5
The Chair reminded Members that several Cabinet Member Sessions were postponed in 2023/24 following cancellation of meetings, including one for Councillor Whitelock, Cabinet Member with responsibility for Communities, Culture, Leisure and Tourism who he now invited to give details of the direction of travel for the services within her portfolio.
The Cabinet Member gave details of each element of her portfolio and highlighted, in particular her concern that several pots of money used to fund projects to help support residents would cease over the next year. The Head of Communities and Leisure stated that the Council had been ambitious in terms of what residents had been offered as not all districts offered the same. She added that the need was increasing with people presenting with more complex issues eg those who had been coping financially were now in need of support. In response to Councillor Gooch’s suggestion, the Head of Communities and Leisure responded that sharing community support projects with neighbouring authorities could be explored. The Chair commented that it was clear communities still needed supporting and the Cabinet Member responded that they were trying to find alternative funding so the support could continue and were using data to ensure help reached those that most needed it such as young people and families. She pointed out that tackling inequalities was relevant to all four pillars of the Our Direction Strategic Plan.
The Cabinet Member stated that it was positive Leisure Services was now in the same portfolio as Communities as leisure helped people feel better about themselves physically and mentally. Members were informed that membership at leisure centres had increased with Everyone Active in the north so successful the contractor had given the Council some money back and it was hoped, once all the centres in the south had been refurbished, that Places Leisure would be able do the same. The Cabinet Member explained that the Council was bidding for Government funding to make improvements to the centres to make them cheaper to run and to lower carbon emissions.
In relation to culture, the Cabinet Member stated that she had asked for it to be added to her title because it was important for life in East Suffolk and an Action Plan for the Cultural Strategy would be developed as well as a newsletter so everyone was aware of what was happening.
The Cabinet Member stated that in 2022 tourism had been worth £680M to the local economy. Whilst she expressed concern about the impact that energy projects such as Sizewell C would have on tourism, she explained that funding was available to mitigate the impact and an online data system would track changes in tourism across the district. She referred to several projects in the Lowestoft Town Investment Plan and in Felixstowe which she hoped would increase tourism.
The Chair suggested to Councillor Whitelock that she circulate any information to Members that she had not had time to speak about during the meeting and the following responses were given to Members questions:
- Some Leisure Centres had free car parking but where there were charges, this income was treated separately.
- Officers were in contact with Somerset colleagues, however, Hinckley Point was different as it did not have such a big tourist industry locally and had different traffic issues. The Cabinet Member stated that her concern was that tourists might no longer wish to go on a day trip to the coast if it took a lot longer due to Sizewell traffic and similarly those that stayed locally might not want to travel travel up and down the coast because Sizewell was in the middle.
- It was hoped the change of use of Pakefield Pontins to accommodate Sizewell construction workers would not have too much impact on local tourism or businesses as visitor numbers had been declining for the last few years. Post construction, the park would be updated which would hopefully attract more visitors than it did currently. It was added that some tourists might want to visit the Sizewell C construction site.
- East Suffolk Council was the programme lead and would manage the Sizewell C Tourism Mitigation Fund which would be spent in accordance with an agreed implementation plan.
- It was hoped to get more people into the leisure centres during the day and to attract those who would not normally visit. There were many free activities eg swimming lessons and holiday fund activities available to those on low incomes and Feel Good Suffolk had free activities to gently encourage people to get into activities which they would then pay for later on.
- The Cabinet Member acknowledged that support was also needed for those that did not qualify for free activities to encourage them into the centres, both adults and children. It was noted that Officers were working with the leisure providers to look at tackling inequalities generally.
- The Lowestoft Community Partnership would shortly be launching sports equipment boxes hire free of charge which provided opportunities for people of all ages and this project would be rolled out to several locations across the district.
- The costs for operating the swimming pools were huge in terms of heating and staffing but opportunities to extend opening hours to later at night could be looked at.
