Consultation Hub

Norfolk County Council are currently working with Blink Charging UK and UK Power Networks (UKPN) to install 46 on-street electric vehicle charge points across Norwich. Before the final plans and designs were developed, we gave Norwich residents the chance to comment on the streets identified and find out whether the availability of more charge points will help their transition to an electric vehicle.

A public consultation on the original plans took place over the spring of 2023, receiving feedback from more than 400 individuals as well as interest from key stakeholder groups.

Both Norfolk County Council and Blink greatly value consultation feedback and decided to delay the first installs to ensure the rollout took on board the comments of the public where possible. As the first project of its kind in the county, and as a pilot scheme, it was vital to ensure the best solution was provided for the city and that the infrastructure is fit for purpose both now and in the future as more people make the transition to electric vehicles.

Our public consultation showed that having access to public chargers near to where people live was more important than provision elsewhere on the network, particularly for those residents that did not have their own private driveways.

Plans to install on-street residential chargers for electric vehicles (EVs) in Norwich have picked up pace again with works due to start in December following a pause to review consultation feedback.

The original contract was to install, supply and operate 46 new charge points on 40 streets across Norwich. Following the review and redesigns, installs will be done in stages. The first stage will see delivery of 66 chargers at 33 of the 46 locations proposed originally. The remaining 13 locations are under review and further details will be made available in due course.

Stage one is due to start on 11 December 2023 (subject to all required permissions being in place) and includes the following installs:

Grove Road (4 x EVCP)
Telegraph Lane East (4 x EVCP)
Onley Street (1 x EVCP)
Hobart Square (1 x EVCP)
St Leonards Road (1 x EVCP)
Hall Road (1 x EVCP)

Those living on these streets will be notified of exact dates ahead of works starting along with the formal public information notice being published for all works.

It is expected that all EV chargers will be installed by Spring 2024.

We asked for your views on two proposals, the first being the to make summer and winter opening hours the same at all 20 recycling centres in Norfolk. This would mean centres would open from 9am to 4pm on their scheduled opening days throughout the year. 

Our second proposal was to close all recycling centres on Wednesdays. 

A majority of respondents said they strongly disagreed with the proposal to harmonise winter and summer opening hours.

A majority of respondents also strongly disagreed with closing all recycling centres on Wednesdays.

Full Council met on the 21 February and set Norfolk County Council’s budget for 2023-24. 

In light of the need to save money and the council’s need to find £60 million of savings, the council voted to implement the proposal that summer opening hours will be harmonised with winter hours. This means that Recycling Centres will close at 4pm all year round (rather than 5pm October to April). This will be delivered from 1^st April 2023.

The proposal to close all recycling centres on Wednesdays did not get passed by full council. Therefore, the recycling centres that open on Wednesday currently will continue to so.

However, a public consultation on the closure of the Mayton Wood recycling centre will be undertaken, for Members of the council to consider this site closure later in the year. We expect the public consultation to take place for six weeks in late May following the local council election dates.

Both changes will be subject to a staff consultation, which will be delivered by Norse and employers of those impacted.

For more details on the Council Meeting in which the budget proposals were agreed click here

We asked what you thought of a proposal to shut the Norfolk Record Office (NRO) to the public on a Friday, but to extend the opening hours on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, by opening half an hour earlier. Meaning the NRO's new opening hours would be from Tuesday to Thursday, from 9.30am to 5pm. If our proposals are approved, the NRO will be open for 22.5 hours each week in the future.

During the public consultation on Norfolk Record Office opening hours several respondents expressed concern about the overall reduction in access to the Collection and the impact that it might have on those travelling to use the Norwich searchroom on multiple days.

Having taken these views on board, the NRO will run a six-month trial of pre-booked Friday service.  This service will be limited to consulting original documents booked before 12 noon on the preceding Wednesday.  Microfilms will not be available but can still be consulted at the Norfolk Heritage Centre.  The other proposed changes to searchroom hours will be implemented: opening half an hour earlier, at 9.30, on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.  Full details of the revised service are available on the NRO website;  www.norfolk.archives.gov.uk

For more details on the Council Meeting in which the budget proposals were agreed click here