Agenda item - Oral questions from Councillors

33.1         The Mayor noted that 13 oral questions had received and that 30 minutes were set aside for the duration of the item. The Mayor then called on Councillor Appich to put her question to Councillor Powell.

33.2         Councillor Appich asked the following question, as you all know, in recent weeks and at this committee earlier today, we have seen local residents demanding re-opening of Madeira drive for car use, with consequential improvements to the councils car parking income compared to current position, what consideration is the administration giving to the suggestion that this additional parking revenue could be used to fund public sector workforce loans to enable the Council to undertake the full Madeira terrace's restoration?

33.3         Councillor Powell replied, the cross-party working group now Chaired by Councillor Rainey working with Councillors Miller and Evans have been making good progress in overseeing the appointment of a specialist design team and the development and proposals to lead the first phase of the heritage restoration plans of Madeira Terraces.

A specialist design team of architects plus consultants and structural engineers have been appointed, to lead the first phase of restoration of Madeira Terraces and it has been led by Percell Architects who specialises in heritage design and have worked with Houses of Parliament and Canterbury cathedral. We work with an advisory panel of stakeholders and community groups working alongside the council. The officers have been asked to consider private sector investment options alongside heritage restoration and we will bring a progress update support to the TECH committee in the autumn after discussion with the cross-party working group.

33.4         Councillor Appich asked the following supplementary question, is the Administration open to making use of excess parking charge income to fund the restoration?

33.5         Councillor Powell replied, I will discuss it with colleagues and officers and see what I can come back with, hopefully with a written response. I hope that is acceptable.

33.6         Councillor Wares asked the following question, the Greens alongside the Conservative criticised the Labour administration to get City Clean into a reliable service. With the environment service way behind £3.1 million overspend for lack of management controls and the recent outrageous revelations by the Audit Team about the bad practice and wrongdoing in City Clean. Please could the new co-chair Councillor Heley provide a deadline by when she will get it resolved once and for all and when will she organise the badly needed round restructure.

33.7         Councillor Heley replied, as I think you know the Modernisation Programme will have an update to the September Environment, Transport & Sustainability Committee. You will be fully updated then. Yes, we did give the previous administration a hard time and I expect you all will give us a hard time because it is a big problem that needs sorting out. I cannot give you a deadline but, I hope we can work together to find a solution to this. And I will get more details to you from officers.

33.8         Councillor Wares asked the following supplementary question, I am grateful for your response and also for your candour so I hope we can keep that up in our dealings. So, when you bring that report in September please could you ask officers not just to tell us how they our getting on but to have a detailed plan for when all this will finish. What is important for us all is to know when this will end because as you know we have been doing this for over 2 years and I think we are all very sick and tired with what has been going on. Lastly because I have been having a problem with the previous administration, do you feel personally that the deal between the unions and the previous Labour Administration that prevented the threatened strike should be made public?

33.9         Councillor Heley replied, thankfully yes. I will speak to officers and see if we can get a proper timeline. I know a large reason why it was delayed was because the pandemic and that is fair enough. But we do need a deadline. I don't want to comment too much on the final question. I think it was a, bit problematic and that is all I will say for now but, we can talk further about this.

33.10      Councillor Fishleigh asked the following question, nearly 2,000 new flats will be built at Brighton Marina and the gas works site over the next few years. Approximately 90 per cent of flats already built as phase one on the Marina Tower blocks were bought by investors and the developer of the gas works site has openly said it will market its’ flats overseas. What can the council do over the next three years during the construction phase to ensure the new flats are bought by only occupiers who live in Brighton currently?

33.11      Councillor Powell replied, the adopted City Plan Part 1 seeks 1,940 new homes to be built within the development area that covers Brighton Marina, gas works and the Black Rock area. Almost 200 homes have already been built as part of the Phase one outer harbour scheme. As the local planning authority, the council has sadly no means to control to whom completed properties are sold. We are unable to control future occupation through donorship either as the council does not own any of the housing sites across the development area. What we are able to have a say in, is occupation of affordable housing units. This will be achieved by securing an appropriate level of affordable housing required by policy in the Adopted Plan and ensure affordable rented properties are allocated to people with a local need and a local connection.

