Meeting Details

Members are invited to a Meeting of the Full Council

to be held in the Deben Conference Room, East Suffolk House, Melton

on Wednesday, 27 November 2024 at 6:30 PM

This meeting will be broadcast to the public via the East Suffolk YouTube Channel at https://youtube.com/live/enfs_glX3mA?feature=share

To receive apologies for absence, if any.

Members and Officers are invited to make any declarations of interests, and the nature of that interest, that they may have in relation to items on the Agenda and are also reminded to make any declarations at any stage during the Meeting if it becomes apparent that this may be required when a particular item or issue is considered.

The following question has been submitted by the public in pursuance of paragraph 29.1 of the Council Procedure Rules:

Question from Mr Chilvers to Councillor Beavan Cabinet Member with responsibility for Housing

 REF : Council Housing Future / St Peters Court Demolition

 Has an analysis been considered comparing the increasing costs of housing support in the private sector versus the costs of renovating St Peters Court in Lowestoft considering that the council will only begin to look at its replacement once the demolition has been concluded and in the light of the situation where the council is struggling to meet its legal requirements regarding housing those in need due to the increasing costs of rent aggravated by the frozen local housing allowance. The cost of increasing destitution ultimately falls on the council and it seems sensible that a wider analysis of the associated costs should be factored into the fate of existing housing stock and wider housing strategy pursued by the council.

The following questions from Members has/have been submitted in pursuance of paragraph 29.4 of the Council Procedure Rules: 

Question 1 from Councillor Mallinder to Councillor Caroline Topping, Leader of the Council

 Autumn is a beautiful time of year but with the falling of leaves we also required an increase in pavement cleaning.

 Can the leader of East Suffolk confirm how many road sweepers we own and  going forward  how does the council intend to improve pavement cleaning.

 Question 2 from Councillor Edward Back to Councillor Caroline Topping, Leader of the Council

 What is the cost of rebranding the "Pardon the Weeds, We're Feeding the Bees" campaign to "Nature at Work"?

 Question 3 from Councillor Myles Scrancher to Councillor Sally Noble, Cabinet Member with responsibility for the Environment

 One of the most reoccurring issues I receive complaints on from residents are the poor state of footpaths overgrown with weeds, heavily overgrown trees and bushes and unmanaged verges on roads.

 Although the Administration has introduced the ‘East Suffolk’s Amazing’ initiative which aims to get residents involved with helping to keep our district tidy. Our residents pay council taxes, and this should offer them a baseline standard of maintenance and care of public areas.

 What is the administration going to do in my areas of Carlton Colville, Gisleham and Mutford to resolve these ongoing issues?

 Question 4 from Councillor Debbie McCallum to Councillor David Beavan, Cabinet Member with responsibility for Housing

 The new Labour government have highlighted their aspirations to build 300,000 new homes annually over the next 5 years to meet their 1.5 million targets as a means of addressing the housing shortage crisis.

 Given their aspirations, what are your plans moving forward to provide social and council housing throughout East Suffolk?

 Question 5 from Councillor Alan Green to Councillor Caroline Topping, Leader of the Council

 Following a question from Councillor Byatt at the July Full Council meeting related to the apparent random trench-digging by contractors installing cables for Broadband, a further issue has now come to light.

 In my ward of Kessingland  a substantial length of newly-laid tarmac over a previous cabling excavation on a footway has been dug up for yet another contractor to lay more cabling. In addition, this company has now run out of tarmac and has left the site fenced off and unfinished.

 Whilst Councillor Byatt’s question related to appropriate notification of cabling work, it is now apparent that this Council needs to make further representations to the County Council regarding this farcical situation.  Our paths and roads are being dug up and refilled by separate contractors leaving unsightly patchworks of ugly, randomly laid uneven surfaces.

 Will you follow up on this unacceptable lack of co-ordination with the County Council as a matter of urgency?

