Breckland Full Council 27.07.17

Full Council at Breckland today. There's 8 Councillors covering the wards in Thetford - just 3 turned up for the meeting. Myself, Mark Robinson and Mark Taylor - bit pathetic hey? Just 1 of the 4 strong UKIP group bothered to turn up - they're the official opposition and get paid to help keep the ruling administration in check and ask questions - pah! More often than not they vote with the Tories and say nothing at the meeting and can't even turn up today. I made the following points: 1. Void rates: Has the situation with void rates for Flagship properties improved? previously properties were being left empty on average for 30 days when someone moved out and someone new moved in (primarily due to the uselessness of RFT) - other housing associations are achieving turnarounds on average under a week. Is the Council continuing to apply pressure on Flagship. The longer dozens of properties are left empty the longer people sit on the housing waiting list or suffer homelessness etc. 2. I asked for clarity on the Council's constitution - can a member of the Council continue to serve even though they are resident in another Country? Will they still be paid their £440 a month allowance as a Cllr despite not attending resident meetings or Council meetings? 3. Local plan / Affordable housing targets - I asked whether the Council's new Local Plan accurately quantified the need for affordable homes - some of the data is years old and recent austerity measures have surely significantly increased the demand. The target for affordable homes on new developments is being cut in Breckland from 40% of all new developments to just 25%, will that meet the demand? The numbers of affordable homes delivered is much less than the number of affordable homes anticipated to be delivered - is this realistic and how will the Council reassure people that these figures are deliverable? I didn't think I was being overly party political but Councillor Bill Borrett accused me of "cheap political point scoring" - no shock there then, everything I say elicits a similar response from him. He carries on as if there is no hardship in Breckland and everything is hunky dory - apparently we have very high employment. As I responded, yes wonderful, we could have 100% employment but frankly if wages remain as low as they are, and the cost of living is such, there will remain hardship and a need for affordable housing. I reminded him and other Councillors that the majority of clients at Thetford Foodbank are in full time work - such is the situation with low wages locally (Breckland nationally recognised as a low wage area). Who locally on minimum wage or even somewhat above minimum wage can afford to rent a property? or get a deposit / mortgage offer together? Also reminded him that public sector workers continue to have pay freezes or rises not significant enough to keep up with the cost of living increases. Arghhhhhh another day where I wish to god there were more Labour Councillors on Breckland or frankly anyone that spouted something different to what the huge number of Tories do. And breathe and back to work.

Norfolk County Council - 24th July 2017

I was at County Hall yesterday (Monday 24th July 2017) for the Full Council meeting of Norfolk County Council. Amongst the usual Council business there was a rather timely motion about Norfolk Fire Service - full motion by Steve Morphew pictured. I was pleased to speak in support of the motion but sadly it was no carried with every Conservative Councillor, including the one representing Thetford, voting against.

"Mr Chairman, I am pleased to be able to support this motion and want to particularly comment upon the section that talks about flooding, point 3.

Whenever you see flooding incidents on the television or in the newspapers, whether they be coastal related flooding incidents or situations further inland, more often than not, pretty much all the time in fact, you’ll see a fire engine somewhere in the immediate vicinity and you’ll see the distinctive uniform of our fire service men and women. They can be relied upon to get in there and start tackling the problem, whether that be helping to transport people to safety or pumping water away. Certainly from a public point of view, if you were to dial 999 and you needed the fire service to assist, you'd expect them to be there.

It comes as a surprise therefore to many that there is not a formal requirement for the fire service to respond to incidents of flooding as it is not regarded as a statutory duty.

That should come as a particular concern to us here in Norfolk Mr Chairman.

The Flood Risk Assessment report that went before the most recent ETD Committee confirmed that the flood risk from surface water run-off and groundwater is significant in our County. Over 10,000 properties at risk in Norwich alone nearly 500 in Attleborough and over 1,000 in my own town of Thetford.

That’s before we even consider the risk associated with near 100 miles of coastline, the Broads, and the low lying nature of our land.

A report that went before a Committee of this Council in 2011 predicted that there were over 100,000 properties in Norfolk at risk of flooding – a figure that put Norfolk in the national top ten list for flooding concerns. Nearly half of all properties, nearly 50,000 identified were at risk from tidal flooding alone.

During December 2013 and at the height of the tidal surge in Great Yarmouth there were 200 breaches of Norfolk’s flood defences.

We should be particularly concerned that the support needed to assist with incidents is not regarded as a statutory function and that with general fire service funding being inadequate, core functions will inevitably be prioritised. This puts an even greater risk that those non statutory functions, like dealing with flooding, will not be met.

In September 2016 the then Norfolk Chief Fire Officer said in an interview with the Lynn News said that the “fire service would not be able to send crews to flooding incidents unless proper funding was forthcoming”. At the time the grim prediction was that less than a quarter of the funding needed for flood support was being made available.

It is crucial therefore Mr Chairman that we support this motion, which includes reference to flooding so that we can continue to emphasise the importance of responses to flooding being a statutory duty and try and ensure that the funding is somewhat closer to matching the evident demand here in Norfolk. And funding that is to a greater extent equitable to the level of risk".