Agenda and draft minutes

Apologies were received from Councillors Bridgett, Pattison, Renner-Thompson, and Thorne.

Minutes of the meeting of the North Northumberland Local Area Committee held on Thursday 22 February 2024 as circulated, to be confirmed as a true record and signed by the Chair.  

RESOLVED that the minutes of the North Northumberland Local Area Committee meeting held on Thursday, 22 February 2024, as circulated, be a true record and signed by the Chair.

Unless already entered in the Council’s Register of Members’ interests, members are required where a matter arises at a meeting; 

1. Which directly relates to Disclosable Pecuniary Interest (‘DPI’) as set out in Appendix B, Table 1 of the Code of Conduct, to disclose the interest, not participate in any discussion or vote and not to remain in room. Where members have a DPI or if the matter concerns an executive function and is being considered by a Cabinet Member with a DPI they must notify the Monitoring Officer and arrange for somebody else to deal with the matter.

2. Which directly relates to the financial interest or well being of a Other Registrable Interest as set out in Appendix B, Table 2 of the Code of Conduct to disclose the interest and only speak on the matter if members of the public are also allowed to speak at the meeting but otherwise must not take part in any discussion  or vote on the matter and must not remain the room.

3. Which directly relates to their financial interest or well-being  (and is not  DPI) or the financial well being of a relative or close associate, to declare the interest and members may only speak on the matter if members of the public are also allowed to speak. Otherwise, the member must not take part in discussion or vote on the matter and must leave the room.

4. Which affects the financial well-being of the member, a relative or close associate or a body included under the Other Registrable Interests column in Table 2, to disclose the interest and apply the test set out at paragraph 9 of Appendix B before deciding whether they may remain in the meeting.

5. Where Members have or a Cabinet Member has an Other Registerable Interest or Non Registerable Interest in a matter being considered in exercise of their executive function, they must notify the Monitoring Officer and arrange for somebody else to deal with it. 

NB Any member needing clarification must contact monitoringofficer@northumberland.gov.uk.  Members are referred to the Code of Conduct which contains the matters above in full. Please refer to the guidance on disclosures at the rear of this agenda letter.

Councillor Hunter noted that she had personal but non-prejudicial interests in item 6 of the agenda; petitions “Safety at Swinhoe” and “Petition seeking the Creation or Community Woodland between Shielffield Terrace & Prior Road, Berwick Upon Tweed”.

Representatives from Northumbria Police will be in attendance to provide updates on policing within the North Northumberland area and to answer questions from Members.

Sergeant D Stapleton – Northumbria Police was in attendance to provide information to members regarding policing in the North Northumberland area. 

Members noted that there were some boundary changes due to come into effect in June 2024 with Amble no longer being included in the Morpeth statistics and would be included within the Alnwick area.

Sergeant Stapleton addressed members regarding an article that had been written in a local newspaper suggesting that burglaries in Alnwick were on the rise with a 73% increase compared to last year, stating that the statistics used in the article were factually inaccurate and disproportional to the correct numbers. There had also been an update from the Home Office in 2023 with related changes to the classification of certain offences, including burglaries.

Members heard that in the past few years in Alnwick there had been ongoing drug related issues, with Northumbria Police executing several operations to tackle drug supply issues. Throughout 2022 and 2023 there had been a number of arrests made, paraphernalia found and mobile devices also seized from residential accommodation. There had also been several arson attacks including police cars set alight, since then a number of people had been remanded in custody until their court date in May 2024.

Northumbria Policing Neighbourhood units had also been working with several services to inform and prevent further crime and protect vulnerable people and had also attended Duchess High School to speak to students.

Members thanked Sergeant Stapleton for attending.

To reply to any questions received from members of the public?which?have been submitted in?writing in advance of the meeting.?Questions can be asked about issues for which the Council has a responsibility.?(Public question times take place on a bimonthly basis at Local Area Council meetings: in January, March, May, July, September and November each year.)?

As agreed by the County Council in February 2012, the management of?local?public question times is at the discretion of the chair of the committee.?

Please note however that a question may possibly be rejected if?it requires the disclosure of any categories of confidential or exempt information, namely information:?

