Brighton & Hove City Council
Tourism, Equalities, Communities & Culture Committee
4.00pm9 March 2023
Hove Town Hall - Council Chamber
Minutes
Present
Councillors: Osborne (Joint Chair), Powell (Joint Chair), Rainey (Deputy Chair), Evans (Opposition Spokesperson), Grimshaw (Opposition Spokesperson), Bagaeen (Group Spokesperson), Ebel, Littman and Robins.
Co-Optees: Kirsty Walker, Justin Burtenshaw.
51 Procedural Business
51a
Apologies from Councillor Simson and Stephanie Prior.
Kirsty Walker attending as substitute for Joanna Martindale.
51b
Councillor Powell declared an interest that she works for Sussex Police and her partner works for Community Works.
51c
It was agreed that the press and public not be excluded from any item on the Agenda.
52 Minutes
The Minutes of the previous meeting held on 12 January 2023 were agreed as an accurate record.
53 LGBTQ+ Migration, Social Isolation, and Distress Presentation
53.1 The Chair invited Zoe Boden-Stuart (University of Brighton) and Erica Thornton (MindOut) to give the presentation referring to the report found on page 19 of the Agenda.
53.2 Councillors Grimshaw, Powell, Robins, Bagaeen, & Justin Burtenshaw spoke about mental health services, funding, commissioning services, intersectionality, procurement, and working with Sussex Police.
54 Chairs Communications
The Chair gave the following communications:
Well, here we are, it’s final TECC of this term. It’s been a pleasure being on the committee over the past few years, and I’ve really enjoyed working with my co-chair Steph over the past 2 and half years. We are the first administration to bring in co-chairing and I think we have proven that it can work well. I hope other members have enjoyed it too. It’s a diverse set of roles that we look at and we have done a lot over the last few years, and I just thought I’d give a quick run-down of things that we have been able to agree as a reminder.
· For culture, we have agreed our annual events schedule, which continues to support the fringe, festival, pride, and other large events, and have supported new events in the city such as the Christmas market. We have agreed our Public Arts strategy, as well as the ABCD cultural recovery plan, which has successfully invested over £500k in the sector and will continue in the new Cultural Alliance being set up. Culture is a key part of tourist attraction and so this also links into our Tourism Recovery Strategy which has been important in helping the cities visitor economy find its feet after the pandemic.
· On equalities, we receive regular updates on the councils work to tackle racism, and it’s great to see that the anti-racist strategy is finally coming later in this agenda. We have worked closely with the CAG on this and we would like to thank Stephanie Prior for her insightful input at these meetings. The accessibility strategy has also had a lot of work over the recent months and will be coming to next committee. The committee has also brought forward strategies to tackle VAWG. We have agreed to seek accreditation to be a White Ribbon organisation with a 3-year action plan which we are working towards and have been able to agree how the new burdens funding from the DA Act will be spent in the city. There was the unfortunate case of Rise losing its contract in 2021 but after the campaign about that, Cllr Steph chaired a cross-party group to look into this and has created recommendations for the future provisioning of that service. Finally, some other things that Steph has been involved in our reaccreditation as a City of Sanctuary, which has been taken alongside our Inclusive Cities Taskforce work.
· We have also taken forward work on sports facilities and the Sports Facilities Investment Plan was agreed and is progressing via the working group. This has included additional facility developments at Withdean (3G pitches, Padel tennis and a Soft Play project) and plans for the development of a brand new sports centre in the West of the city is progressing- we have been engaging with local community groups and regular centre users and are distributing marketing materials to promote key messages and our new webpages and an expression of interest process launched last month to identify other potential sites across the city that could be suitable for our new leisure centre. We expect a site to be chosen later in the year.
· Our action plan for community wealth building has been agreed at January committee
· Seafront- reviewed and refreshed the beach chalet policy and agreed feasibility study for new chalets which came back to state preferred option of new chalets in Saltdean which will be taken forward.
· Community Safety Strategy coming later today and thanks to ongoing presence of Sussex Police at these meetings.
· Libraries- a new libraries strategy was agreed with a wider consultation on this. We have maintained our commitment to libraries as best as we can over recent difficult years.
