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Draft Minutes of East and West Beckham Parish Council
Meeting Held on Thursday 9th November 2023
Present.
Cllrs. R. McNeil Wilson, (chairman), R. Batt, D. Barrass, J. Dovey, G. Place, T. Toyn
County Cllr. E. Vardy, Dist. Cllr. Callum Ringer, P.C. Jack Houghton, Coralie Martin (NNDC) J.Stibbons (clerk)
The chairman opened the meeting at 7.00pm.
1. Apologies were received from Cllr. R. Lewis.
2. There were no declarations of interest.
3. There were no members of the public or former committee members of the Solar Community Fund present.
4. The minutes of the meeting held on Thursday 14th September 2023 having been
previously circulated it was proposed by T.Toyn that they be approved as correct.
This was seconded by G. Place and carried.
5. Matters arising from the Minutes.
Map Board, East Beckham. D. Barrass agrees to move the board to the allotments until the posts can be repaired.
6. Reports from County, District, Police or Parish Councillors
PC Jack Houghton introduced himself as the new Beat Manager. He was involving himself with the local community.
His priorities will be speeding and anti-social behaviour.
He reported that for the Chaucer Ward from 1st July to 30th September 38 crime investigations had been recorded, although most of these were welfare related. There has been an increase in fraud and scam calls across the whole of the district. The Chairman thanked PC Houghton for attending the meeting.
County Cllr. Eric Vardy. A full report from Cllr. Vardy is attached to these minutes, but he also noted that trees are still available from N.C.C.
The consultation on the re-cycling centre will be held next year.
Discussion is still ongoing regarding the measures for traffic control at the top of Holway Road with the junction of A148. It will either be a round about of traffic lights.
District Cllr. Callum Ringer. The housing report from NNDC showed applications for accommodation rose from 321 to over 900 in two years. This is partly due to the decrease in the private rental sector. The high prices of houses makes rental too expensive for families on benefit.
It is planned to re-cycle food waste from March 2025. This will generate natural gas and return the waste to the land.
Cllr. Ringers full report is attached to these minutes.
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7. Community Connectors Introduction by Coralie Martin (NNDC)
All areas of the North Norfolk District are covered by the Community Connectors which are part of Social Services. They will attend community groups, advise on funding and best practices and are there to help people with special needs. They also have help for people who are not on line and they can help with loneliness and isolation.
8. Broadland Housing. Discussed in item 12 (Planning)
9. NCC grants – Grants for tree planting up to £10,000. part funded but small number of trees can be funded by Cllr. Vardy from his budget allocation.
10. Tree Guards The purchase of two tree guards for the memorial apple trees was approved at £90 each plus delivery. The chairman will arrange the purchase and delivery.
11. Playing Field Cllr. Toyn carried out safety inspections on the play equipment during October. The top kick board will soon need attention.
12. Planning PF/23/1578 Amended plans for affordable housing on Sheringham Road.
The parish council objects to this application. Further clarification is needed as the boundary has changed from the previous application and now includes the verge to the edge of the Highway. The extra land claimed is already in use for the Post Box, the council notice board, the seat for walkers and the Grit bin. The proposed boundary also covers part of The Loke which is the access to several houses and is a Public right of way.
13. Speed limits A148 Cllr. Callum Ringer intends to call a meeting of representatives from all
the parishes which border the A148 to discuss further safety measures.
14. Bulletin Items for inclusion in the Bulletin were discussed. Kathryn Lord has kindly agreed
to edit and publish the magazine.
15. Financial matters.
Bank Balances at 9 /11/2023 Current a/c £ 5292.50 Savings a/c £39400.13
The following outstanding invoice to be approved and cheques signed:-
NNDC Election fee £30.70
J. Stibbons Salary and expenses £664.60
HMRC PAYE £140.40
16. Budget and Precept. The proposed budget for 2024/25 was submitted to the meeting.
After discussing the projected figures it was proposed by Cllr. Place that the precept for 2024 – 2025 should be set at £4500, this was seconded by Cllr. Batt and carried.
17. Savings account. To approve and sign savings account application to Cambridge B/S
18. Correspondence The following correspondence was sent to members by email:-
NALC News letter 20/9 (Hedgerows) NALC weekly update 29th Sept.
D. Baker MP Meeting re speeding NALC Chief executives bulletin 19/10/23
19. Matters for information only or for the next agenda
Beckham Parish Council will meet during 2024 on the following Thursdays at 7pm.
11th January, 14th March, 9th May, 11th July, 12th September, 14th November
Norfolk County Council report November 2023
Computer data helps target support to those at risk of a fall
New technology is being used in Norfolk to help prevent people from having falls, prevent hospital admissions and reduce demand on social care and the NHS.
Norfolk County Council is piloting the approach using a computer algorithm that helps to identify those at risk of falling. The council then writes to those people and offers them a range of support, such as assistive technology, help with their mobility or home fire safety checks.
So far, the council has sent out 700 letters and made 530 calls to people at risk, making referrals for 234 individual interventions.
The new technology brings the power to read and analyse millions of lines of social care records to find trends and patterns which it would take many months for any person to do manually. It learns as it goes and through this process it predicts which individuals are at most risk of a fall so the council can approach them and hopefully prevent this happening.
The council has ensured that it is fully compliant with General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) in implementing the pilot.
We know that prevention is far more effective than cure and, as pressure on services continues to grow, we must look at new ways to support people and reduce demand on our services.
Our falls work is getting a lot of national interest and is a real opportunity to use new technology to improve the lives of our residents.
