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)

Cabinet members (listed alphabetically):

Cllr T Adams (Leader / Executive Support)

Cllr A Brown –  Planning & Enforcement

Cllr A Fitch-Tillett – Coast

Cllr W Fredericks – Housing & Benefits

Cllr V Gay – Leisure, Culture & Wellbeing

Cllr R Kershaw – Sustainable Growth

Cllr N Lloyd – Environment & Climate Change

Cllr E Seward - Finance, Assets & Legal

Cllr L Shires – Organisational Resources

The Chairman asked if Cabinet members wanted to provide an oral update to their written reports.

Cllr R Kershaw informed members that the Government had advised that the Levelling Up Fund announcement was delayed until the end of January 2023.

Cllr L Shires said that she wanted to highlight the excellent work that Customer Services had been undertaking since September 2022, particularly their efforts to reduce the wait time for telephone callers. She said that 5 new members of staff had been recruited and all but two of them were taking calls already. The average wait time had begun to improve and was now at an average of 4 minutes. All new staff members would be fully trained by mid-January. In addition, a member of the digital scanning team had been seconded into Customer Services for a short time to help through the winter period. In anticipation of voter ID letters going out to residents, an additional option had been added to the telephone ‘menu’ which would direct calls to the Elections Team.  This was a new proactive, interdepartmental approach to dealing with key issues that arose and needed additional support. Early in September the voicemail service had to be turned off due to an overwhelming number of calls and the service was now being staggered over peak hours and all customers were called back before the end of the day. The Council was exploring the use of a chat function and liaising with Breckland and Great Yarmouth Councils to see how they utilised this. The intention was to trial a chatbot to help people find the service that they needed. 

Cllr Shires said that the Council was getting ready to launch the customer service satisfaction survey so the team could better understand how what they did well and how they could improve. She added that in the last 6 weeks there had been an increase in signposting by the team to other services, including cost of living support and referrals to the food and energy banks. She thanked the Customer Services Team for their support in this. She then read out a case study which highlighted ongoing support and contact from a vulnerable customer. They had been referred to the Help Hub team which had helped them with accessing additional financial support.

The Chairman then invited members to ask questions:

Cllr P Heinrich asked Cllr E Seward about the newly released Local Government financial settlement figures and whether he had any further information to share with members. Cllr Seward replied that they were provisional figures and a consultation period would now follow. However, the direction of travel for NNDC for the next financial year looked clear. In terms of funding from central Government, there would be considerably less in cash terms than the current year. This would add considerable pressure on the Council’s production of a balanced budget.

Cllr G Mancini-Boyle asked Cllr N Lloyd to explain the percentage of the 57% reduction of the Council’s carbon footprint from 2018/19 to 2021/2022 was due to decarbonisation of the National Grid. He also asked for detail about the areas where the carbon footprint had increased. Cllr Lloyd said that he would provide a written response to the first question. Regarding the increasing footprint, he explained that more staff members were returning to work in the office after Covid, which meant more car journeys and the use of heating throughout the building and an increase of water usage. It was a constant challenge and the Council had done well to achieve a 50% reduction already. He said that focus was needed now on specific measures over the next few years if the Council was to achieve net zero by 2030.

Cllr Dr V Holliday asked Cllr L Shires to explain how one third of the Customer Services team had been in post for less than 12 weeks at the time of the Serco waste collection changes, when it should have been anticipated that call numbers would rise considerably. Cllr Shires replied that Serco should have been taking the majority of the calls. She added that Customer Services was often a ‘stepping stone’ for staff to gain experience before moving onto other roles at the Council, so a relatively high turnover was not unusual.

Cllr E Vardy asked Cllr R Kershaw about the reference in his written report to the first year of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund. He said it wasn’t clear how the money would be spent, given it needed to be spent during the current financial year. Cllr Kershaw said that it had only been agreed in early December and the first tranche of 20% would arrive in April 2023. Therefore, nothing would be spent during the current financial year.

