Agenda item
QUESTIONS FROM MEMBERS
To consider any questions submitted by Members of the Council, in accordance with Standing Order 4.8.11 (b).
Decision:
In accordance with Standing Order 4.8.11, five questions had been submitted by the required deadline set out in the Constitution.
(A) Councillor Resignation if Breach of Nolan Principles
Councillor Ruth Brown to Councillor Val Bryant, Leader of the Council.
(B) Update on Steps Taken to Implement Recommendations of Section 106 Task and Finish Group Report
Councillor Ralph Muncer to Councillor Val Bryant, Leader of the Council.
(C) Cost of Paused Local Government Reorganisation Process for the Council
Councillor Ralph Muncer to Councillor Val Bryant, Leader of the Council.
(D) Staff Recruitment for Local Government Reorganisation and Cost for NHDC
Councillor David Chalmers to Councillor Val Bryant, Leader of the Council.
(E) Council Procedure for Unauthorised Development
Councillor Ralph Muncer to Councillor Donna Wright, Executive Member for Place.
Minutes:
Audio recording – 01 hour 20 minutes 22 seconds
In accordance with Standing Order 4.8.11, five questions had been submitted by the required deadline set out in the Constitution.
(A) Councillor Resignation if Breach of Nolan Principles
Councillor Ruth Brown to Councillor Val Bryant, Leader of the Council:
‘Does the Leader agree that a Councillor who has demonstrably breached the Nolan Principles should resign as a Councillor?’
Councillor Val Bryant provided the following response:
‘The Nolan Principle are embedded in the North Hertfordshire Council Constitution and form the basis of the Council’s Code of Conduct. If it is considered that a Councillor has breached the Code of Conduct, a complaint may be made to the Monitoring Officer. Details of the complaints procedure are available on the Council’s website.’
Councillor Ruth Brown asked a supplementary question, as follows:
‘On the 31st of August 2026, the Guardian reported the Court of Appeals ruling that a rate mitigation scheme enabling businesses to avoid tax was unlawful. This practice was promoted by a company whose co-owner and financial director is a Labour member of this council. The scheme has cost councils, in particular London Boroughs, hundreds of millions in lost revenue over more than a decade. Will you ask the member of your group who promoted this practice to resign as a councillor?’
Councillor Val Bryant responded:
‘We have the Standards Committee next week and I have just looked at the papers and at this moment there are no outstanding complaints that have not been dealt with so we don’t actually have an outstanding complaint against a councillor.’
(B) Update on Steps Taken to Implement Recommendations of Section 106 Task and Finish Group Report
Councillor Ralph Muncer to Councillor Val Bryant, Leader of the Council:
‘To ask the Leader of the Council to provide an update on the steps taken by the administration to implement the recommendations of the Section 106 Task and Finish Group Report which was presented to Cabinet in April 2026.’
Councillor Val Bryant responded:
‘At this stage, the Overview and Scrutiny Committee’s recommendations have not been approved by the Cabinet for implementation. An update will be presented to Overview and Scrutiny at its November meeting at the request of the Scrutiny Officer.’
Councillor Ralph Muncer asked a supplementary question, as follows:
‘I thank the Leader of the Council for that response and I look forward to that coming back to Overview and Scrutiny in November. But as she will recall at the meeting of Cabinet in April, there was an indication that the implementation of the recommendations of the Section 106 task and finish group may not occur as a result of Local Government Reorganisation. Now that Local Government Reorganisation has been paused, can she commit to those recommendations being implemented by and until the end of this council? And will she also further commit to ensuring that the budget is found for those recommendations to be implemented even if that means that’s not currently contained within this year’s budget allocation.’
Councillor Val Bryant responded:
‘The Community Partnership team are aware of the recommendations set out in the Task and Finish report. But as the Overview and Scrutiny recommendations have not been approved by Cabinet for implementation, they have not yet been discussed with Community Forum or Parish Council Chairs. Once this has been approved then I’ll make sure these discussions take place with Nigel’s [Director – Place] assistance and with the action owner. The revenue will be put into the budget workshops for recommendations.’
N.B. Councillor Dominic Griffiths entered the Chamber at 20.58.
(C) Cost of Paused Local Government Reorganisation Process for the Council
Councillor Ralph Muncer to Councillor Val Bryant, Leader of the Council:
‘To ask the Leader of the Council what the cost of the now paused Local Government Reorganisation process has been to this Council.’
