was funded by the Council and it was intended that the promotion of inland areas would be covered by VNN too.

Cllr T FitzPatrick asked Cllr P Heinrich, Portfolio Holder for Sustainable Growth, about the Cabinet’s recent visit to Fakenham. He highlighted that Fakenham was the poor relation when it came to council spending, with North Walsham receiving £2.4m, Cromer £5m and Sheringham received £17m. Fakenham in contrast received barely £0.5m. He asked Cllr Heinrich whether he would undertake to bring forward proposals that would ensure that Fakenham received its fair share in the future, particularly given the recent closure of three banks in the town. Cllr Heinrich replied that he would. He said that he was aware of the issues faced by the town and the visit had extended his understanding of the problems in Fakenham. He said that it was hoped that a further levelling up bid could be submitted, adding that he could not promise anything immediately as a lot rested on funding from central government.

Cllr N Dixon asked Cllr Heinrich if he could tell members what kind of tangible outcome measures would be used to demonstrate the economic benefits of the investment in the North Walsham Action Zone project. Cllr Heinrich said that he would ask officers to provide a detailed response. He said that he was aware of an increase in footfall in the town, additional use of the new bus hub and there had been a lot of positive feedback on the changes to the town centre. He said it was difficult to ascertain the benefits in pure numbers. He said a detailed breakdown would be available when the project was completed.

Cllr M Batey asked Cllr W Fredericks, Portfolio Holder for Housing and Benefits if any of the returned £1.8bn of Government funding for affordable housing had been allocated to North Norfolk. Cllr Fredericks replied that she had never been aware of the funding and the Council would have welcomed access to it. She said that she would follow it up but did not expect a positive outcome.

Cllr R Macdonald asked the Leader if he could assure Gimingham Parish Council that blue flag status would be regained on the beaches that had recently lost it. Cllr Adams replied that on Monday afternoon he was made aware of a combined sewage overflow at Gimingham and Mundesley following severe rainfall and the beach was closed for 24 hours. It was the 10^th time that this had happened and he was extremely concerned that the blue flags would not be regained. He was also worried about the impact on local communities and the lack of engagement from both Anglian Water and the Environment Agency. Investment was desperately needed together with a better testing regime.

Cllr C Cushing asked Cllr W Fredericks about the target number of 350 affordable homes in the next four years and how many of these would be in the Broads nutrient neutrality catchment area and how many in the Wensum nutrient neutrality catchment area. Cllr Fredericks said that she would provide a written answer.

Cllr P Fisher asked Cllr H Blathwayt, Portfolio Holder for Coast about the benefits of the Coastwise scheme to the District’s coastal residents. Cllr Blathwayt replied that the scheme was the greatest attractor of funding in North Norfolk District Council’s history. He said it concentrated focus on the particular issues affecting the District’s shores, raised the profile of North Norfolk across the country. He concluded that it also facilitated working with other coastal authorities from East Riding to Suffolk Coastal.

Cllr K Toye welcomed Holt’s recent referendum result supporting their new Neighbourhood Plan. She asked Cllr A Brown how more communities could be encouraged to bring forward neighbourhood plans and also queried the process for the Council’s adoption of Holt’s neighbourhood plan. Cllr Brown replied that due to the statutory timescale for approval, the Leader would sign off Holt’s plan under delegation and then report back to Cabinet. He added that there was currently some debate at Government level regarding the future of neighbourhood plans but he that support for them would continue and this was outlined in the new Corporate Plan. He said that Blakeney was due to hold a referendum on their proposed plan in September and then Wells was also expected to bring one forwards before the end of the year.

Cllr J Boyle asked Cllr C Ringer, Portfolio Holder for Environment and Waste Services about premises with low and zero rated food hygiene certificates. She asked whether zero rated premises could remain open and whether there was a requirement for them to improve. Cllr Ringer replied that there were a small number of premises which were not scoring highly. A zero rated premised closed be down but this did not happen automatically, it depended on the reasons for the poor rating. He said that there was always an emphasis on trying to support premises to improve, adding that the majority were rated well above 3 stars.

Cllr S Penfold said that following on from Cllr Withington’s earlier response regarding the promotion of inland events and attractions, he would like to invite all members to attend the Worstead Festival on 29^th and 30^th July. Cllr Withington thanked him and said that she was looking into how Visit North Norfolk could support events such as this.

Cllr A Fitch-Tillett asked the Leader who was the Council’s appointed representative on the Norfolk Strategic Flood Alliance and if they could work to push for the responsible local flood authority (Norfolk County Council) to deal with the issue of surface water flooding. Cllr Adams replied that the Council had not been invited to appoint a representative and officers had been pursuing this.  He suggested that they had a further discussion after the meeting. He acknowledged that there was a frustration regarding a lack of response from the local flood authority. Cllr Blathwayt added that he was not aware of the lack of member representation and was supportive of Cllr Fitch-Tillett’s request.