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Tel: 01485 540620 email: editor@townandaround.net Hunstanton Town & Around September 2017 91

Councillors notes - An Independent’s view

Richard Bird
The season for visitors Recently a committee chair, who must
be a Conservative, made a decision to
It's nearly over again, you will be able to park near your destination, the
crowds will disappear and we can all breathe a sigh of relief. I want to delay the decision about closing the
try to maintain a balance of quality of life for the residents while giving Valentine Road Offices for a period of 2
visitors the chance to breath fresh air, enjoy what we have all year months to gain further and better particu-
around and generally take a break. The balance is difficult, especially lars of the consequences. This was voted
for those near the centre of the major tourist areas. The balance incor- on and agreed, I know I was there. He
porates a lot of give and take, residents are in the main pleasant to visi- was then overruled, presumably by the
tors. leader or the cabinet, and the matter was
In a recent survey the area, especially Hunstanton was described as pushed through cabinet. I would suggest
FRIENDLY, now you can't buy that, you can't make residents be that democracy needs some consideration at KLWNBC!
friendly and tolerant, it has to be natural. I believe the residents are I recently had published an article about the continuing rubbish col-
friendly, tolerant and above all understanding. What we have to do now lection and recycling situation, clearly this hit a nerve and I have had a
is ask our visitors to respect our environment, don’t throw used very interesting response to it from you good readers. Three themes
nappies, condoms and fish wrappings over residents’ gardens or across came to the fore, (1) Public recycling bins. Why has KL&WNBC not
the street. Be thoughtful about parking, especially across driveways given the general public the opportunities to select their places of recy-
and generally feel proud of the seaside they are visiting. cling? So for instance in popular places like Hunstanton Seafront there
In the international news we are hearing about protest from could be cans, plastic bottles, waste paper and other recyclable product
residents in Spain and Greece who are attacking visitors, at least ver- collection points. (2) That all along the coast there are many holiday
bally, writing slogans like 'Tourists Go Home', and much more. I am so lets with tenants not knowing the difference in colour coding of bins or
glad we are not in that position and hopefully never will be. However, indeed what goes where, the Parish of Brancaster is distributing its own
there are always two sides to every story and I for one want to see the leaflets to try and help. Lastly, the credits system (do you know what it
quality of life maintained for residents and visitors alike. is?) has been described as over complicated with a need for more basic
information. All information has been forwarded to the appropriate
The Borough of Scarborough portfolio holder, cabinet member. I will not hold my breath.
Because we have a young granddaughter, my wife and I find ourselves Cricket Teams
going to dance festivals and shows across the country. Scarborough
boasts the biggest open air theatre in Europe. 6000 seats on a huge stage I have recently read that Snettisham has seven cricket teams. They are
(about 2 tennis courts). It also has at least one Boro' owned theatre, a award winning and appear to be really going places. I am looking for-
beautiful, incredibly well maintained building overlooking the bay. I ward to supporting them as often as I can. I know that Thornham has
mention this because although they get things wrong as well, all the toi- two or three teams, and as always Thornham is boxing way above its
lets were locked as a cost saver on our first day at the open air theatre! weight. I mention these obvious success stories because Snettisham has
However, they got one thing right, in my opinion. The free open air the- about 2500 residents and Thornham about 300. So why, as the market
atre, is supported by the Boro' of Scarborough, and rather than being in town of the area, has Hunstanton (population over 4000) with what
competition with the evening performances, they use supporting pro- used to be described as the best pitch in the area no team at all? Why
fessional theatre schools like the one our girl attends doing their whole having paid special expenses to maintain the crease, pitch and outfield
performance sets, they in turn have the professional acts from the other for over 10 years is there no team? Could it be that the community
theatres doing tasters or trailers of their evening shows. This enhances doesn’t want a team? Could it be that the Boro' (who manage the
the opportunities for the evening theatre shows to sell their offerings. grounds) charges too much money for the facility? Is there a policy to
KL&WNBC are spending upwards of £160k on street entertainment in stop cricket in Hunstanton? Please give me your thoughts and reasons,
K.L. and, I think, over £100k on similar activities in Hunstanton, as I am baffled.
part of the Heritage gardens scheme. Unfortunately, some of the time Seafront Plaudits
the free entertainment clashes with the professional performances
rather than in the case of Scarborough enhancing the offering. As expected the applause for the seafront improvements have been
arriving from the visitors to Hunstanton. The £1.3 M spend is now
Town Hall repairs being praised by a lot of visitors. My comments are, for what they are
I am happy to report that Hunstanton Town Council has received 4 worth, why did the controversy over delays ever happen? Why were we
quotes for the works to the front of the Town Hall. All but one is within told that KL&WNBC could not find a specialist contractor for the
budget and having received recommendations from our resident civil works? Was it that they are too difficult as clients? Was the budget to
engineering company, the council will be selecting the successful con- tight? (I would not have thought so). Why apparently was only, I was
tractor very shortly. Hopefully the job should be discharged by the end told, one company prepared to tender?
of this year. It’s very early on but I feel very confident that the signs are Certainly now the grounds, children's playground, and other fea-
really good. It will be really good to have the Town Hall back function- tures look really good, as we thought they would, but clearly the man-
ing again. agement of the whole project could, in my opinion, have been handled
much better.
At Kings Lynn & West Norfolk Borough Council Would we have not been better off with some direct labour, on the
There are a couple of interesting items coming out of council. One is payroll, rather than at the mercy of the independent building industry?
about new boundaries, currently there are 62 members representing us After all we pay for gardeners directly.
across the whole Boro', this is to be reduced to 54, this represents one You can contact me with your views or questions at:
councillor for every 2373 residents. In my opinion this is far too many
councillors and it could quite easily be reduced further, given that Richard Bird
KL&WNBC uses the Cabinet system where the leader and his 'chosen The Perches
few' make all the decisions there is precious little for any members to 18 Tapping Close
do in any case. Currently of the 62, 51 are from the Conservative party. Snettisham PE31 7FF
The cabinet is about 7/9 members and the rest fill their time with mem- T: 01485 544501
bership of committees that have little or no real purpose. The opposi- M:07860 476198
tion, of which I am one, has no tasks at all, save to deal with the queries E: richard@richardbird.me.uk
of their constituents.