Councillor Val Bryant to respond:
‘It was published in the Members Information Bulletin last Friday.’
Councillor Ralph Muncer asked a supplementary question, as follows:
‘Does the Leader of the Council really think that £50,000 wasted as a result of yet another Labour government U-turn is a good and effective use of taxpayers money here in North Hertfordshire?’
Councillor Val Bryant responded:
‘Yes we have spent some money on this process. But if you think of it in terms of what we have been doing, we’re trying to replace the present system which is 50 years old with a local government system which will take us through the next 40 or 50 years. And in doing that we have been working with our other 10 local councils.
The officers have been working together and it actually has been quite an exciting time because they’ve been able to look into the future, compare ways of working, look at what we do, what other people don’t do, look at other unitaries and to see how they’ve tackled problems, particularly things to do with health and social care and so on.
So yes, money has been spent, but I don’t think that all the work involved and the officer time has actually been wasted. I think it’s actually that certainly some officers will think that they feel they’ve been developed by this.
(D) Staff Recruitment for Local Government Reorganisation and Cost for North Herts District Council
Councillor David Chalmers to Councillor Val Bryant, Leader of the Council:
‘Can the Leader give details of the number of staff who have been recruited to NHDC specifically to work on Local Government Reorganisation and the resulting cost to NHDC?’
Councillor Val Bryant responded:
‘We haven’t actually specifically recruited any staff to work on LGR. We do have a handful who have been recruited to provide additional capacity to enable others to work on LGR. And from last week’s MIB, the figures are that as part of the setting of budget for 26/27, we allocated £2 million of funding towards LGR program and up to £1 million in 26/27 and £1 million to 27/28. There’s a Cabinet report in June 2026 that detailed how this would be allocated.
In 26/27 we’ve actually incurred up to September spend of around £14,000 for additional capacity in the HR team. These are additional two posts referenced in the Cabinet report and the expectation is that these two fixed term posts will continue. The Cabinet report also approved two additional IT posts. One post has been recruited and due to start next week. Recruitment to the other post is also in progress for both the HR and IT posts. They’ll usefully support the council even if there is significant change to LGR. Future announcements on LGR will determine whether there is a future budget proposal for these roles to be extended.
The question of where we’ll go forwards with staffing overall with the 11 councils will be looked at the next Hertfordshire Leaders Group.’
Councillor David Chalmers asked a supplementary question, as follows:
‘How many roles will be managed going forward in a way that provides value for the Council while respecting their rights as employees?’
Councillor Val Bryant responded:
‘Nothing else to add.’
(E) Council Procedure for Unauthorised Development
Councillor Ralph Muncer to Councillor Donna Wright, Member for Place:
‘To ask the Executive Member for Place to outline the Council’s procedure when responding to unauthorised development taking place in North Hertfordshire.’
Councillor Donna Wright responded:
‘The Council’s procedures for dealing with unauthorised development are already clearly set out in our corporate enforcement policy and on the website and regular updates are provided to Planning Control Committee. Enforcement statistics are also publicly available.
So I’m not entirely sure what information he’s seeking that isn’t already in the public domain. If the question is about day-to-day operational matters, those are best directed to officers rather than the Executive Member. I don’t personally administer the enforcement process or have detailed knowledge of the hundreds of cases that may be under investigation across the district at any given time. And if this relates to a specific case, I don’t think it’s appropriate to discuss individual enforcement in open Council.’
Councillor Ralph Muncer asked a supplementary question, as follows:
‘The Executive Member may well be aware of the situation a number of weeks ago in Buntingford where unauthorised development was halted through an injunction because Hertfordshire County Council and East Herts District Council and the Parish Council there joined together in order to apply for that injunction. So, the question I have for the Executive Member is can she provide assurance to me tonight that this authority has a clear contingency plan to respond to other authorised development taking place in out of hours in North including on a bank holiday and will she commit to sharing this plan with Parish Councils across the district?’
Councillor Donna Wright responded:
‘We do have established procedures to respond to unauthorised developments encampment. Where it’s on council owned land we can take action through our own legal powers in accordance with our corporate enforcement policy. Where anything’s happening on private land without the necessary planning permission we will investigate promptly.’
Supporting documents:
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