- Software tracked visitor movements and the Council had renewed its grant to the Destination Marketing Organisation (DMO) which attracted people to East Suffolk.
- Towns and parishes were supported by free wifi which was being extended to other areas of the district and the Towns Programme had a budget of £118K over two years to help improve high streets, run events etc. Strategic Directors met with Town Clerks quarterly and a Town Council Conference was being arranged to provide help and advice from across all the Council's portfolios.
- The Leisure Strategy which included build and playing pitch strategies was adopted two years ago. A consultant had used Sport England modelling to assess requirements and they had contacted all clubs across the district to find out their development needs. There were a few shortfalls for junior pitches but these were being reviewed for certain areas and provision was looked at as part of planning developments.
- Sizewell C money was available for cultural events so if organisations wanted to apply for the money then they should make the most of the opportunity. The aim was to make the most of NSIP projects for the benefit of residents to minimise and mitigate impacts.
- The Council had an objective to recruit more volunteers generally throughout the district partly because they were needed and to provide people with volunteering opportunities. 100 had been recruited last year for the Cultural Connections Project with Great Yarmouth and the Council was working with Community Action Suffolk on recruiting more volunteers.
- TICs could be staffed by volunteers to boost the tourism offer but that model did not always work across the district with some areas preferring Tourist Information Points set up in businesses so it was what worked best for each area.
The Chair thanked Councillor Whitelock and Officers for their presentation and responses. He then stated that it was important for this Committee to keep a watching brief over the Council generally and, as part of that, he invited Councillor Topping, Leader of the Council, to give an update on:
- Her assessment of how she thought the past year had gone from an administration point of view as well as from the wider Council perspective; and
- As Leader, how she felt the Council was making progress in delivering against the Our Direction 2028 Strategic Plan.
Councillor Topping thanked the Committee and Officers for their support. She referred to information circulated to Committee Members prior to the meeting and clarified that it was information that had already been reported to Cabinet. She explained it had been an interesting year as no-one had expected the election to result in such change but she thanked everyone for being constructive and collaborative. Business had been maintained as usual during a settling in period but a lot of key decisions had to be made and she thanked everyone involved in producing the Our Direction Strategic Plan. She added that she was honoured to be East Suffolk Council's leader and the first female leader. She reported the following highlights which had been included in the report circulated to Town and Parish Councils in May 2024:
- The Council had a balanced budget and £100M was being spent in 2024/25 to deliver critical projects with £50M invested in housing etc.
- The first year of operation of East Suffolk Services Limited had not been as good as it could be but Council officers had done an amazing job implementing the change and taking over the new IT system etc. The Shareholders Reference Group scrutinised the company's performance regularly.
- In response to the impact of Storm Babet and Ciaran, the Council had created a Resilience Fund so communities would be supported immediately rather than having to wait for Government funding.
- The Council continued to fight for funding from the Government for the Lowestoft Flood Barrier.
- Long stay car parks were being reviewed and some charges had been reduced, including the annual tickets to a more reasonable level.
- The Seashore Village at Felixstowe was ready.
- £900K had been invested with Lowestoft Town Council to help restore the Town Hall.
- Safe Suffolk Renters, a ground breaking project aimed at supporting tenants and landlords, had been created.
The Leader stated that many Councillors had completed a skills audit and she was determined to use those skills to support the Council's work wherever possible. She requested Members contact her with anything the Council should either be aware of or dealing with that ticked their area of expertise.
The Leader reported that she had met with many local stakeholders such as the Felixstowe Beach Hut Owners, the East Suffolk Planning Alliance and various Parish Councils and organisations to build a constructive working relationship with them and, where possible, resolve issues. She added that she had also represented the Council outside the district at Leader's events, LGA network meetings and Suffolk Chamber events. She met with developers regularly and had recently discussed with them the creation of a Charter to encourage them to include things like Bio Diversity Net Gain and EV chargers etc in their developments. To improve interaction with Town and Parish Councils and residents, pop up roadshows were being held across the district to showcase Council services, and she invited Ward Councillors to be on the stand to meet residents and find out what was important to them, both negative and positive.