33.12      Councillor Fishleigh asked the following supplementary question, there are a few things that the council could do, and I will give you this idea for free. People who already own homes are put off buying new builds because a large deposit is required upfront. Most people won't have this deposit until they sell their home. And they won't want to sell their homes until they have a completion date for a new flat. I think it will be straight forward and low risk for the council if you loaned people the money for these deposits. In the end that a resident decided not to buy a flat in one of these new developments after the deposit has been paid there would be liable for any penalties. You don't have to give a response to that. That is just a kind of common sense thing to me, that I came up with I am sure if there was a bit of creative thinking applied then we could come up with some ways to stop these flats all going to second homers and investors. So, I haven't really got a supplementary apart from please have a think about it I am very happy to discuss my other ideas with you any time?

33.13      Councillor Powell replied, thank you, Councillor, that is a very innovative and creative. Let's take that away and see if we can do anything about it but thank you for your suggestion.

33.14      Councillor Allcock asked the following question, addressing disadvantage is absolutely a top priority for the Labour group. Even before Covid-19 we lived in a city of 2 halves and the pandemic has shown too clearly how little support some of the people in the city have to fall back on. The burden of COVID has fallen heaviest on these people least able to withstand it, the elderly, the poor, the sick, the underpaid and people of colour. This is really urgent; many families are on the brink of financial collapse and health and well-being becoming irreparably damaged and will all know this will become an impact on the educational achievement of our young people. Our city was already struggling to close the gap between educational achievement levels in the most prosperous parts of the cities and those areas on the out skirts many which features in top ten most deprived areas in the country and that is one of the reasons why that is in the Corporate Plan. I do not question you or your colleague’s commitments to make this a fairer city for everyone I know we share that goal. But my question is this. What is the administration's top five priorities in the fight to eradicate disadvantage and where do you think you may be on this by the end of the year?

33.15      Councillor Clare replied, as you have indicated, addressing the disadvantages for children and young people is a priority for us and is one, as you say, that Covid-19 has had an impact on. I think there are ways you can do this within and outside of the classroom, from supporting young people and providing a good standard youth service to programmes like continuing programmes like ‘Every Child a Reader’. So, while I can't give you my top priorities right now, I am happy to discuss and to take input all of groups into that. It is an issue we need to resolve and work together in doing.

33.16      Councillor Allcock asked the following supplementary question, with this deepening recession that is forecast in the country, what ways could services for disadvantaged people and particularly around children and young people be strengthened and maintained considering the very challenging budgets we've got forecasted. What I am worried about is particularly that budgets are going to be stretched even more than they already are because of austerity and yet there is a deepening need and I am really worried about children and young people losing out particularly in disadvantaged areas through this.

33.17      Councillor Clare replied, yes. I would agree and I think that traditionally when budgets are cut not necessarily on a local level but national level it is children and young people and disadvantaged people who often lose out. We have to make sure when reviewing our budget that we include that thought I am happy to keep working and discussing with you to get those priorities down. I think that your group has done good work and hopefully we can continue that now we are in Administration.

33.18      Councillor Lewry asked the following question, anti-social behaviour is a major concern to the local residents in my ward of Hangleton & Knowle and this is an issue that was not given enough priority by the previous administration. The council employ a team of Field Officers with the job description of tackling different types of antisocial behaviour across the city but residents in my ward often feel they are not visible enough. Can the administration please advise what percentage of overall officer timeis spent in Hangleton & Knowle. What efforts have been made to date by Field Officers to target anti-social behaviour in Hangleton & Knowle and what commitment will the Green Administration make to improve efforts in tackling anti-social behaviour in Hangleton & Knoll?

