Agenda item - Oral questions from Councillors

33.1         The Mayor noted that 13 oral questions had been received and that 30 minutes were set aside for the duration of the item.  She then invited Councillor Janio to put his question to Councillor Yates.

 

(1)       Councillor Janio - The Future of Local Democracy

 

33.2         Councillor Janio asked the following question, “Can the Leader of the Council confirm that it is not his nor any future Labour administrations’ policy to attempt to set a budget that requires a referendum of city residents?”

 

33.3         Councillor Yates replied, “I don’t believe that that is a matter that has been decided yet by council and as such I can’t describe whether or not it is a matter of council policy.”

 

33.4         Councillor Janio asked the following supplementary question, “The social media outlook for Labour candidates in the next election suggests they will stand up to the Conservative government on budgets so if you haven’t made that decision yet are they lying?”

 

33.5         Councillor Yates replied, “I will wait until next time for Cllr Janio to come up with a proper question about proper policy at this Council.”

 

(2)       Councillor Mac Cafferty - Bins

 

33.6         Councillor Mac Cafferty asked the following question, “The anxiety that residents of Brunswick Square, Brunswick Terrace, Palmeira Square and Adelaide Crescent have about communal bins and recycling bins has proven sadly to be right. Fly tipping, overflowing bins are up and litter is  mounting in the streets. Promises for collection 3 times a week have not been fulfilled. Residents in Brunswick Square waited a whole week last week for their recycling bins to be collected with no evidence to suggest that neither waste collections have been more effective nor recycling increased. Would you agree with me, Councillor Mitchell, that the roll out of communal bins in the Regency Squares and Brunswick and Adelaide has been nothing short of a disaster?”

 

33.7         Councillor Mitchell replied, “Well it wasn’t this administration that rolled them out and what I will say is that thinking of returning to individual waste bins per household I think would lead to an even greater degree of refuse on the street. We can all remember what the place used to look like when people just simply dumped black sacks on the pavement. What we have got to do is to make the communal bin recycling and refuse scheme work, which we are committed to do as detailed in the report that was considered by ETS Committee recently”.

 

33.8         Councillor Mac Cafferty asked the following supplementary question, “I am glad Cllr Mitchell has referred to the report at Environment Committee as that brings me on to my supplementary. It has reminded us of the growing number of complaints that this Labour administration has resided over that we are supposed to derive comfort from the fact that residents might have to wait two whole years for results. In the 2015 manifesto Labour stated “We will make collecting refuse, increasing recycling and cleaning the streets a top priority the Leader and senior councillors will directly oversee work to improve the service”.  Can you explain to me what you have done to directly oversee the work and given the mess that we are in, whether you think that you have been effective?  As lots of my residents do not believe you have.”

 

33.9         Councillor Mitchell replied, “Residents will not have to wait two years for improvements to the frontline services, those are the services that are being concentrated on, if you had read the report I think that would have given that impression. There is a project team hard at work at the City Clean depot which is overseeing a number of strands of work, all of which will bring improvements to the front line.”

 

(3)       Councillor K Norman - Brighton and Hove Heritage

         

         

33.10      Councillor K. Norman asked the following question, “Over a number of recent years we have seen the destruction of a number of buildings across the city that I would describe as part of our Brighton & Hove heritage and I am pleased to see the continued efforts to retain, maintain, improve and protect the Royal Pavilion. We have many more heritage sites that need those actions. Can we know what actions the Council is taking to protect and enhance more of our heritage sites?”

 

33.11      Councillor Robins replied, “The Cultural Framework agreed by the TDC committee at its meeting on 27th September included a commitment for the Council to lead on the development of a Heritage Strategy with our partners, and work on this will start during the coming months.  This will enable us to agree strategic priorities with other stakeholders and to address the broad spectrum of heritage issues from the physical and material heritage assets to the wider issue of Community Heritage and Identity.”

 

33.12      Councillor K Norman asked the following supplementary question, “One of the most important heritage sites for me is the Madeira Drive Arches, so what is the Council, in its new ‘Strategy’ or when it is up, doing to make sure the Madeira Drive Arches are restored to their former glory and not allow them to be turned into housing development?”

 

33.13      Councillor Robins replied, “The Heritage Strategy will be developed over the coming months so, until it has developed, I can’t tell you what the plan is, but I don’t think it will turn into housing.”

 

(4)       Councillor Phillips - Brighton and Hove Fast Track City

 

 

33.14      Councillor Phillips asked the following question, “Is the Council on track to meet the 90:90:90 target, 90% of them being on antiretroviral treatment and 90% of those having undetectable viral loads by 2020 and what financial plan sits behind this?”

