To receive petitions and public questions in accordance with Procedure Rule 20.
Minutes:
Public Question from Mary Davies
“I have recently had the distressing experience of my sister being moved into a Care Home against her will, and as a direct result of me raising serious concerns about her Rights and Care, the Home banned me from visiting her. Broken hearted, her health rapidly deteriorated and she died in the Home.
Along with the associated anguish and stress which affected my own health too, it was extremely challenging trying to obtain active support and guidance. I felt isolated and powerless whilst my sister pleaded my help in her vulnerable situation.
The Care Quality Commission was recently described as “not fit for purpose” by Health and Social Care Secretary, Wes Streeting. Every year, over two and a half million elderly people in the UK are affected by abuse in one form or another, in their own homes or in Care Homes, but these issues are shockingly overlooked. West Norfolk has a high and increasing proportion of elderly residents.
TheBorough LILY service provides support to help tackle Loneliness and Social Isolation in our community, but what vital support can the Borough Council provide to ensure the wellbeing and safety of the elderly and residents of Care homes, to support those of us who have concerns for our loved ones in care and to ensure protection for anyone in similar circumstances to which I have referred.
Supplementary Question
The Borough Council is to be commended for signing up to the White Ribbon Promise to prevent men’s violence against women and girls
I am now an active supporter of Hourglass, the UK-wide charity dedicated to protecting older people and building a safer ageing society.
Will the Borough Council also sign up to the Hourglass Oath to fight against the abuse, harm, exploitation and neglect of older people?”
Councillor Rust gave the following response:
“I am so sorry to hear of your distressing and upsetting experience. I offer my sincere sympathy at the distress that you went through after your sister was moved. I actually sent your question to the cabinet member at Norfolk County Council because it is a county function to fund provision of care homes for residents who are eligible. It does not fall under the remit of the borough. The Care Quality Commission (CQC), regulates and monitors care homes and they are meant to ensure that they meet quality and safety standards. The CQC use something called Key Lines of Enquiry (KLOEs) to monitor a service and they focus on Safety, effectiveness, care, responsiveness and leadership. Their inspection reports are public, meaning that members of the public can access them to help them make informed choices about care services. If the standards are not met the CQC can take enforcement action. So while our Lily service, who do amazing work over a variety of different areas, including reducing social isolation and loneliness, they wouldn’t be able to offer specific advice on concerns over the care provided by a care home. If you called our Council Information Service, I’m confident that they would signpost you to the CQC for complaints and concerns.
I have personally signed up to the Hourglass Oath and pledged to fight against the abuse, harm, exploitation and neglect of older people. In addition to that, as an organisation, we are working to become a marmot place and to reduce health inequalities and I have requested that as a part of that we also look into becoming an ageing better community which will work to make our workplaces, homes and communities inclusive of older people and build an age friendly movement so that society sees ageing in a more positive and realistic way.”
Q2 – Robert Shippey
“A district-wide carbon emissions report uploaded to the council website “West Norfolk emissions” page this month features data for district carbon emissions in west Norfolk for 2019 to 2022. It replaced links to all previous district emissions reports. The 2019 data in that report seems to suggest approx 1.27kilo tonnes of carbon emitted in 2019 in west Norfolk. This directly contradicts the previous reports for 2019 which has now been taken off the website. That listed 2019 emissions at 1.91kilo tonnes and noted that all historic emissions up to 2019 were re-calculated to include an adjusted land-use methodology which resulted in higher calculated emissions - importantly emissions which always existed but were simply missing from calculations. This discrepancy throws into question the data also shown in the latest report for more recent years. Why has the previous report (showing higher emissions levels and updated methodology) been pulled from the website, and which 2019 data is actually correct? The lower levels presented now, or higher levels since removed based on the new methodology?”
Councillor de Whalley gave the following response:
“The government publishes data on territorial carbon emissions annually. The data has a two-year lag and the calculation of the emissions data is affected by adjustments in methodology. As part of a general update to this Council's website, a revised set of comparative data was published. The data set is from an external source; and uses the most recent published data. New statistics will be published by the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero in the summer and this Council’s webpage will be updated in due course.”
By way of supplementary Mr Shippey asked if the data sets on the website could be updated so the public could see all the information.
Councillor de Whalley explained that the latest data was on the web site, but he would provide a further response in writing.
Q3 – Trudy Clark
“In January the Council made a decision on how to manage Parkway east / Florence Fen wildlife site. This is to be done with the guidance of NWT, and a management plan submitted by Aaron Brown in 2021, updated May 2023. Aaron is the NWT County Wildlife Sites Adviser. I would like to know when there was last a discussion between Aaron the Council re: this site, and if regular contact is maintained with NWT, as they are to play a pivotal role in advising the Council regarding Parkway east / Florence Fen wildlife site.”
Councillor de Whalley gave the following response:
“Regular contact is maintained with Norfolk Wildlife Trust regarding the Florence Fen Site. Since the authority decided to formally have the site designated as a county wildlife site in January this year the council has been in frequent communication with the trust regarding the designation process, to update them on our proposals for the site and discuss with them the management plans. The most recent meeting with Aaron took place on the 19th of March 2025.”
By way of supplementary Ms Clark drew attention to dredging of ditches which had been carried out where she said water voles were resident, and that some areas should have been left, she asked who was responsible.
Councillor de Whalley stated that he would respond in writing.