Consultations and surveys

Consultation plays an important role in involving people and allowing people to have their say on a range of issues, helping the Borough Council to further improve services and to make more informed plans and decisions.

As government funding continues to decrease, we need to strike a balance between a revised Council Tax Support scheme that is fair and affordable for those who receive support, and also for all our residents who receive council services. However, we remain committed to providing the maximum level of support for those with the lowest income.

Great Yarmouth Borough Council is now consulting on our scheme for 2024 and we would like your views. 

The consultation closes on 3 December 2023.

The Great Yarmouth Borough-Wide Design Code Supplementary Planning Document (SPD) will add further guidance and detail in the application of existing design-based policies in the Council's adopted Local Plan. The SPD will set out clear principles and standards for how development should be designed in the borough, focusing on the priority aspects of design. As a code, it will also signpost users to other sources of regulation, guidance, assessment tools, and best practice.

Comments are being invited on the Borough-Wide Design Code Supplementary Planning Document, Habitat Regulations Assessment (HRA) screening report and Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) Screening Report and whether there is anything missing from the documents that you believe should be included. A summary of previous informal consultation under regulation 12 of the Town and Country Planning (Local Planning) Regulations 2012 can be found within the Consultation Statement (OpenDocument text) [58KB] (opens new window) .

The consultation opened at midnight on 21 July 2023 and will run until midnight on 13 October 2023. Comments received during the consultation period will help to form the final Borough-Wide Design Code SPD for adoption. 

For more information on the consultation, including how to make comments, please see the Current planning consultations page. 

Great Yarmouth Borough Council, East Suffolk Council, North Norfolk District Council, and the Broads Authority, in partnership with the shared Coastal Partnership East team, are inviting comments on a new supplementary planning document which provides guidance on coastal planning matters.

The draft Coastal Adaptation Supplementary Planning Document consultation opened on 25 January 2023 and closed at 17:00 on 08 March 2023.

The Local Plan options consultation opened on 06 January 2023 and closed at 23:59 on 27 February 2023.

The consultation sought your views on some of the key matters that the new Local Plan will need to contain. The consultation was comprised of a series of questions to help the Borough Council prepare the Local Plan.   

The consultation also sought views on potential sites for development that could be allocated for new housing, commercial and other types of development and help meet development needs. The borough council will now assess these sites, taking into account comments raised during this process before consulting upon preferred options later this year. 

Comments on the Final Draft Open Space SPD were sought between 25 November 2022 and 23 December 2022. 

The Draft Open Space Supplementary Planning Document (OpenDocument text) [138KB] (opens new window)  is an SPD that will guide those preparing a planning application for residential development by setting out how they can meet the policy requirement (Policy H4 of the Local Plan Part 2 (opens new window)) to provide public open space. Please also see the below documents for more information: 

• Draft Open Space SPD Consultation Statement (OpenDocument text) [65KB] (opens new window)
• Habitat Regulations Screening Assessment Screening Report (OpenDocument text) [48KB] (opens new window)
• Strategic Environmental Assessment Screening Report (OpenDocument text) [54KB] (opens new window)

Comments received during this consultation will now be considered prior to the adoption of the document. 

Great Yarmouth Borough Council and Norfolk Constabulary are proposing to install nine CCTV cameras in Great Yarmouth, to increase the public's feeling of safety by deterring anti-social behaviour. 

The proposed locations for additional CCTV and street lighting are as follows:

• Deneside
• York Road
• King Street/St Peters Road
• Blackfriars Road
• Havelock Road
• Victoria Road
• Wellington Road
• Kimberly Terrace/Camperdown
• Nelson Road Central

These are shown on this map of  Existing and proposed locations of CCTV cameras in Great Yarmouth (PDF) [1MB] (opens new window) .

We are keen to hear from residents, businesses, community groups and sports clubs on what impact this may have. Our questionnaire will take no longer than five minutes to complete and will help inform the Council's decision.

Consultation is now closed. The closing date for responses was midnight on Monday 05 December 2022.

Great Yarmouth Borough Council created a Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO) in April 2017 that:

• brought longstanding dog control measures under the latest legislation
• updated the rules to reflect the expectations and aspirations of communities

The Order - to help promote responsible dog control at publicly accessible land across the borough - was introduced following a public consultation and input from parish councils and key landowners.