33.19      Councillor Powell replied, I will preface it by saying I can't speak specifically for Hangleton & Knoll ,I am sorry and I can get back to you with specifics in a written statement but, if I may, I will try and answer your question. Just to recap the Field Officer team are a responsive team working 7 days a week 12 until 8. The team of one field office manager and 7 field officers is currently 2 and a half full-time equivalents down, but recruitment is under way to fill these posts as quickly as possible. The work covers a wide range of services including, and not an exhaustive list,  Housing Services, Environmental Protection, including noise and Planning Enforcement and, having been a front line worker myself, I have actually said in a tech committee “it is a job I wouldn't want to do because it is so far wide ranging”. The remit of the team was identified to undertake the following tasks so the enforcement notices are quick and responsive to customer needs such as serving enforcementnotices on behalf of other services, gathering intelligence and evidence for particular services gathering quick and robust evidence including photographs and mapping and statements to inform those services and enable them to deliver a faster more effective and coordinated enforcement action for resolving both environmental and community problems and to work proactively to promote community collaboration. The team have continued to respond to complaints throughout the Covid pandemic, but it is clear they have not been able to undertake the full range of duties due to lockdown and staff having to shield and having staff numbers down, however those duties have now resumed. Officers do tend to work in pairs though lone risk assessments allow officers to work on their own but must be assessed on a case by case basis. Updated reports on the works of the team were presented in July 2019 following the agreement on the NICE Committee in January 2018 for the development on the service. The service is developing all the time. I do think there needs to be some work to look at what they do. I suggest we bring a further report to a future TECH Committee to look at what options could be addressed to deal with the challenges they face as workers and to improve the service.

33.20      Councillor Moonan asked the following question, the Green Party have often expressed reservations about the integration of health and social care and called for a level of scrutiny and governance that is not in the powers of local authorities or the local NHS but is in the hands of the national government. What is the new Green administration's position on health and the social care integration and where are the red lines that you will not move beyond in terms of progressing our joint agenda locally?

33.21      Councillor Shanks replied, we have managed to work together quite well, the National Health service is a huge beast and when it was set up there were lots of things that were perhaps wrong. Although we all love the National Health Service, and not in the past as much we do at the moment, perhaps but the private provider split that came in with the Langley report has not been a good thing and you know we do want to make sure that the NHS is a public service and at the point of need. I think the Green Party policy nationally is about health and the social care integration there is no question about that and I think anybody looking where we are now actually in a pandemic the NHS we move people out of hospital into care homes and they were paid for so it can be done. It needs the political will to do that. I think the concern has always been with health and social care integration that the very top down and controlling nature of the NHS in terms of lack of democratic control of the NHS is the main problem. If we are going to try and get that, it is going to be difficult and I don't see the current government providing much impetus towards that. Making sure that people don't fall off a cliff when they leave hospital. We can get really good emergency care and of course hospitals do want to send people out of the hospital because it costs a lot of money to keep them in and we are ready to pick up the tab as a local authority often with elderly people. Yes, we do want to make sure of that integration and we are waiting for a Green paper from the government as we were waiting in previous years for previous governments to sort out.  It is a national crisis and it is not getting any better. I think let's see what we can do locally, I certainly want to see the Health & Wellbeing Board have a much more democratic accountability for example

33.22      Councillor Moonan asked the following supplementary question, the modernisation of the Health & Wellbeing Board has been a cross-party piece of work that was drawing to a conclusion this summer with recommendations due to come to the Health & Wellbeing Board in September. As the Chair knows the proposals were to make the board more strategic in order to promote health and well-being across the city. More inclusive of NHS providers in the voluntary sector and it was also intended to facilitate greater health and social care integration and joint decision making. Does the chair intend to complete this review or will she be taking any modernisation of the Health & Wellbeing Board in a different direction?

33.23      Councillor Shanks replied, yes, we felt that we needed to just make sure that we were all on board wish this but also to consult a bit more widely. So we'll be looking at the current proposals, asking partners and stakeholders. We started an LGA review which got stopped partly because of the pandemic. We didn't want to rush into something that we might afterwards have thought it maybe would have been better to do it like this. We are going to have another look at it and hopefully bring it back very soon and I would like to encourage anybody interested in this topic to talk to us about how we can improve the Board.