1. Relating to any individual;?

2. Which is likely to reveal the identity of an individual;?

3. Relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person;

4. Relating to any labour relations matters/negotiations;?

5. Restricted to legal proceedings;

6. About enforcement/enacting legal orders;

7. Relating to the prevention, investigation of prosecution of crime.

And/or:?

• Is defamatory, frivolous or offensive;?

• It is substantially the same as a question which has been put at a meeting of this?or another County Council?committee in the past six months;
• The request repeats an identical or very similar question from the same person;?
• The cost of providing an answer is disproportionate;??
• It is being separately addressed through the Council's complaints process;?
• It is not about a matter for which the Council has a responsibility or which affects the county;?

• It relates to planning, licensing and/or other regulatory applications?
• It is a question that town/parish councils would normally be expected to raise through other channels.?

?

If the Chair is of the opinion that a question is one which for whatever reason, cannot properly be asked in an area meeting, he/she will disallow it and inform the resident of his/her decision.??

?

Copies of any written answers (without individuals' personal contact details) will be provided for members after the meeting and also be publicly available.?

?

Democratic Services will confirm the status of the progress on any previously requested written answers and follow up any related actions requested by the Local Area Council.

The committee received no questions.

This item is to:

(a) Receive any new petitions: to receive any new petitions. 

(b) Consider reports on petitions previously received

      i.         Safety at Swinhoe

     ii.         Petition seeking the Creation of Community Woodland between Shielffield Terrace & Prior Road, Berwick Upon Tweed  

(c) Receive any updates on petitions for which a report was previously considered: any updates will be verbally reported at the meeting.

(a) There were no new petitions to be received by members.

(b)

i. Safety at Swinhoe

The North Northumberland Local Area Committee were requested to acknowledge the petition received from J Swind regarding road safety concerns at Swinhoe Crossroads.

J Rhind – Lead Petitioner addressed the Committee and made the following comments: 

·       A year ago, there was a near fatal accident involving a young mother of two at the Swinhoe Crossroads, her car was written off and although narrowly escaping serious injury, she required hospital treatment.

·       The accident figures in the report excluded those unreported to police.

·       The report stated that the biggest causes of accidents were “failing to look properly” and excessive speed; “looking properly” was not possible when facing a stone wall.

·       The report stated that a number of interventions had been made at the junction over many years and none of those have reduced the accident rate, which was a clear acknowledgement that the problem highlighted in the petition could not be addressed through low cost measures.

·       The Lead Petitioner welcomed the officer’s recommendation for some serious design work to develop meaningful options that would realign the carriageway to address the root cause of the safety record of the junction.

·       The report did not mention monitoring the junction and did not contain any data on traffic volumes, flows, speeds, or driver behaviour or the last design study completed in July 2022 which had not been fully implemented.

·       The Lead Petitioner urged members to agree the proposed work must be only the first step to an unrelenting and pacey commitment to resolve the issues at the junction.

·       The Lead Petitioner also urged members to have the report resubmitted at the next North Northumberland Local Area Committee meeting in May, and for it to include a plan setting out timescales and ownership.

·       The fundamental problem was the lack of visibility for vehicles from the South making a right turn, alongside the general speed of traffic.

Members agreed with the recommendation in the report, and noted that a major redesign of the Swinhoe Crossroads was needed and for plans to involve the Local Ward Member as well as Beadnel Parish Council.

RESOLVED that members noted the contents of the report and supported the actions proposed.

ii. Petition seeking the Creation of Community Woodland between Shielffield Terrace & Prior Road, Berwick Upon Tweed

The North Northumberland Local Area Committee were requested to acknowledge the petition received from Berwick Town Council regarding a Petition seeking the Creation of Community Woodland between Shielffield Terrace & Prior Road, Berwick Upon Tweed

Berwick Town Council had submitted  a speech which was accepted by the Chair and was read out by the Democratic Services Officer. The following comments were made:

·       Berwick Town Council welcomed the positive response from Northumberland County Council.

·       The stipulations in the report were reasonable and congruent with the steps they expected to take.

·       Berwick Town Council would undertake consultation with the neighbouring properties as soon as possible.

·       Berwick Town Council wished to acknowledge the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 37.

John Cooper, Strategic Programmes Manage, Digital and IT, will give a presentation on the transition from analogue to digital landlines by Openreach and to address concerns around resilience in the event of power cuts and/or major storms. 