 

33.15      Councillor Barford replied, “The first annual report towards the HIV taskforce which will include the action plans for years two to five are to be presented to the Health & Wellbeing Board in November this year and one of the first actions is to look at and address stigma. I don’t have the financial information for you here but that is something that can be provided. We know that performance against the 90:90:90 target is strong and we know that 88% of people living with HIV knowing their status (based on national data); 98% of those being on treatment and 98% of those on treatment having no detectable virus in their blood stream. It is worth noting that Bertrand Audoin, Vice President of the Strategic Partnerships of the International Association of Providers of AIDS Care visiting our city on 21 June this year and he told members of the ‘Towards Zero HIV Taskforce’ that he was very impressed with all the work of the city.”

 

33.16      Councillor Phillips asked the following supplementary question “Is the Council on track towards zero new HIV infections, zero HIV related deaths and Zero HIV stigma in Brighton & Hove by 2020 which is only 12 months away and what financial plan sits behind this?”

 

33.17      Councillor Barford replied,“Towards Zero?, we were talking about the challenge we have made to achieve the 95:95:95 by 2030 so it wasn’t around the Zero then. We are on track for what we said that we would do which is the 90:90:90 for 2020. Absolutely though there will be a lot more information available when the report comes out.”

 

(5)       Councillor Inkpin-Leissner -  Brighton Pride Saturday

 

33.18      Councillor Inkpin-Leissner asked the following question, “As we all know this years’ Brighton Pride was the most successful and the most visited one in our history. I pay tribute to Councillor Warren Morgan to sort the problem with the War Memorial out which is safe from Brighton Pride, however I was contacted (nb: unf. This bit of text was not audible) we think of mainly young people coming to pride but there are elderly coming as well and they had a problem that there were not enough public toilets available and that can be a problem for anyone whether disabled or not. I would like to ask is there a way to increase the number of portaloos at strategic important points where lots of people pass. (We know the stream of visitors).”

 

33.19      Councillor Mitchell replied, “This is something that can certainly be picked up in the de-brief following the amazing Pride celebrations which actually saw 400,000 additional people coming into Brighton & Hove to enjoy the city and wonderful weather.”

 

33.20      Councillor Inkpin-Leissner asked the following supplementary question, “In the aftermath we saw something that is not nice during Pride, the amounts of rubbish laying around everywhere. Obviously we can’t educate all the visitors but I am very sure the workers of City Clean did all they could to get rid of the rubbish as quickly as possible. But I think for the reputation of our City, especially as the next day is a Sunday and other visitors might come as well, it is important to have it cleaned up. Are there any more plans coming up to have more City Cleaners available to get rid of the rubbish as quickly as possible?”

 

33.21      Councillor Mitchell replied, “There was a huge clean up during and after Brighton Pride and Cityclean were closely involved in the pre-event planning. This included Communications messaging to encourage people, planning to attend Pride, to enjoy themselves but help keep our City clean. An additional 30 employees worked to ensure that we could meet the demand placed on the City as far as possible. The 400,000 visitors and party goers, in additional to tourists already here, enjoying the good weather plus the school holidays all added to the challenge. Additional bins were placed along the route, in parks and on the seafront and beaches, but the sheer volume of rubbish dumped by people who could not be bothered to use a bin or to take it home with them, did mean that some areas took more time to clear than we would have liked. Given the amount of waste collected and the numbers in the city that weekend our staff did an excellent job and have rightly received public praise. But, as I said to you earlier, there is always a debrief and we look at we could do better.”

         

(6)       Councillor Nemeth - Train Cancellations

         

33.22      Councillor Nemeth asked the following question, “Given the missed opportunity by the Administration to effectively lobby on behalf of the local tourism and hospitality sector for mitigating measures prior to the announcement of 34 days of closure of the Brighton main line over, what should be, busy weekends for businesses. What exactly is the Council doing to ensure that visitors to Brighton have information about easy access during these times. Significant resources were mentioned by Councillor Robins during TDC Committee but all that is evident so far are posters advertising line closures.”

 

33.23      Councillor Robins replied, “The Brighton Main Line rail improvement project is a key part of a £300m government-funded programme to tackle delay hotspots and boost the reliability of the railway in the south east. The work currently being carried out will cut delays and provide a better, more reliable rail service to the 300,000 passengers who travel on the Brighton Main Line each day. The work includes upgrades to track, signalling and tunnel drainage which will lead to fewer delays owing to equipment faults or problems caused by flooding inside the Victorian tunnels.

 

It is recognised that this work is essential for the long term sustainability of rail travel to the City, however during the days affected it is also recognised that there will be impacts to the City during the days of rail disruption. An action plan has been developed, the plan aims to mitigate the effects of planned rail closures, endeavouring to optimise visitor numbers during the period and minimising impacts on tourism related businesses.