PSPOs last for a maximum period of three years, after which they must be reviewed to ensure they are still required. The current Order is due to end on 30 March 2023.

The Council recently sought the views of the public, including individuals, landowners, parish councils and other organisations, regarding whether or not the Order should be continued for another three years, or removed.

No additional dog control measures were being proposed as part of the consultation. This review is purely on the current PSPO with a view to helping the Council decide whether or not the existing controls should be renewed.

The consultation ran from Monday 24 October 2022 until Sunday 20 November 2022.

You can view:

• the current Public Spaces Protection Order No 3: dog control (2017)
• the full Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 (opens new window)

The Borough Council consulted upon the proposed designation of a joint Neighbourhood Area between the parishes of Belton with Browston, Burgh Castle and Fritton with St Olaves under Regulation 6 of the Neighbourhood Planning (General) Regulations 2012 as amended (opens new window). The designation of a Neighbourhood Area is the first formal stage when preparing a Neighbourhood Plan. The application for a Neighbourhood Area was submitted by Belton with Browston as the lead parish council.

Representations (comments) on the application were invited between 00:00 on 07 October 2022 and 23:59 on 18 November 2022. The responses received during the consultation will now be considered by the Broads Authority and the Borough Council, with a decision made as to whether to designate the areas as has been proposed, or not.

The application documents and details of how to make representations can be viewed on the Belton with Browston, Burgh Castle and Fritton with St Olaves neighbourhood plan page. 

The Borough Council consulted upon the Hemsby Neighbourhood Plan (2021-2036) under Regulation 16 of the Neighbourhood Planning (General) Regulations 2012 (opens new window) between 27 September 2022 and 08 November 2022. If adopted, the neighbourhood plan's policies will be used to help decide planning applications in the area.

The plan, together with all duly made representations, shall now be submitted to an independent examiner. 

The proposed submission documents, can be found on the Hemsby Regulation 16 consultation page. 

Great Yarmouth Borough Council created a Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO) in February 2017 as part of multi-agency work to help tackle vehicle-related anti-social behaviour on and near the Great Yarmouth seafront.

This prohibits anyone within the PSPO area from participating in, or encouraging, such activities as:

• driving at excessive speed
• repeated and sudden rapid acceleration
• racing vehicles
• performing stunts

Where someone breaks the conditions of the PSPO, the Order allows enforcement action to be taken by police officers and authorised Council officers.

The Order runs for a three-year period at a time and is currently due to end on 01 February 2023.

The Council recently sought the views of the public, including residents, businesses and visitors, over whether or not the Order should be continued for another three years, or removed.

You can view:

• the current Public Spaces Protection Order No 2 - vehicle-related anti-social behaviour  
• a  map of the PSPO area (PDF) [773KB] (opens new window)
• the full Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 (opens new window)

We asked for initial public views on the development of a masterplan for Gorleston seafront last year (2021), receiving some 1,200 responses. Now the council is consulting on a draft document based on those responses and discussions with local leaders and organisations.

The council has launched an online survey asking for feedback on a series of proposed actions, covering topics including conservation, accessibility, wayfinding, and events.

This consultation closed at midnight on Sunday 18 September 2022.

See our dedicated Gorleston Seafront Masterplan page for further information.

Great Yarmouth Borough Council proposed amendments to its hackney carriage fares under the provisions of Section 65 of the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1976.

Please see our What are the current taxi licence fees and hackney carriage fares? page for further details.

Objections had to be made in writing to the Licensing and Elections Manager by no later than 8 August 2022.

To help inform the new Local Plan, the Borough Council undertook a call for sites between 27 May 2022 and 08 July 2022. Sites submitted through the process will be assessed as part of the preparation of the new Local Plan and will help inform what sites should be allocated for development, or protected from development, and also help inform the overall distribution of development across the Borough. All sites submitted will be subject to public consultation at subsequent stages of preparation. 

Details of the call for sites consultation and updates on the Local Plan review can be found on the Emerging Local Plan page. 

If you have any questions about the new Local Plan or the call for sites please contact the Strategic Planning team.