33.24      Councillor Mears asked the following question, on the 12th June the previous Labour Administration released a statement. Brighton & Hove City Council pledge to be an anti-racist council. On July the 30 Councillor Alex Phillips criticised the Lefts’ reference to anti-Semitism in the council becoming an anti-racist council report. Does the Council Leader agree with Councillor Phillips that the lack of reference to anti-Semitism is a problem and if so, what steps will he take to rectify this?

33.25      Councillor Mac Cafferty replied, thank you for raising this important issue, racism targeted at Jewish people and Jewish communities in the city will not be tolerated. If you recall 2 years ago the council explicitly demonstrated its commitment to tackling anti-Semitism when we adopted the International Holocaust Alliance definition of anti-Semitism. As you have just stated, at the TECC meeting in July Green councillor colleagues raised the issue of including anti-Semitism in the Anti-racist Strategy and under our pledge to become an anti-racist council and city we are committed to acknowledging and confronting racism in all its forms and all its ways that it is identified and experienced by Black, Asian and ethnic minority communities in Brighton and Hove including our Jewish communities. We've committed to being community-led and therefore with our residents will take the necessary steps to eradicate racism, and to support better people harmed by racism and to improve the outcomes for BAME communities, that was clearly demonstrated in the recent debate at the special TECC Committee on the Anti-racist Strategy.

33.26      Councillor Mears asked the following supplementary question, does the Leader of the Council agree by having 3 Labour Councillors accused of anti-Semitism still on the council reflects badly on the Council and us as councillors and sends a negative message to the city that we are not all inclusive regardless of race, creed and religion?

33.27      Councillor Mac Cafferty replied, we in our recent statement about political control that we issued just before the change in Administration underlined that anti-Semitism is unacceptable. We call on all political parties to resolve it and given the local impact we did say at that point in time and we speculated that that needed to be the case with Labour as well. We are no fools. Anti-Semitism is a cancer. There may be elements within the Green Party that might express those views and they are repugnant as well. We are deeply disappointed that anti-Semitism continues and as I have  previously stipulated, we will be doing everything in our power to stamp it out.

33.28      Councillor Nemeth asked the following question, will the Leader of the council join me and Councillor Peltzer Dunn in paying tribute to Andrea Lauro who tragically died on Sunday 2nd August whilst kayaking. He was a delightful character whose zest for life who touched the community in many ways. He leaves behind a loving family and 2 beautiful daughters Courtney and Lucy who miss him dearly.

33.29      Councillor Mac Cafferty replied, I would want to pay tribute to Mr. Lauro. I was on the seafront like many people on Sunday 2nd August and I contacted officers around 12 mid-day, like many of us I became really wary of the hovering coastguard helicopter. I was subsequently then briefed hourly by officers about developments until about midnight when the news was not looking good. I have to say it is about the saddest of any news that the Lead councillor can be given when we have lost one of our own citizens. We know that Andrea Lauro, father of 2 who was also a resident of my own ward and lived on Western Road, so there is extra poignancy there as well. Last Tuesday as some of you may have seen I offered the thoughts and sympathy of myself and the entire council to Andrea's family and friends. He leaves a grieving family and friends both in the but beautiful Lake Como region of Italy where he stemmed from and in a city where his flair helping small businesses was championed and our thoughts are with all of them at this incredibly sad time.

33.30      Councillor Nemeth asked the following supplementary question, yes thank you Councillor MacCafferty for that I am sure the family will much appreciate what you just said.

In light of two more tragedies taking place off the coast of the city this past week which really hits home how dangerous the sea can be. Will the Leader commit to providing a briefing for Councillors to supplement the existing helpful messages from the Council’s Communications Team that can be shared far and wide by Councillors amongst residents and community groups that might deal with detail things like where life guards are based, what equipment is advisable and inadvisable and what best practices must be embraced to reduce the likelihood of further tragedy on our coast?

