Agenda item

To receive reports from Cabinet Members on their portfolios.

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)

Cllr A Fitch-Tillett, Portfolio Holder for Coast introduced her report as written.

Cllr W Fredericks, Portfolio Holder for Housing & Benefits, introduced her report as written.

Cllr V Gay, Portfolio Holder for Leisure, Wellbeing & Culture, introduced her report and the previously circulated report covering the period from May to June 2021. She referenced the opening night of the Cromer Pier Show, which many Members had attended and spoke about the burying of the time capsule at the new leisure centre, the Reef, in Sheringham.

Cllr R Kershaw, Portfolio Holder for Sustainable Growth, said that he was pleased to inform members that confirmation had been received that day from the Department for Business Energy and Industrial Strategy, advising that the Council had been awarded an additional £760,411 in additional restrictions grant funding to further support the recovery of businesses and the local economy. This was in addition to the $3.02m of discretionary grants that had already been awarded this year. There was only one other authority in Norfolk which had met the deadlines and criteria to receive this additional funding. He praised the staff for working tirelessly to issue the grants to local businesses. The additional funds would be used to establish a grant scheme to support the recovery process for local businesses to help them become more resilient.

Cllr Kershaw concluded by announcing that these efforts had been recognised with the council being shortlisted for two prestigious national awards; the Public Finance Awards 2021 for Digital Finance Project of the Year and the Institute of Revenues, Rating & Valuation performance awards for Excellence in Innovation.

Cllr T FitzPatrick asked about support for the manufacturing base in North Norfolk, specifically in the west of the District.  He asked about contact that had been made with companies and the view of the Portfolio Holder regarding the health of the sector during the pandemic. Cllr Kershaw replied that there had been several visits to West Raynham Airfield. There had also been visits to firms in Fakenham. He was pleased to say this had been well received. Cllr FitzPatrick said that he was particularly interested in the manufacturing industry. Cllr Kershaw replied that this was a challenging sector and there were some issues with labour supply, particularly with the recent ‘pingdemic’. He said that the Council would like to help with this and the team was now visiting more businesses, including those in the West. Cllr FitzPatrick said that he felt his question regarding manufacturing in the district had not been responded to. The Chairman suggested that he contact Cllr Kershaw directly regarding this.

Cllr N Lloyd, Portfolio Holder for Environmental Services, Climate Change and Environment, said that there were additional items to update members on. One of the Environmental Health team’s responsibilities was to check on the status and quality of private water supplies across the District. The standard of this work had recently been recognised by the Drinking Water Inspectorate in their 2020 report, singling out NNDC.

Cllr Lloyd then informed members that the eco toilet in Weybourne had been opened the previous week and that the Bagot goats would be returning to graze on the cliffs in Cromer shortly.

Cllr G Mancini-Boyle referenced the council’s current recycling rate of approximately 40%. He asked what options were available within the waste contract to facilitate improvement of the council’s carbon footprint and whether there was an opportunity to switch to electric vehicles and improving the infrastructure to facilitate this. He also asked whether consideration had been given to the collection of small electrical items. Cllr Lloyd replied that the new refuse trucks were 30% more efficient via the use of electrically driven compactors. Serco would be publishing their annual carbon footprint data shortly. He said that Serco had already introduced some smaller electric vehicles and they were installing EV charging points around the district. He said that in such a large rural district the use of electric waste vehicles was very challenging. He added that there was a range of technologies, including hydrogen, but these were currently very expensive to implement. There were lots of provisos regarding carbon reduction written into the contract, so he was hopeful that Serco would move towards this.

Cllr C Cushing asked what work was being undertaken to support parishes in the installation of electric vehicle charging points. Cllr Lloyd replied that Cley and Blakeney had expressed interest and support and information had been provided but the Council could only install EV charging points on NNDC owned land.

Cllr S Penfold sought clarification regarding the asking of questions. The Monitoring Officer replied that it was one question per member plus a supplementary question.

Cllr T Adams requested that his thanks were sent to Serco for the work that they ahd been doing in Cromer.

Cllr E Seward, Portfolio Holder for Finance and Assets, informed members that the Final Accounts for 2020/21 would be published in draft at the end of July. He said that zero based budgeting exercise would commence in August. The Overview & Scrutiny Committee would be receiving a briefing on this in September.

Cllr L Shires, Portfolio Holder for Organisational Resources, began by expressing her thanks to Mr D Williams, the Customer Services Manager, who had recently retired following a long career in public service. She then highlighted the following points:

·       There had been a drop in the number of calls to the Council’s dedicated Covid line, from 2790 in April 2020 to just 164 in June 2021.

·       The Customer Services team continued to assist the NHS in reminding people to attend vaccination appointments.

·       Following the recent Domestic Abuse Forum sessions hosted by Cllr Fredericks, the ‘safe spaces’ facility had been quickly incorporated into the Council’s website. 

·       the Council’s accessibility rating for the website was now 27^th in the national list, with NNDC listed as the top local authority in the Norfolk.

·       About with Friends was now operating the Council’s canteen service and had been warmly welcomed by members and staff

·       The Digital Mailroom team were running a lateral flow testing service for staff

·       North Norfolk Information Centre was now in a prominent place on the website

Cllr J Rest queried the reference in the written report to a contract with the tenant at Fakenham Community Centre. He said that there were three ward members for Fakenham and none of them were aware of this matter. Cllr Shires said that she would provide a written reply as this was something that would sit with the Assets team.

Cllr E Vardy referred to the objective in the Corporate Plan to achieve carbon neutrality by 2030. He said animal-based agriculture was responsible for 40-80% of all greenhouse gas emissions. The new menu for the Council’s in-house canteen had recently been produced yet there were very few non-meat or dairy options. He asked what level of governance was in place when the menu was agreed and sought assurance that he would be reviewed to demonstrate commitment to the Corporate Plan. Cllr Shires invited Cllr Vardy to work with her on this to ensure that everything was being done to achieve a positive outcome.

Cllr Penfold referred to page 49 and the North Walsham West consultation site. He asked for more information on this. Cllr Shires referred to Cllr J Toye as Planning Portfolio Holder. He replied that a lot of data had been submitted and a paper would be brought forward to members to share the results.

Cllr J Toye then introduced his report. He referred to page 44 and the developments that were likely to produce affordable housing. He also highlighted a new email address for any Section 106 enquiries.

Cllr J Stenton referred to section 106 payments. She asked how much funding was held by the Council for these payments and what was the longest period that such payments had been held for. Cllr Toye said that he would provide a written response.

Cllr G Hayman referred to the listing of meetings in the Portfolio Holder reports. He said that attendance at parish council meetings was not the remit of Cabinet members and he asked why this level of detail was included. Cllr Toye replied that it was to make members aware of his active engagement across all areas of his work.