Where the Council lives

The Borough Council of King's Lynn and West Norfolk
lives at King's Court, Chapel Street, King's Lynn, PE30 1EX (map).
Reception telephone number is 01553 616200.

Getting There

From the town centre, go to the flowers half-way along Norfolk Street and exit along Chapel Street, between Snappy Snaps and QD:

Marked with the pink arrow on the above photo is King's Court:

Highlighted on the left is the official meeting noticeboard, and on the right is the main entrance. The main meeting room is the first door on the right, but sometimes you have to ask reception to open the door. Once in the first door, go forwards and follow the "Public" sign. Other meeting rooms are on other floors and you have to sign in at reception.

To the left side of King's Court is the newer Juniper House which houses the planning reception:

Meeting room 4 seems to be in here. Ask at reception. Juniper House opening times.

Both buildings have level access, cycle parking to the right of their entrances and pay-and-display car parking nearby. Please do not park on the roads: they are yellow-lined and busy.

The Councillors

The Borough Council of King's Lynn and West Norfolk is now organised on a cabinet model. The formal structure is laid down in the council's constitution and the powers are in the Scheme of Delegation. As far as I can tell, the structure is something like this:

From left to right: we start with us, the electors. In the normal processes, we elect the council and can speak to some meetings. We can also request information from officers and lobby their advisors, as well as contact councillors directly. So you can help others find their councillors, we have a printable list of councillors by location (small PDF file).

Councilllors are busy people, often having other jobs to do, just like WAG members. When the public are not properly involved (see below), this leaves them relying on other councillors and council officers. Somehow, it seems that much council scrutiny of the project has not happened yet, so we have to keep lobbying. Electors can write to the chair of any council body, but it seems pretty random whether or not it is acted upon, when it happens, whether they reply and you cannot reply directly if they misrepresent you or your question, which is very frustrating.

Everything in the middle consists of councillors in various groupings. The cabinet essentially runs the council, with advice and recommendations on particular projects offered by the three topic committees. The committees can call any project to give a report, as far as I can tell, and they see the cabinet work programme a little in advance. Cabinet recommendations are given to full council to approve.

There are two boards which make decisions about planning and licensing applications according to policies. Those decisions seem to be final unless there's an external review.

Finally, in the middle of it all, I've put the cabinet scrutiny committee, which is run by the non-ruling groups and reports back to full council. I'm still trying to understand how this one works.

Public Speeches

The public can get Agendas and Minutes from the council web site but they're not always authoritative. Agendas should appear at least three clear days beforehand and minutes appear some time after the meeting (over a week, usually).

Members of the public may speak at some meetings if they give notice. At full council, the public can ask questions about particular topics, or support the presentation of a petition from more than 50 electors. At planning, the public can support their written comments. The Council web site has guides to both, with paper copies available from council offices.

The Cabinet

The Cabinet consists of the Council leader and councillors responsible for specific tasks (Community, Culture, Regeneration, Environment and Resources). In 2003, the Conservative group became the majority on the Council. As a result, they hold all Cabinet posts. Cabinet usually meets on Tuesday afternoons at 3.30pm in King's Court. Agendas and Minutes are online.

Approval of the Walks bid was given at a cabinet meeting on 20 July.

No Councillors representing Lynn could vote. The 2004 proposal to rip out Lynn's green heart was not approved by our representatives before it was a "done deal". The council's own surveys show that most Walks users live near Lynn town centre, but this decision was made by a group from towns and villages elsewhere in the borough.

Full Council

Meetings of all councillors usually happen in the town hall at 6.30pm on one Thursday a month. The mayor, deputy, chief executive and advisors sit on the top table, with the cabinet facing them. The opposition sits to the mayor's left and the majority to the mayor's right. The public seats are behind the opposition, so you don't see much.

Approval for the Walks project was voted through in a money resolution in late 2004.

In my opinion: Apart from the opportunity for the public to speak on a wide range of topics, full council meetings seem to degenerate into political theatre. The opposition groups make various valid points which the cabinet mostly reject and the majority group sits in silence and votes to support their cabinet's pre-prepared view. If you're lucky, the mayor will let the debate run freely enough for someone to make a fool of themselves or some new information to be released, but you shouldn't expect any great changes from full council in this setup.

Scrutiny Committees

There are three themed committees:

• Community and Culture usually meets on Tuesday evenings;
• Regeneration and Environment usually meets on Wednesday evenings;
• Resources and Performance usually meets on Thursday evenings;

All three usually meet in King's Court's main meeting room and agendas and minutes are online. The basic routine at a meeting is:

1. Announcements - apologies, urgent business, correspondence and so on;
2. Presentation, discussion and decision of each public report;
3. Expulsion of public and press before private reports, if any.

There is usually no opportunity to hear the public at these meetings, unlike at other district councils. Sometimes they don't even accept correspondence posted after the agenda is published. These are entirely our Council's bad decisions: they could allow public involvement with the sweep of a pen.

After months of watching these panels, I'm still not sure how they helped with a multi-theme project like the Walks:

• I expected a restoration project to be discussed by the Regeneration and Environment Panel. As far as I can tell, it was not.
• Because this involves a huge amount of council revenue funding if the stage two bid is approved, I expected the Performance and Resources panel to have discussed it. As far as I can tell, they have not.
• Because Elizabeth Nockolds is the councillor for Culture, it looks like this should be discussed by the Community and Culture panel before it was approved. As far as I can tell, it was not.
• Who is scrutinising this multi-million-pound project???

There is a problem with the Culture panel, too. In their own opinion (minutes 15 June 2004), "Effective challenge to the Executive had not been achieved [...] Portfolio Holders were not using the Panel to its full potential for assistance in developing policy." I'd say the lack of scrutiny contributed to the misguided plan for the Walks: the people who know the Walks and visit on a daily basis should have been involved rather than merely informed.

On 14 September 2004, I asked the Borough Council's Member Services department which panel should discuss this bid. It seems an obvious question if we wish to make sure our views are represented. Almost a month later (13 October 2004), I was told that all three panels could discuss it. If the council need a month to find the answer, how do they expect us to?!? That's why we've started working on this guide.

There's an odd one out, Cabinet Scrutiny Committee, which has a majority of opposition councillors and seems to watch whether the cabinet is working in a proper manner. I haven't followed them much yet.