 

The objectives of the plan are to;

 

·         Maximise the use of communications channels to optimise visitor numbers.

·         To engage with stakeholders and partners and ensure that messaging is cohesive and collaborative

·         To keep key stakeholders fully informed of developments.

·         To lobby for improved services for passengers.

 

In conjunction with this Action Plan, VisitBrighton have instigated the ‘Breeze to Brighton’ marketing campaign which promotes travel East and West of the City during the periods affected by the rail disruption. I would also add that I recently held a meeting with City Tourism businesses at the offices of Peter Kyle MP where the concerns of the industry were heard and discussed, from this Peter Kyle MP has been asked to take the concerns of the industry and lobby the Secretary for Transport for additional support during the periods of disruption.

 

From that meeting it was  highlighted that the sector was looking for support from Network Rail and GOVIA, in terms of promoting East / West travel to the City, to help mitigate the impacts of travel from the London to Brighton. Currently National Rail and GOVIA are offering the following promotional opportunities:

 

National Rail will:

 

-        amplify visit Brighton social media messaging from Brighton Mainline Twitter, Thames twitter and Southeast groups.

-        facilitate press trips for social media promoter Geoff Marshall.

-        support promotions for Brighton Stake holders special offers.

-        place shopping, eating and drinking guides on rail replacement buses and on closure information boards at the rail station and put adverts in the October/January and editions of Business Edge published by the Brighton & Hove Chamber of Commerce and the equivalent publications in the Adur and Worthing Chamber

GOVIA will:

 

-        rankVisitBrighton Shopping, eating, drinking guides in the East West coast stations.

-        Govia are offering free advertising panels at 6 key East/West coast stations.. They will conduct a ‘Thank You’ campaign in May to include promotions from stakeholders.

 

They have also asked if there is any official marketing support that could be levadged at higher level from within National Rail and GOVIA as it is perceived that what they are currently offering is fairly minimal.

 

We have also asked for them to promote the City outside the disruption days with promotions and marketing supporting travel from London to Brighton. Finally we have asked Peter Kyle to lobby the Secretary of State for Transport in terms of reducing the fare from Victoria to be more in line with that of other London Stations, such as Blackfriars and London Bridge, our understanding is that GOVIA have no influence in setting the cost of travel as this is set by the Department of Transport and what we have found is that it is often twice the price to travel from Victoria than other London Stations. We would ask if it is possible for some reduction in fare during the disruption periods and for a 2 year period after to restore confidence in travel to the City.”

 

33.24      Councillor Nemeth asked the following supplementary question, “If the principle of resources for measures to say ‘That we are open for business’ is agreed, what resources are envisaged to encourage motorists to keep coming during Valley Gardens works?”

 

33.25      Councillor Robins replied, “No”

 

(7)       Councillor Gibson - New Affordable Housing

 

33.26      Councillor Gibson asked the following question, “I appreciate the answer that I have had for a previous question about the number of affordable homes achieved in the City in the first 3 years of Labour which, according to my calculations amount to 89 new homes a year compared to 127 under the previous Green Administration. How many new council houses do you expect to achieve in your last year 2019?”

 

33.27      Councillor Meadows replied, “As Councillor Gibson has had so many briefings on this he probably  knows the answer and I don’t to date, but I can tell you that we are planning 570 new homes from the 3 sites with the Living Wage. We have ‘Hidden Homes Program’ with a potential to deliver another 36 units, we have our Home Purchase policy which, so far, has delivered us 6 but we are hoping to escalate that. We have 12 additional units to be provided at Oxford Street, 15 units with the Property Purchase from Orbit and we have 2 further with Co-op Bunker, 96 homes that were being delivered by registered providers. There are lots of homes of all types and tenure being delivered in the City.”

 

33.28      Councillor Gibson asked the following supplementary question, “Clearly the answer didn’t relate particularly to my question as I asked, very specifically, about the last year of the administration and I appreciate that I can be provided with a written answer and I could probably calculate it. The reaons that I asked about the last year and council houses is because of this document that was presented to the voters before the last election and, when we get the answer to the number of council houses that are going to be produced, it will be interesting to compare it with this document because this is Labour’s contract with Brighton & Hove to tackle the City’s housing crisis aiming to build at least 500 council houses every year.

 

Given that I know, and Councillor Meadows knows, that we are not going to go anywhere near 500 council houses by 2019 is this the reason why in a recent tv interview you said that you won’t be voting Labour next time around?”

 

33.29      Councillor Meadows replied, “It is a shame that he seems to have got hold of the wrong Labour Manifesto Pledge because it was 500 units over 4 years. However we may have delivered that, if the Green administration had stopped playing their party games.  Unless we have their support, as a minority Administration, that could never happen and if we don’t deliver it is their fault.”