· Third Sector Investment Programme- thanks for CVS partners for ongoing work and valued input into our budget and attendance of Jo at out committee meetings.
· Last but not least, we have been active in the planning policy role of this committee, we have agreed the city plan part 2, progressed neighbourhood plans, including designating two new areas, agreed on moving to CIL and the governance on that, and the pot of that is growing and will be ready for distributing later in the year, as well as protecting our local parades with A4D and renewal of our Biodiversity and Nature Conservation SPD.
So, a lot!
I did want to thank the members from other parties on their willingness to engage constructively on these matters and I think we can always get more done by being collegiate.
Today, alongside the anti-racist strategy which I’ve already mentioned we have a few important reports and just wanted to mention about the lifeguard's service. This is something I spoke about in the budget and unfortunately, it’s something we have considered as a cut this year, having previously ruled it out. In an ideal world, no one would reduce the service, but with budget cuts we have had to review all proposals and decided this service could be run in a more efficient way. Part of the report discusses long term options, and to be clear, we hope that there could be increased numbers in future years if external funding can be fund and partnership agreed. For this year, there are extra mitigation measures in place and a risk-based approach but I’m sure this report will be debated later and get the attention that it deserves.
I normally try to mention a few upcoming things to add to your diaries.
Brighton Marathon taking place on Sunday 2nd April which we are really pleased to see return after we managed to save the event at last minute after its organisers went into administration. Then in May the city will welcome back the fringe and festival. Please check out the events scheduled, it’s always my favourite time of the year, and alongside the Spiegeltent on the Old Steine, there is the Rotunda Theatre in Palmeira Square, a new site north of St Peter’s called Caravanserai, and …
We also thrilled to welcome hundreds of delegates to various conferences over the next few months including from 26-28 March 2023 when we will be hosting the European Meetings and Events Conference in the City, which VisitBrighton secured, attracting over 200 global meeting planners. VisitBrighton continue to attract people to the city and have been able to generate well over £1 million in PR over last 3 months. We are expecting another busy year!
Finally, just wanted to mention that The Kingsway to Sea project has started and so expect to see more work on that over the next months, starting with the enabling works, hoarding and construction of the Outdoor Sports Hub. The project is expected to be completed by this time next year- all very exciting. There is improvement work happening across the stretch of our seafront, from proposed new chalets in Saltdean, the black rock project, Sea Lanes, plans for Madeira Terrace in place right the way along to West end of Hove. So, it’s not like things aren’t happening!
55 Call Over
The following items were reserved for discussion:
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Item 59 |
Brighton Dome and Brighton Festival Annual Report 2023/24 |
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Item 60 |
Anti Racism Strategy |
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Item 61 |
Accessible City Strategy Update |
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Item 62 |
Community Safety Strategy 2023-26 |
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Item 63 |
Ukrainian Refugee Programme Grants Scheme 2023-24 |
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Item 64 |
Lifeguard Service 2023 |
The following items were therefore agreed as per the recommendations set out in the reports:
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Item 65 |
Brighton Marina Neighbourhood Plan – Council Response to Regulation 14 Consultation |
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Item 66 |
Local Development Scheme Update |
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Item 67 |
Review of Local List of Heritage Assets |
56 Public Involvement
56.1 The Chair invited Ruth Farnell to put the question found on page 5 of Addendum 1 to the Committee and gave the following response:
The Voices of Lived experience board now has on average 15 active members of the board who live across Sussex. So far the board operates as a trauma informed, flexible and inclusive forum to enable members to participate in ways that work for them.
Some of the participation work that the Voices of Lived experience board have been involved with across Sussex includes awareness raising campaigns of during National Coproduction week in July 2022 and 16 days of activism in November/December 2022, linking in with other lived experience / expert by experience networks, contributing to the East Sussex Adult Social Care Strategy, Co-facilitating multi-agency Domestic Abuse Training in Adult Social Care and the NHS, Co-facilitating domestic abuse training to Student Social Workers at Sussex University (soon to be included at Brighton University), identifying barriers to reporting for Sussex Police, participating in interview panels for positions pertinent to domestic abuse, coproducing research in Identifying domestic abuse in Telemedicine, and presenting at local and national conferences.
