Norwich City Council faces strong criticism after it snubs Unitary bid meeting

There was strong disappointment from members of the public, parish councillors, district and county councillors after Norwich City Council refused to attend a meeting to answer questions on its Unitary bid.

Colin Bland, Chief Executive of Broadland Council broke off from leave to be at South Norfolk Scrutiny Committee, alongside Norfolk County Council Deputy Leader Harry Humphrey and Debbie Bartlett, head of the county council's policy and performance team, who gave a presentation on the bid.

But the Committee was left to listen to a local radio interview with Norwich City Council Leader Cllr Steve Morphew on the City's bid, which also included a response from South Norfolk Council Leader Cllr John Fuller.

At the end of the Committee discussions, which lasted just under two and a half hours, Cllr Kemp said there was a "culture of municipal mediocrity" at City Hall, and added:

"We cannot give credence to the City Council's Unitary bid. There is a lack of transparency here and insufficient detail in any intelligible form."

While not sending a representative, the Committee did receive written answers to its questions.

Cllr Kemp said however:

"It is very difficult to follow the reasoning of Mr Morphew's answers. It is clear that a lot of this bid is based on hope, but where are the grounds for that hope?

"We can all have lofty ambitions, but there are no resources or evidence of them here to back those ambitions up."

He said the bid was a "big risk for hundreds of thousands of Norfolk people" including those in Norwich, which would "cast a burden on people for many years to come without any prospect of a return on the investment they would have to make."

There was agreement that the Norwich Unitary bid on current City boundaries was a stepping stone to a bid for Unitary status on expanded boundaries. That had been made clear by the City Council at an early stage.

Committee witness, South Norfolk Council Leader John Fuller said:

"The bid on the existing boundary doesn’t fool anyone. This is a selfish bid by Norwich City Council carried out at the expense of the rest of Norfolk.

“Norwich has a poor council with failing services, which can't even get its accounts in on time. Why should anyone reward this incompetence with extra responsibilities? The City Council must get its house in order first."

He added:

"On the services that residents value the most like recycling, Broadland and South Norfolk Councils working with Norfolk County Council are among the best authorities in the country, but Norwich City Council is 377th out of 393. Only places like Tower Hamlets, Liverpool, Knowsley and Middlesbrough are worse. If this bid goes through, people are going to be paying more for less."

He also condemned the decision not to send an officer, nor a substitute member for Cllr Morphew, who was unable to attend:

"It's an enormous disappointment, and worse than a shame that they are not here. What have they got to hide? I think we all deserve better from Norwich City Council.

"There are 750,000 people in Norfolk and this Unitary bid will have an impact on every single one of us. Council Tax will increase and there will be a doubling up on bureaucracy."

He said the way forward was partnership:

"We must build on the partnerships which are working for people. We partner with Gt Yarmouth and Waveney Councils on benefits and with Broadland on energy efficiency. That's the smarter way to go in the future. This is a vacuous bid and an exercise in political vanity."

There was unanimity among Committee members, the public at the meeting and the witnesses that Norwich City Council was seeking to take over the skills and resources of better-run neighbouring authorities to pull itself out of the difficulties it was in.

And there was unanimous, cross-party support for the Committee to recommend that South Norfolk Cabinet strongly oppose the bid.

The Committee also called on Norwich City Council to supply a final, credible version of the Unitary bid to South Norfolk Cabinet in "good time" to enable meaningful discussion to take place.

In his written answers, Councillor Morphew said he would attend the South Norfolk Council Cabinet meeting on 18 June.

Web links

• South Norfolk Council Unitary pages

Related pages

• Latest news