J Cooper - Strategic Programmes Manager was in attendance to provide a presentation on the transition from analogue to digital landlines. A copy of the presentation would be attached to the signed minutes of the meeting and uploaded to the Council’s website.

Members were informed that the switchover would only impact users with a landline telephone and for the majority of those, the transition would be straightforward. Work was underway in the telecoms industry to try and mitigate the risks with power cuts by adding resilience within the network structure by adding backup generators at relay sites or mobile phone masts.

It was noted that Northumberland County Council was not directly involved in the industry led programme but had taken the decision to raise awareness with Northumberland’s residents, businesses and community groups and signpost those with concerns to the relevant organisation for support. The Council did not have access to switchover plans and timescales so did not know when individuals would be switched across, however were raising awareness with activities such as adding flyers summarising the switchover to March/April council tax bills, attending Local Area Committee meetings and Parish Council meetings when requested, engaging with stakeholders with a role in community resilience and working with BT to support regional roadshow campaign.

Members thanked J Cooper for the presentation and for attending.

A short comfort break was announced.

To receive a presentation from Ivan Hewitt, Rural Business Growth Programme Manager on two Business Funding Programmes which are available in the rural community. 

I Hewitt, RAMP Programme Manager was in attendance to provide a presentation on a new programme to support businesses within rural areas. A copy of the presentation would be attached to the signed minutes of the meeting and uploaded to the Council’s website.  

The Northumberland Small Business Service was a £4.8m, 3 year programme which would deliver business growth, diagnostic and brokerage services to all small and micro businesses across Northumberland to unlock the barriers to growth specifically for rural businesses. The objectives of the programme were:

1.    To increase business resilience and support rural businesses with growth potential and ambition to develop and implement business growth and resilience plans.

2.    Develop a more diverse business base by creating new businesses and supporting rural businesses to grow, safeguarding, and creating new employment opportunities, becomes more resilient and increasing productivity.

3.    Stimulate investment in the growth of existing private sector rural businesses.

The service would deliver support to businesses via the following methods:

·       Growth and Resilience Support, which included; dedicated 1-2-1 support from a Rural Business Adviser, developing workshop programme, specialist mentoring and coaching from industry experts and large scale conferences and events.

·       Start up and Enterprise support, which included; 1-2-1 support with an experienced business coach, access to networking with other start up companies, expert led themed workshops, further signposting to other services as necessary and appropriate.

·       Farming Enterprise Support, which included; on the ground dedicated Farming and Rural Enterprise Officers provided hands on 1-2-1 advice, access to engagement and awareness events, business support workshops, bespoke knowledge transfer and networking events guided by famer interests and support accessing the NBSB Grant Investment Fund and other financial assistance.

·       The NSBS Grant Investment Fund.

Members thanked I Hewitt for the presentation and for attending.

For Members to receive a presentation from the Chair of the Borderline Greenway Community Interest Company regarding a project to create a greenway out of Alnwick on the disused Alnwick to Cornhill line.

C Davidson - Borderline Greenway Community Interest Company was in attendance to provide an update on the project to create a greenway out of Alnwick on the disused Alnwick to Cornhill line.

The objective of the project was to create a trail from Alnwick to Cornhill via Wooler, following the disused train line which could be used for pedestrian, equine, cycling and motorised wheelchair use. The Community Interest Company were working on phase one of the project, following securing a 25 year lease of land 1.78 miles long.

Councillor Castle congratulated the Borderline Greenway Community Interest Group on their progress so far explaining that he had allocated £5k from his own Local Member Improvement Scheme funds and encouraged other members to support the project via their respective funds.

Members thanked C Davidson for the presentation and for attending.

To note the latest version of agreed items for future Local Area Committee meetings (any suggestions for new agenda items will require confirmation by the Chairman of Council after the meeting).

RESOLVED that this was noted.

The next meeting of the North Northumberland Local Area Committee is scheduled for Thursday, 30 May 2024 at 6:00 pm at Cheviot Centre, Wooler.

RESOLVED that the next meeting of the North Northumberland Local Area Committee was noted as Thursday, 30 May 2024 at The Cheviot Centre, Wooler.