Work planned for this Spring includes development work in schools to improve responses to victims / survivors of abuse, lunchtime learning sessions with members of Sussex Police Force, coproducing the partnership board development day, and development work focusing on the improvements needed for local victim / survivors with physical disabilities.
Feedback from members of VOLEB
Feedback from the participation work from Voices of Lived Experience Board has been positive. One member of the board said “After years of being in an abusive relationship, I love that I am finally made to feel welcome somewhere. I get to meet people who understand what I have been through, and we all support each other. Most importantly, though, I finally get my voice back. I am no longer silenced”
56.2 The Chair invited Ruth Farnell to ask the following supplementary question:
We are just looking at the new services themselves from the view of the lived experience board. The new service was not particularly visible locally and we thought the board might have picked up on that. If you look on web searches you don't find the new services. The pages are very text heavy and there’s very little information on there. The only languages are English and Welsh with no other language options. There are no illustrations and plenty of abbreviations and quite specific references that a lay person wouldn’t particularly understand. We’ve had no real feedback from the voices of the lived experience board, we were expecting some in September but we didn't get any – we had a short email this week which was positive thank you. But considering that the survivors of domestic abuse are vulnerable and hard to reach, are you satisfied that the website and the communications are actually reaching them?
56.3 The Chair then confirmed that a written response would be sent to Ruth Farnell after the meeting.
56.4 The Chair invited Dani Ahrens to put the question found on page 5 of Addendum 1 to Committee and gave the following response:
Officers have been unable to pull together the information in time for the meeting, but we will be able to share written response with you.
56.5 The Chair invited Dani Ahrens to ask the following supplementary question:
I saw some relevant figures to this on RISE’s website last week there was a blog post by the CEO of RISE – the number of people supported by Victim Support since they took over the contract in 2021 is considerably lower than the numbers supported by RISE in the previous 2 years. In 2021/2022 RISE’s self-funded helpline service handled almost as many referrals as the commission service from Victim Support, resulting in considerably more clients receiving ongoing support from RISE than from Victim Support over the course of the year. The draft community safety strategy on the agenda today states an intention to offer a coordinated and improved service. Will you make a commitment to pursue that aim by returning to an integrated service for women subjected to domestic abuse, provided by trusted specialists such as those provided by RISE up to March 2021?
56.6 The Chair then gave the following response:
Thank you for your question. I don’t think we can commit to anything yet but what we can commit to is some of the work Councillor Powell previously did on the cross party group that was looking at social value in procurement and so we can make sure that the commissioning of that service and the specification for the service is tightened up – so I think we can commit to that process first of all but those decisions are for further down the line. You also mentioned the community safety strategy so we might be able to touch on that if Councillors want to look at that specific reference. We can’t give a clear commitment today but we do acknowledge that there does need to be more integrated services and we will be taking that forward when that decision is made which will be in the next term of the Council.
56.7 The Chair noted that Leon Golstein wasn’t present at the meeting, and so read out the following responses to the questions found on page 5 of Addendum 1:
In order to be included in the council’s Local List of Heritage Assets a building must be considered to meet the criteria set out in the council’s Planning Advice Note on Local Listing, which was approved at committee in 2015 following public consultation. St Catherine’s Lodge comprises four large semi-detached houses dating from c1854 that were conjoined in c1927, with a new central link addition, to form a single hotel. The building is considered by heritage officers to meet the approved criteria, despite some later unsympathetic alterations. This is due to its overall architectural, townscape and historic interest and because the style of the original houses is unusual in this area, which forms part of the Cliftonville conservation area. There is no known public record of, or evidence for, the previous existence of a much older house on this site and this part of Hove is not known to have been developed until the 19th century.
A commemorative plaque, as mentioned in the question, can add to public understanding and appreciation of a historic building or site, but is a separate form of recognition that may supplement local listing rather than replacing it.
56.8 The Chair then read out the response to the supplementary question submitted by Leon Golstein:
Any future planning proposals for the building on the site would be subject to public consultation and consideration of the benefits of any scheme. The council cannot pre-judge the outcome of any future public consultation.
