Agenda item

Please note that there is a total time limit of 30 minutes for this item – as set out in the Constitution, Chapter 2, paragraph 14.11

 

(For Motions 2 and 3, additional supporting information is provided at pages 171 – 178)

 

The following Notices of Motion have been received:

 

1.    Freezing of Council Tax

                                                            

‘The Independent Group at NNDC is putting forward this motion to the Leader of the District Council.

 

We are seeking your cooperation in helping to ease the social and financial problems that our residents are, or will be, facing over the coming year.

 

We are asking you to give consideration to freezing the 2023 council tax, when the financial planning procedure commences.

 

We feel  this could offer comfort for  residents  to know that at least one financial payment will not be  increased along with those we have no control over ( Utilities, General taxation, Interest rates ).

 

We fully appreciate that any commitment may be affected by edicts from the government preventing the freezing of council tax.

 

We are also seeking your assurance that this Authority will continue to look at ways that will help our more vulnerable residents at this time and into the forthcoming winter months’.

 

Cllr John Rest, (Independent Group Leader) PROPOSER

Cllr Jeremy Punchard, SECONDER

 

2.    This Council notes that families and individuals in our district face a cost-of-living crisis. 

‘People are facing rising food, energy and fuel prices, and increases that affect mortgage and rent payments.

People living in rural areas, like ours, are disproportionately affected by fuel price increases because of the lack of public transport and longer distances to reach work, education and health services.

North Norfolk has the oldest population in the country which means a larger number of people who are on fixed income pensions, are being specifically affected.

As a Council, we want to do everything within our means to support our residents during this extremely difficult time. 

We therefore propose the following:

Council RESOLVES to:

 

1. Thank our officers for the additional work already being done support residents amid this crisis

 

2. To hold a ‘Cost of Living Summit’, the outcome of which will be reported to Cabinet, along with any recommendations

       

 

3. To ask the Leader and Chief Executive to explore various options for providing additional support to our residents  

 

4. To ask the Leader to write to relevant government ministers and our local MPs to ask for urgent action to relieve the cost-of-living crisis through such measures’

 

                  Proposed by Cllr L Shires, seconded by Cllr V Gay       

 

3.    Sewage Outflows Data

 

‘Following a Liberal Democrat motion to Full Council, Anglian Water attended Overview & Scrutiny Committee earlier this year to explain the current situation in regard to combined sewage outflows into our waterways and bathing sites and how they intended to address this problem.

Members were positive that progress was being made when Anglian Water confirmed they were bringing forward their plan for the incorporation of water monitoring equipment at these potential sewage dispersal black spots to 2023 (from 2025). They also agreed to improve public access to information about the current state of bathing sites.

However, it appears that this information may not fully reflect the quantity and frequency of sewage dispersals into our waterways.  

This Council therefore RESOLVES to ask Anglian Water to confirm the following for the North Norfolk area and the information be reported to Overview and Scrutiny for consideration:

How many current storm outflows in the North Norfolk area are not being monitored?

How many storm outflows which discharge onto bathing beaches have monitors which are all fitted and working?

How many storm outflows which discharge onto shellfish beds with regular harvesting have monitors which are all fitted and working?

How many official bathing sites with storm outflows present do not have monitors fitted and working in place?

An outline of the plan to bring forward the implementation of monitoring of sewage discharge points, indicating the scale of the project and the timescales involved and the expected improvements to water quality’

            Proposed by Cllr E Withington, seconded by Cllr J Toye

The Chairman began by reminding members that there was a total of 30 minutes for motions. Three motions had been submitted and she suggested allocating ten minutes for each.

 

1.    Freezing of Council Tax

 

Cllr J Rest introduced the motion. He said that it was self-explanatory, and it was important to give residents some assurance that the Council was trying to ease the financial pressures that many of them faced. Cllr J Punchard seconded the motion. He said that the Independent Group was seeking a commitment from the Administration to support the motion. The only caveat would be if there was an order from the Government for councils to raise council tax to increase revenue. He requested a recorded vote.

