Minutes:
Cllr E Seward, Deputy Leader, spoke in the absence of the Leader, Cllr Adams.
He began by Congratulating Cllr Adams and his partner, Amanda, on the birth of baby Ella on 18th July. He then thanked Norfolk Fire and Rescue Service colleagues across North Norfolk for their responses over the past week / 10 days in fighting a number of field and wild fires in the District as a result of the hot temperatures and very dry conditions. Sadly a fire at Ashmanhaugh on 19th July resulted in two households losing their homes and NNDC staff (Civil Contingencies Manager and Housing Staff) were involved in the multi-agency response both at the time of the incident and in the days which followed. He said it was important to remind local residents and visitors of the exceptional conditions which prevail at the present time and discourage use of BBQs in open areas, discarding rubbish and cigarette ends. Consequently, given the ongoing dry and hot temperatures, the Council had introduced a temporary ban on smoking on Cromer Pier to reduce the fire risk associated with discarded cigarette ends as a potential source of ignition on the very dry decking boards. This was a precautionary measure.
Cllr Sewardreminded members that Monday 25th July was the second ‘Respect the Water Campaign and World Drowning Prevention Day’ and with 45 miles of coastline, large areas of The Broads and other areas of open water in the District said that he would like to take the opportunity to thank colleagues in the RNLI beach lifeguard service, but also the RNLI and local volunteer lifeboat services for their partnership work with NNDC keeping residents and tourists safe in these environments.
Cllr Seward went onto say that as it was now peak holiday season, large numbers of visitors to the District were placing demands on many of the Council’s services and facilities. The Council operated an evening and weekend ‘Out of Hours’ service so that contact could always be made with a Duty Officer outside of core business hours in case of emergency reporting about NNDC facilities, issues of anti-social behaviour, noise nuisance, unsafe structures or critical incidents. He reminded members to bear in mind that over the next few weeks many members of staff would take periods of leave if local members wanted an early response to an issue it would be best to contact service email addresses rather than trying to contact individual officers by email.
He then updated members on the Nutrient Neutrality issue, which had made some progress recently with a Ministerial announcement made on Wednesday 20th July, followed by a letter to local planning authorities from the Government’s Chief Planning Officer detailing proposals being developed by Natural England to develop a strategic mitigation strategy to address the issue of water quality through the development of some form of developer credit scheme. Officers were involved with colleagues across Norfolk in further meetings and conversations to understand how this strategic mitigation scheme might be implemented and would keep members updated as to progress.
Cllr Seward concluded by saying that the Council had developed its Investment Plan for submission to Government detailing how it would propose spending its allocation of £1.23million of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund over the next three years. The Plan proposed spending monies under seven of the Government’s indicative themes, albeit the largest annual allocation is Year 3 April 2024 – March 2025. Further details would be shared with members during the autumn.