 

(8)       Councillor Mears - HRA Cap

 

33.30      Councillor Mears asked the following question, “Following on from the Government’s recent announcement for the removal of the Housing Revenue cap, as a matter of policy, will the Council be looking at all general funds sites coming forward for the joint venture to be offered to the HRA first?”

 

33.31      Councillor Meadows replied, “I would be happy to agree to that.”

 

33.32      Councillor Mears asked the following supplementary question, “Will the Council’s policy support housing regeneration to deliver council housing who cannot afford to buy even shared ownership when renting in the private sector is too expensive, and we are due to get an announcement on 29 October with a date when the Cap will be removed?”

 

33.33      Councillor Meadows replied, “I do hope that the Government scrap the Cap because it will allow us to build even more of those affordable homes that the Greens don’t like us to build and then complain about it. I really feel that it is important that the officers have spent 6 months putting a case together to put in a bid for £80 million for affordable homes to be built in the City if they relax the Cap a little. But if they scrap the Cap we can go ahead, providing I have the Green support because that is always the worry.”

 

(9)       Councillor Page - Housing at Brighton General Hospital

 

33.34      Councillor Page asked the following question, “We unanimously supported a proposal at the last Council for truly affordable housing on the Brighton General Hospital site with the redevelopment. We have not received a reply to our CE letter dated 1 August from the NHS Trust. What representations or actions have the administration made or taken through the City Wide Forums on this matter before it is too late for the wholesale sell off of this public asset for the highest bidder?”

 

33.35      Councillor Yates replied, “This question almost relates to Council policy and I note comes from his very best determination to look after residents in Hanover, Elm Grove and elsewhere in the city. I can advise that the process by which the NHS Trust may be able to answer the question that was sent is well underway. He will know that the overall brief has been consulted on. They had over 700 representations to their engagement from patients about the changes that they were planning around that site usuage and I think 200 from staff as well. In June 2018 there were 22 community meetings across much of East Brighton that were arranged and I know that the business case itself is now nearing completion and is due for submission to the Sussex Community Foundation Trust Board in October. That approval is also required by Trust regulators in NHS improvement and it may well require approval from both the Department of Health and from the Treasury.

 

That is not the answer to the question that Cllr Page wants – ‘What have we the Council been doing?’ We have been working alongside the Community Trust, my answer above was part of the ‘One Public Estate Report’ that went to the Brighton Greater Economic Board only this week, because the site is identified as part of the One Public Estate Programme. Officers met with representatives in August and are working very hard to support the Trust to be able to identify what its needs are for the future use of that site and to make sure it brings to us the greater benefits that are a potential for the city. I have also recommended that there should be consideration on that site by the joint venture because it is a great opportunity site to increase the amount of affordable housing that is delivered through that site and we are going to expect them, whatever happens, to be working and meeting the requirements of the City Plan Part 1 in terms of achieving decent housing density in terms of the heritage and the listed buildings on site and have also been working alongside them as part of developing a ‘Planning Performance Agreement’ (PPA) to manage that complex and interplaying planning issues. Officers are working on redevelopment, to protect the heritage, to put in place PPA so that we can demonstrate that we are getting the maximum value delivered out of this important NHS site, not just for the NHS buildings that are being developed for the future but also for the housing requirements of this city for the future.”

 

33.36      Councillor Page asked the following supplementary question, “It is good to hear that something is going on in the One Public Estate Programme, I think that Labour party policy is to resist further privatisation of the NHS. Is he confident that the wish of the spirit of our motion last meeting, which is truly affordable housing, housing for key workers, NHS workers, even possibly extra care housing, NHS Trust is going to respond to that or are they just going to sell it off to the highest bidder?”

 

33.37      Councillor Yates replied, “I am confident that we are going to really try, I mentioned that a number of the people that are going to have to approve this business case are not under my control. Unfortunately they are under the control of Conservative Government and they may well decide not to provide sufficient funding, to not support the business case in the right way, to enable the right amount of public sector and affordable housing to be delivered. I don’t have control of that the Conservatives have control of that, Theresa May could call a general election, then I would be far more confident about what Labour could deliver.”

 

33.38      The Mayor noted that the 30 minute period for Members’ oral question had been reached and therefore the remaining 4 questions listed in the agenda and detailed below, would not be taken and would be carried over to the next council meeting in December:

 

(10)    Councillor Barnett - Rough Sleepers

(11)    Councillor Littman - Pride Festival

(12)    Councillor Bell - Women Suffrage

(13)    Councillor Sykes -  Waterloo Street Community Garden.