Agenda and draft minutes

RESOLVED:   That Councillor J Rust be appointed as Chair for the meeting.

RESOLVED:   That Councillor A Bubb be appointed as Vice-Chair for the remainder of the Municipal Year.

To receive any apologies for absence.

There were no apologies for absence.

To confirm as a correct record the notes from the previous meeting.

The notes of the meeting held on 19 December 2022 were agreed as a correct record.

There were no matters arising.

Please indicate if there are any interests which should be declared.  A declaration of an interest should indicate the nature of the interest (if not already declared on the Register of Interests) and the agenda item to which it relates.  If a disclosable pecuniary interest is declared, the Member should withdraw from the room whilst the matter is discussed.

These declarations apply to all Members present, whether the Member is part of the meeting, attending to speak as a local Member of an item or simply observing the meeting.

There were no declarations of interest.

To consider any business which, by reason of special circumstances, the Chair proposes to accept as urgent under Section 100(b)(4)(b) of the Local Government Act 1972.

There was no urgent business to report.

Members wishing to speak pursuant to Standing Order 34 should inform the Chair of their intention to do so and on what items they wish to be heard before a decision on that item is taken.

Councillor M de Whalley.

There was no Chair’s correspondence to report

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The Assistant Director reminded the Task Group that discussions had been held about bringing this Group to a close and having some other form of reporting arrangements in place around progress on delivering against the Homelessness & Rough Sleeper Strategy.  Ultimately the decision was for the Task Group to decide whether to terminate the Task Group or not.

Councillor Bower added that the updates given by officers at the Panel Meetings were appreciated.  She considered that unless there was a time when homelessness and housing delivery needed to be looked at more closely, the reports to the Panels were sufficient.

Councillor Bambridge added that the Group had carried out a fair amount of work and she would be sorry if it did not continue.  She referred to the news which had said that there were far more people on the streets from when the survey was carried out in November.  She was added that the housing providers needed to be engaged with again.

Councillor Mrs Collop agreed with the comments made by Councillor Bambridge that the Task Group should not cease but felt that the structure needed to change.

Councillor Bubb added that he considered that the Group should not be disbanded but the meetings should be reduced to 2 per year.  The Task Group should receive the reports which had been talked about so that if something urgent occurred then the Group could convene to look at it.  He also suggested that there could be a standard item on the Environment & Community Panel agendas relating to the Homelessness & Housing Delivery Task Group even if there was nothing to report.

Councillor Holmes added that it would be a bad sign to close this Group down, but it did need to have a purpose.  He stated that in view of the forthcoming elections it might be a good time to review the terms of reference for the Group. By keeping the Group, it kept the issue in the public eye.

The Chair acknowledged that she had joined the Group after it had been established but she never understood the real point of what the Group was meeting for and what the Group had achieved.  She agreed that it might be the right time to review the Terms of Reference for the Group before the elections.

Under Standing Order 34, Councillor de Whalley spoke against disbanding the Group.  He stated that it was a credit to the Group and officers that the number of rough sleepers in West Norfolk was low compared to other authorities to the east and west.  He added that there was a lack of social housing, squeeze on private tenancies, housing associations that were struggling, a cost-of-living crisis and very significant issues with mental health support in this County.  He supported the adjustment of the Terms of Reference ready for the new Councillors in May.

Councillor Bubb proposed that an item be placed on the Environment & Community  ...  view the full minutes text for item 10.