56.9 The Chair invited Nicola Benge to put the question found on page 5 of Addendum 1 to Committee and gave the following response:
Both Victim Support and Stonewater developed a range of publicity materials to let residents and potential service users know about their services. Pamphlets for both services are available and have been distributed across services and community spaces in Brighton and Hove.
In addition, the websites of both services include details of the services delivered in Brighton and Hove. Victim Support promoted their Live Time HelpLine and confirm that many survivors seek support out of hours via this method.
Stonewater also regularly use Twitter to share local updates.
A large number of events have been attended which have all helped to publicise the service. However, during the first two years of the contract, the realities of COVID and mobilisation meant that awareness was prioritised by:
1) Working with partners to raise our profile with victims - especially those who specialise in protected characteristics, and
2) Publicity via both the local VS website and the SaferSussex website. This led to significant numbers of self-referrals both via the form on our website and through survivors accessing our 24/7web chat and 24/7 contact line at our National Contact Centre.
With the increasing range of specialist IDVAs coming on line there is now capacity to publicise across a wider range of community locations including Hospitals, GP Surgeries, Children and Young Persons facilities.
56.10 The Chair then invited Nicola Benge to ask the supplementary question found on page 5 of Addendum 1 and gave the following response:
A wide range of engagement has taken place since 2021. This included working with B&H Victim Hub, the LGBTQ+ Switchboard, Fulfilling Lives, the High Harm Perpetrator Program, trans pride, providing training and consultation and speaking on a large range of podcasts and events.
There is a full list of events and activities that they have been doing over the past few years and officers will send details over to you afterwards. Officers are also happy to discuss how these can be better promoted in the future.
56.11 The Chair invited Dave Boyle to present the deputation found on page 7 of Addendum 1, and gave the following response:
The cross-party Members Advisory Group on Grants (MAG) meeting of 13th December 2021 considered a second report from officers. At that meeting, a compromise position was agreed and the wording of that decision was that that all Community Benefit Societies which can or do pay interest on share investments would be excluded from the Communities Fund. There is an element of individual personal gain and as such does not fit with the core purpose of the Communities Fund.
Members were very clear in their view that the potential to pay interest to the individual members of CBS ran against the core principles of the Communities Fund. However, to be clear, the decision means that a Community Benefit Society which does not have the means to pay interest to its members, by virtue of the Constitution of that Society, would be eligible to apply for funding from the Communities Fund. So, the advice is to ensure that there is something included in the Constitution of the CBS that explicitly states that interest payments will not be taken by the members.
Some added context: the Communities Fund is massively oversubscribed and for 2023/24 we received 122 applications requesting £752,807. The total available funding is £397,000; more than 50% of requested funding had to be rejected. This may mean that CBS applications are still rejected.
56.12 The Committee then noted the deputation.
57 Items referred from Council
There were none.
58 Member Involvement
There was none.
59 Brighton Dome & Brighton Festival Annual Report 2023/24
59.1 The Chair invited Louise Peim to introduce the report starting on page 67 of the Agenda.
59.2 Councillors Grimshaw, Bagaeen, and Osborne spoke about diversity, strategy, numbers, social value, and procurement.
Andrew Comben confirmed he would send a full breakdown of the demographics of the permanent, casual and volunteer workforce to Councillor Bagaeen, as well as more information on social value.
RESOLVED:
That Committee:
1. Noted the achievements of the organisation despite challenges presented to them, including significant delays to the capital works at the Corn Exchange and Studio Theatre.
2. Supported the Trust’s plans for the forthcoming year 2023/24.
60 Anti Racism Strategy
60.1 The Chair invited Jamarl Billy to introduce the report starting on page 73 of the Agenda.
60.2 Councillors Grimshaw, Robins, Powell, Littman, and Bagaeen spoke about community engagement, local organisations, leadership in the Royal Pavilion and Museums Trust, procurement, and stakeholders.