Cllr C Cushing asked Cllr Kershaw why the Council’s Economic Growth Strategy had been withdrawn. He said that other Districts had made this a priority and queried why it was not considered to be a priority for NNDC. He said that it was a key document that sat alongside the development of the Local Plan. Cllr Kershaw replied that it was impossible to plan strategically at the moment given the volatility in the national economy and therefore a digital hub was being set up to help provide support to businesses.

Cllr Dr C Stockton asked Cllr Kershaw to provide an update on future plans for the Bacton Gas Terminal. Cllr Kershaw replied that £1.3bn of investment had been secured to help generate blue and green hydrogen and keep the terminal going for the next 30 years.

Cllr A Varley asked Cllr A Brown, how the planning reforms set out in the levelling up legislation, would impact on service delivery for residents in North Norfolk. Cllr Brown replied that the Bill would introduce extensive planning reforms and was currently in the report stage. He said that there were several issues. The first being amendments to amendments, which highlighted the challenges posed by changing existing planning laws. In addition to this, a lot of the new measures were created through secondary legislation which limited scrutiny. He said that the proposals also failed to introduce measures for tackling the impact of climate change and the cost of living crisis. This seemed at odds with the original intention of allowing communities to have a greater say in planning matters in their local areas. Instead, there was an unworkable proposal for ‘street votes’ which would allow neighbours to hold referendums on property developments in their street or local area. The consensus amongst local authorities was that this was a complex and potentially contentious concept that could lead to division in local communities. He concluded by saying that he welcomed the ability to double planning fees.

Cllr S Penfold asked the Leader about the County Deal for Norfolk and the likely impact on the District Council. Cllr Adams replied that the proposed deal was not of great value as it was not index-linked and there was no new money. He said that he had been surprised to hear the suggestion that it could be used to pay the interest on Council borrowing and cautioned against this. He concluded by saying that devolution was inevitable but the Council needed to push for real benefits for the District.

Cllr N Pearce asked Cllr V Gay about the recent loss of Blue Flag status for three of the District’s beaches. He wondered if she had any information regarding the water quality metrics that had led to this degradation. Cllr Gay replied that the Environment Agency tested for e-coli and faecal contamination. She added that they had been moved from excellent to good. She said that she did not have any further information at this time, however, the Leader had secured a meeting with Anglian Water in January and there would also be a meeting with the Environment Agency. She said that the Council had no power to control the contamination levels in the North sea but it would do everything that it could to find out what was causing the problem.

The Chairman said that there was sufficient time to allow Cllr Varley to follow up on his question to Cllr Brown. Cllr Varley asked if the planning elements of the levelling up legislation would have implications for the Council’s Local Plan. Cllr Brown replied that several local authorities had taken the decision to pause the development of their local plan in light of the new Bill. The new National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) was also anticipated, hopefully in the New Year. These factors, together with the ongoing issue of nutrient neutrality, were causing significant challenges for planning policy. However, the Council was intending to accelerate the Local Plan and submit it to the Planning Inspector in early March 2023. He added that the new measures would make planning policy far more complicated and required that two more documents were ‘bolted’ onto the Local Plan. There was an ethos to move towards a more centralised plan-making system and this was causing some issues regarding local consultation. For this reason, the Council wanted to have the Local Plan adopted under the current rules and it wanted to deliver a plan-led planning system rather than a developer-led system.

Cllr H Blathwayt asked the Leader whether it was a coincidence that the two MPs for North Norfolk voted in October 2021 against the Lord’s amendment preventing the dumping of sewage in bathing waters and now one year later, 3 blue flags had been lost. Cllr Adams replied that he feared it wasn’t a coincidence and hoped to be proven wrong. He reminded members that there were still three blue flag beaches in the District and the Council would continue to work with the relevant agencies to ensure that water quality was at the highest standard.