Agenda item

To receive an update from the Scrutiny Officer 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 Committee looked at the scoping document in reference to the Mobile Connectivity issue and the Chair asked for suggestions on how they would like to look into this subject further. The DSGM explained the scoping document was a way of staying focused on what the Committee wished to look at in more detail.

Cllr Hankins welcomed the fact mobile connectivity was brought to the fore and felt there was a need to prioritise, when talking to providers, on two principal requirements, in terms of health and business. For example, where defibrillators were unable to connect online or where some business have very poor mobile broadband.

Cllr Cushing questioned how to identify if those so called not-spots existed and how this could be demonstrated. Cllr Housden felt that was tricky, as online you could get maps from the providers of their coverage areas and where there were not-spots. If you talked to those providers, you would find that many joined together to improve the network. Also, some of those 3G masts had been taken down so it was difficult to know where to start. Cllr Housden suggested undertaking a scoping document just for the Committee to look at to really define what it is the committee wanted from the providers.

The Chair said Cllr Toye had done some work in collating data on the issue but questioned whether that would be enough for the Committee to focus on. Therefore, the Chair suggested that the Committee could wait to see what the data showed before scoping out the full review. Cllr Housden agreed as a base was needed as a starting point. He agreed that the Committee should call in some of those providers to respond to questions, as the signal in North Norfolk was appalling.

Cllr Gray felt that without proper data the Committee was in danger of asking providers to attend a meeting with no proper questions to ask, adding that it needed to be the right request to get the providers to commit. Cllr Gray believed Norfolk County Council ran a similar data gathering exercise and suggested that it would be worth checking what they had discovered, to then be considered alongside the report from Cllr Toye before the Committee pushed forward.

Cllr Hankins felt the Committee needed to ask providers the hard question, which was identifying where the signal was bad and asking them what they were going to do about it. Cllr Heinrich said much of this would depend on what network you were on, he felt a range of data was needed to identify which providers were guilty of the biggest not-spots and not just a broad map of where signals were weak. Also, greater clarity was needed on when 5G would be rolled out.

Cllr Shires noted how the Committee’s work programme was extremely busy and asked if it would be useful if she and the ADFA sent the Committee some information on what they were doing as a written report rather than taking time up in the meeting itself to help the Committee determine how they would want to feed into the budget setting process. The DSGM thought that would be a very good idea and the data that had been gathered on mobile connectivity was scheduled for the October O&S Committee meeting. The Democratic Services team would feedback to the Officer bringing that report what the Committee wished to focus on and then the Committee could run the scoping exercise again perhaps in a pre-agenda session to decide how the Committee wanted to home in on those specific aspects. They would also ask, at Cllr Housden’s request, to see if the data collated by NCC could be included in that report.

Cllr Fredericks asked the Committee to consider what, as a Council, could be achieved with the Mobile Connectivity item and could maybe suggest that it was something the local town and parishes could raise within their local communities. The best the Council could do was to present the figures that it and NCC had collected. Members could help advocate but could not influence those private companies.

Cllr Bayes wished to feedback that the scoping document was a very good idea at keeping the Committee focused on what was possible to achieve.