The support on offer to people includes chair based exercises from the council’s Norfolk First Support Service, support from Active Now and help preventing social isolation from Voluntary Norfolk.
The pilot is still in its early stages and the impact of the interventions will be assessed in the coming months. It is hoped that it will be reduce falls, associated hospital admissions, people needing to move into residential care and the size of care packages. This will improve outcomes, support people to live independently for longer and reduce pressures on social care budgets.
One participant said they were very happy with the weekly fitness arranged through Active Now and felt they were getting stronger. Another said they were very pleased with the support provided as they would now be able to access their garden more freely.
The project is part of the £6m Connecting Communities programme, being delivered in Norfolk
Household Support Fund
Norfolk County Council is offering extra support to households this winter.
Earlier this year, Norfolk County Council announced it would receive further funding from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to run the Household Support Fund until 31 March 2024.
The council is receiving £13.4m from central government and adding an additional £400,000 to make the total programme of support worth £13.8m. It is working closely with district, borough, and city councils, VCSE and public sector partners to identify and implement a range of support measures to meet the needs of vulnerable households.
Since the fund began (October 2021) the impact on Norfolk communities of the fund so far has been significant:
We have supported over 130,000 households throughout the life of the fund.
• We continue to provide food vouchers for over 30,000 eligible school children.
• We have provided over 17,000 awards through our application-based Client Hardship Service (formally the Norfolk Assistance Scheme) ranging from food support through to providing white goods and winter essentials.
• We have made over 546,000 awards in total through use of the fund across all rounds to date.
• Support has also been provided through our libraries (grab and go bags), the Nourishing Norfolk food hubs (store credit), our district council partners with a range of both proactive and reactive support and by working with our local VCSE community to directly support the most vulnerable Norfolk families.
NCC Nov 23 report Page 1
Norfolk County Council in partnership with Busseys has today launched a grant scheme to help local communities plant new trees and create greener and cleaner areas to live. The scheme is part of the council’s one million trees initiative and aims to support tree planting projects across the county and contribute to ambitious net-zero targets.
The Busseys Community Tree Grant has made £10,000 (maximum of £2,500 per
application) available to community organisations in Norfolk who are passionate about tree planting. Applications must be for planting trees that provide a tangible community benefit.
As the Cabinet Member for Environment and Waste, I commented “This collaboration represents a significant step towards enhancing the county’s green spaces, nature recovery, and ecosystem. I am thrilled that we are working with the Busseys family and that together we can promote and support tree planting across our picturesque county through this initiative. We all know that money doesn’t grow on trees – but this scheme will provide local communities with the money they need to make trees grow! I encourage local communities to develop their plans and apply for this fantastic scheme.”
Busseys managing director, Paul Bussey, said: “We have a long-standing commitment to environmental sustainability. Our Tree Planting Initiative, which began in 2007, has allowed us to plant trees for every customer who purchases a vehicle from us or donating to Foodcycle for meals. We are excited to expand this initiative in partnership with Norfolk County Council to further promote greenery, cleaner air, and overall community well-being in Norfolk.”
To ensure the success of this project, an application process has been put in place to guarantee that all trees are planted in suitable locations to maximise their survival and provide a meaningful community benefit.
This grant initiative is open to anyone in Norfolk who possesses the necessary land permissions and space to undertake tree planting project
County Cllr. E. Vardy
NCC Nov 23 report Page 2
North Norfolk District Council Report November 2023
Housing: Cabinet earlier agreed an annual action plan, included in this is a pledge to share data about the number of
permanent, affordable, second and holiday
homes, empty homes and numbers of local people on the housing register at a parish level
on an annual basis so that there is a very clear understanding of the context of local housing
issues at a local community level. It would be expected that sharing this information widely
would generate more support for a pipeline of affordable housing schemes across the
District through Community Land Trusts and Rural Exceptions schemes. Here are some key
district wide statistics which highlight the scale of the challenge.
As at 30 September 2023:
o 2,492 on Housing List
o 595 Band 1 Urgent Need
o 491 homeless presentations in first 6 months
o In 2011 NNDC placed 38 families in temporary accommodation. By 2022/23 this
number was in excess of 200 including 142 children.
o The costs associated with placing families in temporary accommodation in 2021/22
was £548k – Government made a small contribution to this but NNDC still had to
find £371k. For 2022/23 this figure was £993k (£714k cost to NNDC). The
forecasted figure for this year is over a million pounds with most of that financial
burden being on NNDC
· Footpath Challenge: Over the next few months I have set myself the challenge to walk every
footpath in the Gresham ward. I enjoy walking so it is not a tough one but it does give me a
good opportunity to get out and about, report any maintenance issues to the county council.
I have walked 14 footpaths so far but there are many more to go!
· Waste Collections for the future: The government have announced the results of the
standardisation of waste collections consultation. 7 Bins was never on the horizon,
whatever Rishi Sunak tried to allude, however one additional bin collection that has been
mandated is for food waste collection. A lot of authorities already offer this service and
North Norfolk will be following suit. The deadline for commencement of this service is
March 2026 but I expect we will be making efforts to implement this as soon as possible.
There are also changes coming to what can be recycled, and this will include more plastic
packaging – this is still a couple of years away however. With NNDC already offering to
collect batteries, small electronic products, and soon to be food waste, there are fewer and
fewer items that should be ending up in the residual waste bin. Food Waste collected will be
anaerobically digested, a process that produces natural gas for the grid and the digested by-
product is used as fertilizer.
Cllr Callum Ringer – Gresham Ward
[email protected] – 07824381519