In relation to progress against Our Direction, the Leader stated that some things were continuing from the previous administration and Officers and Cabinet were developing an Action Plan, dashboards and KPIs to measure delivery and assess progress against the targets. She gave the following update on each of the four pillars:
Environmental Impact
- The decarbonisation of Leisure Centres as mentioned by Councillor Whitelock.
- Cycling, Walking and Wheeling Strategy would help with emissions and transport.
- The Katch and Buzzabout transport projects were still being piloted and it was hoped that Suffolk County Council would take these over.
- The Pardon the Weeds campaign had done some excellent work but need to move forward so it had been rebranded to Nature at Work. Sites were being reviewed with Town and Parish Councils and churches who could opt out if they wished.
- East Suffolk's Amazing was a cross party group that worked with stakeholders and communities to empower them to do their bit for the environment because it was not possible for ESSL to do everything eg if people could keep their own curtilage free of weeds that would really help because there was not enough money available for the Council to do it all.
- ESSL were getting ready for Simpler Recycling by modelling routes for reducing carbon and collecting more waste when it started in 2026 and they would all be HVO trucks.
- A Hydrogen Conference had been held recently with various businesses and stakeholders including Sizewell who would be using hydrogen powered buses and were developing a hydrogen hub, all of which fed into the Our Direction aim of reducing carbon emissions.
- £100K had been given to the Greenlight Trust to finish their exemplar building and continue their work which gave a lot of social value.
Sustainable Housing
- ESPIL was moving forward which would help with temporary accommodation costs and homing people.
- The Council also need to retrofit the housing stock but until temporary accommodation costs were reduced it was hard to find money to start other projects.
Tackling Inequalities - covered by Councillor Whitelock in her Cabinet Member Session.
Thriving Economy
- The Nexus development was built to help energy sector businesses to congregate and work together.
- Digital Towns helped people with wifi which enabled the Council to track where they were shopping and where there was potential to drive footfall to help businesses.
The Chair thanked the Leader and suggested that the Felixstowe Seashore Village beach huts should be able to be rented and this was endorsed by several Members.
Councillor Bennett referred to the work of the Constitution Review Working Group as a positive example of cross party working. The Leader agreed, adding that the creation of the Youth Council was another positive initiative of the new administration.
Councillor Lynch referred to the traffic chaos around Martlesham which would worsen once all the new housing was built and the Leader stressed that new housing was needed but in the right location with the right infrastructure, although it was difficult to avoid traffic chaos during the construction phase.
In response to Councillor Ninnmey, the Leader explained that developers were receptive to the idea of a Charter and, whilst it was not enforceable, it was something they could aspire to. They would receive a certificate and could use an emblem on their letterheading showing they were going above and beyond. A developer forum was being organised and water companies would be invited as they wanted to make suggestions to the developers eg use higher quality water fittings to avoid leaks as they were worried about water resources.
Councillor Thompson expressed concern that planners were misinterpreting Neighbourhood Plans and the Leader requested he email her direct with the details.
Councillor Bennett expressed concern that parking enforcement was not strict enough and it was noted that a parking review was being undertaken town by town across the district looking at different TROs and restrictions, designated parking bays etc. It was acknowledged that a real challenge was the number of enforcement officers covering the whole district and the Chief Executive stated that discussions were being held with ESSL about generic enforcement eg any staff enforcing something else being able to enforce parking if necessary too.
Councillor Gooch commented that she was pleased to hear the Leader say about drawing on the Councillor skills base and queried if there any largescale projects on the horizon where they might be utilised. The Chief Executive responded that the administration was committed to engaging all Councillors in each of the four pillars of the Strategic Plan with at least one set piece event on each theme over the next 12 months to develop ideas that all Councillors could sign up to.
The Chair thanked the Leader and Officers were thanked for their presentation and responses.