 

Cllr E Seward, Portfolio Holder for Finance, responded. He said that the motion was simply asking the Administration to give consideration to freezing council tax when the financial planning procedure commenced and he was therefore supportive. He added that it was certainly an approach that the Administration aspired to, as demonstrated by their decision to freeze council tax in 2021. Cllr Seward reminded Members that the amount raised directly by NNDC via council tax was less than 10 pence in every pound, so the proposals would have a limited impact on the Council’s revenue. He concluded by saying that meeting this aspiration would depend to a large extent on the financial settlement from central government.

 

Cllr C Cushing said that he was supportive of the motion and the Conservative Group had opposed previous council tax increases by the Administration and his group had frozen it for seven years. Cllr Seward responded that a Government grant had been provided to enable local authorities to freeze council tax previously.

 

Cllr Hayman sought clarification on whether the motion could be put forward at this time as it was not during the budget setting process. The Chief Executive replied that the motion was requesting that consideration should be given when the budget setting process began. It was not requesting a clear commitment at this time.

 

It was proposed by Cllr J Rest, seconded by Cllr J Punchard and

 

RESOLVED

 

To give consideration to freezing the 2023 council tax, when the financial planning procedure commences.

 

That the Authority will continue to look at ways that will help more vulnerable residents at this time and into the forthcoming winter months.

 

2.    Cost of Living Crisis

 

Cllr L Shires introduced the motion. She said that people were currently very anxious as to how they were going to get through the winter with escalating costs across the board. Many of them were having to choose between eating and heating. She said that the situation was unprecedented. There were four simple steps set out in the supporting statement to the motion and she encouraged members to support them.

 

Cllr W Fredericks, seconded the motion and reserved her right to speak.

 

Cllr C Cushing said that there was much to commend the motion and his group was supportive of all of the recommendations except the final one, which requested the lobbying of local MPs for a reduction in VAT to 17.5%. He explained that the Government had already put a lot of measures in place to assist with the cost of living crisis, and had spent tens of billions of pounds in providing support, including the energy rebate scheme and the extensive energy support scheme. He added that if there had been some consultation with his group prior to the meeting, then an agreement could have been reached on how to support the motion together. The Chairman asked Cllr Shires to clarify the issue regarding the reduction in VAT. She replied that it was included within the broader proposal to write to MPs requesting support for action to limit the impact of the cost of living crisis via a series of measures.

 

Cllr E Vardy said that he was broadly supportive of the motion but said it was important that a cost of living summit should be evidence based to ensure that it was impactful.

 

Cllr T FitzPatrick said that he was disappointed about the lack of consultation on the motion. He said that there should have been more engagement with partners, referring to an announcement earlier that week by the County Council that it was using £6.7m of Government money for this very purpose. It seemed strange that there was no mention of Norfolk Community Foundation and the work they were doing in this area. He questioned whether it was a genuine concern that nothing was being done when in fact there was lots of work being undertaken.

 

Cllr S Butikofer said that Woking Borough Council had recently held a similar, very successful summit and there could be some engagement with them to ensure that it was evidence based and worked well. She added that the motion was submitted before the County Council announced the additional funding. They would be invited to participate in the summit.

 

Cllr G Hayman said that he wished to propose an amendment. He proposed that recommendation 1 should be struck out as it was not appropriate to thank officers for work that they were paid to undertake. Cllr Stenton seconded the amendment. Cllr L Shires did not accept the amendment. When put to the vote it was not supported with 2 members voting in favour, 19 members voting against and 9 abstentions.

 

Cllr T Adams said that he was supportive of the motion, He said that whilst he accepted Cllr FitzPatrick’s point that there was a lot being done already, it must be acknowledged that all members had seen an increase in the number of residents seeking support and there were particular areas of concern in some parts of the district regarding a lack of access to the energy bank. Also, North Norfolk had a higher number of residents accessing council tax support. Cllr FitzPatrick replied that he did not feel that the Leader had responded to any of the points that he had raised.

