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.
Minutes:
There was one item of urgent business:
The Leader, Cllr T Adams, began by saying that he welcomed the decision to proceed with County Council elections in May and he assured members that the Council had the capacity to carry out elections. He then referred to the statement made by the Leader of Norfolk County Council on 17th February, announcing that NCC was pulling out of the Local Government Reorganisation (LGR) process and devolution. Cllr Adams said that this was symptomatic of the Government’s approach so far. He clarified that NCC could not cancel LGR, however, the Government needed the County Council’s consent for devolution. Without NCC’s money and input, it would be extremely difficult to make progress with LGR. He went onto say that the landscape could change again with the upcoming elections.
Cllr Adams said that NNDC had always been sceptical of the benefits of LGR and had raised concerns about the costs, believing that the money would be better spent on public services. In addition, it was not felt that the envisaged savings had not been achieved in areas where LGR had already taken place. There were also considerable concerns about having a much larger authority which would be more remote from residents and businesses and the impact on the management of assets such as Cromer pier and the country parks. That said, NNDC had continued to engage with the process to ensure that benefits would be maximised for the district.
He said that he was concerned that by May 2028, the devolution package could look very different from that which was promised. He referred members to the budgetary allocation for LGR, which would need to be agreed by Full Council tonight. If it was not called upon for any reason, then it would be brought back to Council for debate and reallocated to other projects. He went onto say that discussions with counterparts would take place over the coming days, following agreement of the budget for 2026/2027. An agreed response was required to the Government’s questions regarding the statutory changes order and lastly how strategic partner procurement would be dealt with. In conclusion, he said that NNDC was now largely in the hands of others and he was concerned that the Government could change the narrative quite considerably, particularly the monetary value of devolution. Investment in key areas such as public transport was needed and there was a will to increase the scale of business activities across the County.
The Chair invited members to speak:
Cllr C Cushing said that he agreed with Cllr Adams comments and welcomed the decision to proceed with elections. He reminded members that by participating in the fast-track devolution process, millions of pounds of funding was meant to be delivered to Norfolk and this now seemed to have disappeared from the agenda. He added that only the Government now supported LGR and devolution and it seemed increasingly likely that it would therefore be imposed on local authorities against their will. He said that it was prudent to set aside £750k in the budget but said that if the County Council was not engaging with the process until after the election, then it would be wise to wait until after May before spending any of that money on LGR and devolution. He concluded by saying that he hoped NNDC would be joining Great Yarmouth BC and South Norfolk DC in slowing down the process until after the county council elections.
Cllr Adams agreed with Cllr Cushing’s concerns regarding the fast-track programme and said that Norfolk now seemed to be at the back of queue rather than at the front of it. People wanted to see change with devolution and introducing another layer of local government didn’t help with this. Regarding the concerns raised with spending money on LGR, Cllr Adams said that it was unlikely that it would occur before the May elections and there would be discussions with neighbouring authorities on how to proceed. He added that councils were being asked to carry out business as usual, whilst taking on new statutory obligations such as the collection of food waste, whilst having to pay for LGR.
Cllr N Dixon commented that significant events would unfold in the coming months for the Council and it was important that it focussed on delivering services and maintaining an agility to respond to events as they unfolded.
Cllr J Toye agreed, saying that the Council needed to focus on what it could do, adding that the delay to the devolution programme caused real challenges, especially for the business sector.