33.31      Councillor Mac Cafferty replied, absolutely, I will first of all say that there will be an all Member briefing provided. I think we have to take seriously any single death in our seas and keeping the public safe is our first duty as elected Councillors and as a council. We have also, as you said had 2 further deaths. They were identified earlier this afternoon as Harry … and Matthew Smiley. The perished in the sea as well so in one week our city has lost 3 people through drowning. I want to work in as cross-party fashion as soon as possible to ensure we don't have a repeat of those dreadful tragedies. I have been reacting to the situation with the seriousness you would expect and in the past week an instruction will be written on all sea safety will now be prepared. Ward Councillors of all coastal wards will be offered a face to face briefing early next week and that will enable ward Councillors such as yourself to be involved in sea safety messaging and help us all gain a better understanding of the issues. I have secured the sea safety messaging which includes the danger of inflatables which has been a really prominent thing to be increased by the council Comms team and to work with the very strong messages, that some of you may be aware of, from the RNLI as well. I have asked officers about additional recruitment to employ extra staff with the end of the season approaching, I have asked to consider extending the season where life guards are on the beach because the sheer quantity of ‘stay-cations’ because of the pandemic. I have also asked officers to look into how we can lobby for further powers to assist with sea safety I also want to take the opportunity to thank the city's beach lifeguards and seafront officers. I have been concerned to hear that there has been some abuse and harassment of some of the lifeguards and I would trust that none of us would want the harassment of some of our own staff in the city.

33.32      Councillor Peltzer Dunn asked the following question, my question is in respect of the sea front. The A259 has recently had works done to it which has involved part closure of the A259 with a cycle lane. Does the Chair agree with me that the loss of a substantial number of car parking places on the A259 is causing considerable inconvenience to residents and visitors who wish to use the Hove beaches. Does she agree there could be an adverse effect on traders within the area?

33.33      Councillor Powell replied, I think it is really fabulous to see visitors returning to the city following the easing of lockdown restrictions I agree it is really important that we support the recovery of our visitor economy and support local businesses to take advantage of what is left of the summer season. With the good weather and the school holidays we have seen significantly higher numbers of people flocking to the city, we want people to enjoy our sea front but we also want them to do so as safely as possible and this must be our priority. The active travel measures which we are implementing are designed to support this. Afterall the economy can only recover if we act to prevent further outbreaks and a second wave of Covid-19. I understand there has been concern regarding the temporary removal of parking spaces due to the temporary cycle lane which has been introduced thanks to a Directive and funding from your Conservative Government. Whilst the changes mean a number of parking places along the seafront have been removed to accommodate a temporary cycle lane. As much parking as possible has been retained, around 40 per cent and only one metre of a loading bay has been taken away and in addition no disabled parking has been lost given the speed the Conservative Government has requested us to act here a lot of detail has not been made available to traders and residents but the council communications team are currently working on this and expect this to be published in the coming days. In line with your own government's guidance we have been taking urgent action across the city to support walking and cycling and providing spaces for residents and visitors to physically distance. We have received £660,000 funding from the Department of Transport to implement the changes and we are awaiting the outcome of second bid for a £2.68 million. As before, visitors are encouraged to use off-street car parks rather than seafront bays also walking and cycling open up opportunities for traders as well as using the city's excellent bus network. We are pleased to hear some of traders are seeing some of these measures you’re your Conservative government who asked us to introduce this. Lastly as part of the parks actively will be installing bike lockers and ‘wayfinding’ signage and promotional material to encourage people to park and cycle or walk and park and this initiative will link with the successful bike share scheme already in operation throughout the city which we are also expanding in response to more people cycling.

33.34      Councillor Peltzer Dunn asked the following supplementary question, I hadn't realised that the Government had specifically requested this lane on the A259 I didn’t think it would go into that amount of detail. I think with your responsibilities Madam Chair with total respect of the role you our now playing. If you could just outline what information you would want when it comes to the reconsideration of what happens with the cycle lane, i.e. the effect on tourism. I was intrigued that the users for the Hove central beaches will be encouraged to use off-street car parking.

33.35      Councillor Powell replied, I couldn’t quite hear your question; I will get back to you with a more detailed response in writing.

33.36      The Mayor noted that there were 4 remaining questions and that the 30minutes set aside for Members’ questions had expired and therefore the questions would be carried over to the next meeting unless otherwise directed by those Members.

33.37      The Mayor then stated that the meeting had been in session for over 4 hours and in accordance with procedural rules he moved a closure motion which was lost by 27 votes to 17.