 

Cllr W Fredericks spoke as seconder of the motion. She said that her local food bank was receiving an increase of 40% in referrals since last year and it was important that all the key agencies were brought together to address the problems that residents faced.

 

Cllr L Shires concluded the debate by saying that the motion was not political. It was about helping residents to feed their families and heat their homes. She added that officers often had to deal with residents in difficult circumstances that they could not always help. It was about dealing with the cost of living crisis which was a huge issue for a lot of local families. Cllr Shires requested a recorded vote.

It was proposed by Cllr L Shires, seconded by Cllr W Fredericks and

 

RESOLVED by 21 votes in favour and 9 abstentions.

 

1. Thank officers for the additional work already being done support residents amid this crisis

 

2. To hold a ‘Cost of Living Summit’, the outcome of which will be reported to Cabinet, along with any recommendations

 

3. To ask the Leader and Chief Executive to explore various options for providing additional support to our residents  

 

4. To ask the Leader to write to relevant government ministers and our local MPs to ask for urgent action to relieve the cost-of-living crisis through such measures

 

3.    Sewage Outflows Data

 

Cllr L Withington introduced the motion. She said that there were still issues with sewage outflows as demonstrated by recent events in Wells and to ensure that members were knowledgeable about the issues, they needed to be confident that the data provided by Anglian Water was accurate and reliable. This did not seem to be the case and it was almost impossible for members to assess and scrutinise the situation in the District without access to accurate data. Cllr Withington referred members to the detailed recommendations set out in the motion. Cllr H Blathwayt seconded the motion and reserved his right to speak.

 

Cllr N Dixon proposed the following amendment. It was seconded by Cllr Dr V Holliday.

 

‘This Council therefore RESOLVES to ask Anglian Water to confirm the following for the North Norfolk Coastal beaches, chalk bed rivers (like the Glaven and Stiffkey) and the rivers Bure, Ant and Wensum be added to the data request at Action 2 of the 11 May 22 OSC Meeting Minutes and therefore reported to OSC for consideration in due course’

 

Cllr Dixon said that the amendment widened the set of proposed actions. Sewage outflows were also an issue for the district’s chalk stream rivers which were subject to storm water discharges. He said that he agreed with the concerns regarding the accuracy of data.

 

Cllr Withington accepted the amendment and it became part of the substantive motion.

 

Cllr J Rest said that it was important that a timeline was agreed with Anglian Water as to when they could attend the Overview and Scrutiny Committee and provide a response. The Chief Executive said that this was a reasonable request but it must be recognised that Anglian Water’s attendance had to accommodate their business needs and align with the Overview and Scrutiny Committee’s work programme. All efforts would be made to ensure that it was resolved as soon as possible.

 

Cllr G Mancini-Boyle said that Anglian Water should be ashamed of themselves and the approach that they were taking.

Cllr H Blathwayt seconded the motion. He thanked Cllr Dixon for his amendment. He added that members needed accurate information to make informed decisions.

 

It was proposed by Cllr L Withington, seconded by Cllr H Blathwayt and

 

RESOLVED unanimously

 

To ask Anglian Water to confirm the following for the North Norfolk Coastal beaches, chalk bed rivers (like the Glaven and Stiffkey) and the rivers Bure, Ant and Wensum be added to the data request at Action 2 of the 11 May 22 OSC Meeting Minutes and therefore reported to OSC for consideration in due course:

·      How many current storm outflows in the North Norfolk area are not being monitored?

·      How many storm outflows which discharge onto bathing beaches have monitors which are all fitted and working?

·      How many storm outflows which discharge onto shellfish beds with regular harvesting have monitors which are all fitted and working?

·      How many official bathing sites with storm outflows present do not have monitors fitted and working in place?

·      An outline of the plan to bring forward the implementation of monitoring of sewage discharge points, indicating the scale of the project and the timescales involved and the expected improvements to water quality