 Question 6 from Councillor Janet Craig to Councillor Jan Candy, Cabinet Member with responsibility for Community Health

 In October this year Healthwatch Suffolk produced a Report entitled ‘Tackling Poverty Together’. Based on a two-year project, the Report was delivered in co-production with people with lived experience of financial hardship, alongside leaders across the public and private sector.

 The Report states it was vital that to create positive change, voices of those that experience poverty must be included. It was inspired by similar models across the nation known as ‘Poverty Truth Commissions’ that challenge a traditional approach led by professionals, leaders and front-line workers, and shifts the dynamic to ensure community partners share power and insights, to create solutions together.

 Where new ideas have been identified by this innovative approach, can we investigate further whether any of the Recommendations from the Report can be adopted in East Suffolk and  feedback any positive outcomes as a result?

The following Motions have been submitted in pursuance of paragraph 31.1 Council Procedure Rules:

Motion 1

 East Coast Flyway: Potential UNESCO World Heritage Site

 Proposer: Councillor Sarah Whitelock

 Seconder: Councillor Sally Noble

 This Council notes that:  

The East Coast Flyway (East Atlantic Flyway : England East Coast Wetlands)  is globally important for migratory waterbirds and for its nearly contiguous complex of ecologically connected and immensely variable coastal wetlands. These East Coast Wetlands, include many exceptional, extensive and biodiverse habitats located across a range of dramatic and dynamic estuaries as well as open coast ecosystems and support over 155 different bird species most of which migrate internationally along the East Atlantic Flyway (EAF) which extends from the Arctic to South Africa.

 The area within the proposed boundary contains almost 170,000 hectares (ha) of coastline, between the Humber and the Thames including: 

- Benacre to Eastern Bavents 471 ha
- Minsmere to Walberswick 1,998 ha
- Alde-Ore Estuary 2,404 ha
- Deben Estuary 981 ha

 The East Coast Flyway area is important as a staging area, as well as for more than 1 million wintering birds, with international importance regarding 29 waterbird populations. It further serves as a global exemplar of coastal adaptation and nature conservation management in response to climate change.

 Recognition by UNESCO in the importance of this coastline creates a lever for investment in people, ecotourism, sensitive infrastructure, research and educational opportunities; the area was added by the Government to the UK Tentative List of Potential World Heritage Sites (April 2023) and UNESCO list (September 2023).

 This Council resolves to:

 Write a formal letter to Jeff Kew, Project Development Manager at RSPB in support of this application on behalf of East Suffolk Council, crucially supporting the requirement for positive community engagement.

 Work cross-party with local authorities and any relevant stakeholders across the UK and globally to support this application leading to the designation of the East Coast Flyway as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

 Motion 2

 Reusable Nappies

 Proposed by Cllr Jenny Ceresa

 Seconded by Cllr Debbie McCallum

 This council notes that:

 In the 2023 DEFRA update Lifecycle Analysis (LCA) on the real impact of nappies. The report showed that reusable nappies produce less CO2 than single use disposable nappies. The environmental impact of production is over 90% lower for a reusable nappy than for a single use nappy. The environmental impact of the disposal of a single use nappy in 9x higher than that for a reusable nappy. Single use nappies use approximately 98% more resources to produce than reusable alternatives. If every child in the UK in nappies used reusables rather than disposables, it would save the equivalent of 700 million car miles of CO2- that’s nearly 3000 journeys to the moon in a car! Even when washing and drying, reusable nappies are still the best choice for the environment.

 This Council resolves to:

 Offer a money off voucher or a starter pack to an expectant parent, a parent or foster carer with a baby under 18 months (or under 5 years with a disability requiring nappies), to help with upfront costs of buying reusable nappies.

No petitions have been received as provided by paragraph 30.1 of the Council Procedure Rules.

It is recommended that under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972 (as amended) the public be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraph 2 and 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act.     

• Information that is likely to reveal the identity of an individual.
• Information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person (including the authority holding that information).

• Information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person (including the authority holding that information).