After quite literally years of back-and-forth, there has been yet another twist in the tale for the future of Norfolk’s local government. In 2024 the previous Conservative government’s proposals for a county deal were cancelled by Labour, incoming at Westminster. In 2025 our Norfolk local elections were cancelled on the understanding change was imminent. 

In 2026 it was announced Norfolk would be split into three new councils, including a Greater Norwich, which expanded current boundaries to include the suburbs. But now, after our existing councils have spent millions on preparing to be abolished, the government has pulled the proposals for Norfolk. Updates will apparently come in due course, but for now we are yet again millions of pounds down and left in limbo.

Transcript

0:02
Well, a few weeks ago we told you about plans afoot at Norwich City Council to award the cabinet – 

0:07
That's the Green councillors that run the authority day-to-day – massive disproportionate pay rises.

0:14
Well, the next meeting has come and gone, and I'm delighted to tell you that that section of the proposal has been dropped.

0:21
I can appreciate when the right thing has been done.

0:23
So I want to take a moment to thank the Green Party for listening to the concerns of the opposition, including those within the Liberal Democrats, and for doing the right thing in the end.

A proposal will soon be put before South Norfolk District Council to build a data centre opposite Ipswich Rd’s Tesco, near scenic beauty and wildlife in the Yare Valley. This would be one of the UK’s largest data centres. Many people are concerned, and a protest was staged outside City Hall. Lib Dem city councillor James Wright attended this protest and says:

Lib Dem county councillor Brian Watkins lives just ten minutes from the proposed site and says:

See what our team had to say on social media after attending the protest at City Hall:

Transcript

0:00
Right, we're here in Chapelfield Gardens.

0:04
We're towards the end of the AI data centre protest.

0:08
We've come here from City Hall.

0:10
The drums have now finished.

0:11
There's an opportunity to say a few words:

0:13
As for City Hall, we heard people speak passionately about why they felt this data centre was not a good thing.

0:19
We heard about heat, we heard about water usage, we heard about diesel generators, and from our position, it's the wrong thing in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Disabled bus passes in England will soon be eligible for use at all times of day after extensive campaigning from Lib Dem MP Tom Gordon. Previously, there were time restrictions in man areas, which often prevented disabled people from getting to work or university.

When this matter was originally put before Parliament last year, Labour MPs — including Clive Lewis, the MP for Norwich South — voted against it. However, the government have since decided that this change will take place after all. The prime minister says that it has been ‘good to work with you [Tom Gordon] on this’. Lib Dems are holding the government accountable.

Marlowe North, diversity officer for Norwich Lib Dems, says:

See Marlowe talk about what this change means for disabled people on our social media:

Transcript

0:00
A big win in the news recently.

0:03
It's been announced that disabled bus passes in England will soon be eligible for use at all times of day, where previously there were time restrictions.

0:11
This change was put forward last year by Lib Dem MP Tom Gordon, but at the time was voted down by government MPs: including Clive Lewis, who represents Norwich South. 

0:20
Public transport supports disabled people to work, to study, and to engage in social life, and making bus passes 24 hour is a common-sense policy that we're very proud to support.

0:29
It's really wonderful to hear that these harmful, ridiculous time restrictions will be scrapped after all.

The £2,000 per councillor per annum was cleared by the Green Party Cabinet on 29th July to come into effect almost immediately. The scheme will run for an initial year and then be reviewed with a view to continuing thereafter.

The idea was part of a budget amendment put forward earlier in the year by both the Green Party and the Liberal Democrats and voted through by Labour. Liberal Democrat leader on the City Council James Wright said:

See what James had to say about this on social media:

See what our University & Earlham spokesperson James Hawketts had to say on the matter on social media:

Transcript

How would you like a 26% pay rise? Sounds good? Well, that's what the Green Party here in Norwich might be about to award themselves at the public's expense.

I'm here outside City Hall, and at the last full council meeting the administration (so the Green Party who were in charge), brought a proposal for the increase of councillors’ allowances. That's the money that is given to councillors, their pay, essentially, for the work that they do.

Now it's important to stress that this proposal had multiple elements, some were better than others.

One, for example, was to take the small pots of money for which councillors are paid for some of the committees that they sit on, and for the ones that all or nearly all of the councillors sit on, just roll it into their central pay packet. That saves on administration and bureaucracy; sounds like a good idea.

But there was also one element of that plan which did not seem like a good idea. They want to award the cabinet, that's the people who are actually in charge of Norwich City Council, which as a Green-majority council means they are all members of the Green Party, huge pay rises. 26% for the leader – most of the others in the cabinet are getting double digits as well. All of this funded by the taxpayer.

Now the argument was that we need to encourage more people to get into local politics, and I can understand that. But at the last local elections in May, we had a huge number of candidates put themselves forward for election, more than usual, much more than usual. And beyond that: they were the last elections! Norwich City Council is getting abolished soon as part of the local government reorganisation. There will be no more elections, so no more people to put themselves forward to this body.

The only people who will benefit from these pay rises are the Green Cabinet themselves – those Green councillors.

Now, at the meeting, we made clear that we couldn't support the proposal due to that element and they did a bit of U-turn. They pulled it citing the need to find more agreement with other parties; find more consensus.

If they do bring it back, we've got the same red line as before. No inappropriate double-digit pay rise to a small number of individuals at the taxpayers expense.