RESOLVED:
That Committee:
1. Approved the Anti-Racism Strategy 2023-2028 as set out in appendix 1.
2. That Committee recommends the Anti-Racism Strategy to Policy & Resources Committee.
That Policy and Resources Committee:
3.1 Approves the Anti-Racism Strategy as set out in appendix 1.
61 Accessible City Strategy Update
61.1 Emma McDermott introduced the report starting on page 121 of the Agenda.
62.2 Councillors Grimshaw, Powell, Bagaeen, Osborne, spoke about disability inclusivity and equality monitoring data.
RESOLVED:
That Committee:
1. Noted progress on development of the Accessible City Strategy.
62 Community Safety Strategy 2023-26
62.1 The Chair invited Jo Player to introduce the report starting on page 129 of the Agenda.
62.2 Councillors Powell, Grimshaw, and Bagaeen spoke about anti social behaviour, the racial harassment forum, domestic violence, violence against women and girls, and the cross party working group, and were informed that the report in the Agenda was the final version to be agreed by TECC and Council hence the draft watermark, and terminology referring to LGBTQ+ people would be looked at to be more consistent.
RESOLVED:
That Committee:
1. Approved the strategy and the suggested priority areas for reducing crime and disorder in Brighton and Hove.
2. Referred the strategy to Full Council for sign off as set out in the Constitution.
3. Approved the additional consultations as set out in paragraph 5.5.
63 Ukrainian Refugee Programme Grants Scheme 2023-2024
63.1 The Chair invited Emma McDermott to introduce the report starting on page 185 of the Agenda.
63.2 Councillors Powell and Bagaeen spoke about employment & skills and the allocation of funds.
RESOLVED:
That TECC Committee:
1. Approved the Ukrainian Refugee Programme grant scheme proposed in section 4.
2. Approved delegate authority to the Executive Director of Housing, Neighbourhoods, Communities to authorise the grant awards.
Recommends that Policy and Resources Committee:
3. Approves the Ukrainian Refugee Programme grant scheme proposed in section 4.
4. Approves delegated authority to the Executive Director of Housing, Neighbourhoods, Communities to authorise the grant awards.
64 Lifeguard Service 2023
64.1 Mark Fisher introduced the report starting on page 189 of the Agenda.
64.2 The Chair invited Councillor Evans to move the Labour Amendment, which was seconded by Councillor Robins.
64.3 Councillors Powell, Ebel, Littman, Robins, Bagaeen, Evans, and Grimshaw and spoke about funding, tourism, funding allocation, risk assessments, risks on different stretches of beach, specific incidents of live saving, and the further implications of a reduced lifeguard service.
64.4 The Committee voted against the Labour Amendment.
RESOLVED:
That Committee:
1. Noted the risk-based approach to prioritising the beaches that will have lifeguard stations for the 2023 summer season (May – September).
2. Agreed to focus core lifeguard resources on four beaches during the 2023 season, as outlined in para 4.2, based on the findings and control measures identified through the beach risk assessment process.
3. Agreed that additional lifeguards during the six-week school holiday period will be stationed on three further beach areas, as outlined in para 4.5, following the same risk-based approach.
4. Agreed to progress a review of options for the longer-term delivery of a sustainable Lifeguard Service, including options to increase funding through sponsorship and/or for the RNLI to deliver the service on the Council’s behalf.
65 Brighton Marina Neighbourhood Plan - Council Response to Regulation 14 Consultation
RESOLVED:
That Committee:
1. Endorsed the officer comments set out in Appendix 1 which have been submitted to Brighton Marina Neighbourhood Forum as a draft response to its recent public consultation on the Draft Brighton Marina Neighbourhood Plan under Regulation 14 of the Neighbourhood Planning (General) Regulations 2012.
66 Local Development Scheme Update
RESOLVED:
That Committee:
1. Approved the revised Local Development Scheme 2023 – 2026, attached as Appendix 1.
67 Review of the Local List of Heritage Assets
RESOLVED:
That Committee:
1. Agreed those nominated heritage assets at Appendix 1 that are to be included in the Local List of Heritage Assets
2. Noted those nominations at Appendix 2 that are not to be included on the Local List of Heritage Assets.
3. Noted that the next periodic review will be undertaken in 2028.
68 Items referred for Full Council
There were none.
The meeting concluded at 7.35pm.
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