DEPUTATIONS FROM
MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC
A period of not
more than fifteen minutes shall be allowed at each ordinary meeting
of the Council for the hearing of deputations from members of the
public. Each deputation may be heard for a maximum of five
minutes following which one Member of the Council, nominated by the
Mayor, may speak in response. It shall then be moved by the
Mayor and voted on without discussion that the spokesperson for the
deputation be thanked for attending and its subject matter
noted.
Notification of
one Deputation has been received. The spokesperson is entitled to
speak for 5 minutes.
(1)
Deputation
concerning the Fossil Fules and Climate Change and BHCC’s
Lack of Representation on the East Sussex Pension
Committee
Spokesperson
– Luke Simanowitz
Supported by:
Les
Gunbie
Andrew Beechey
Madeleine
Bradbury
Clare Finn
Dr Hugh
Dunkerley
Natasha Fairbanks
Ruth
Urbanowizc
Dave Allen
Tim Beecher
Ward
affected: All
Councillor
Heley, Chair of the Environment, Transport & Sustainability
Committee will reply.
(2)
Deputation
concerning Class Divide
Spokesperson
– Carlie Goldsmith
Supported by:
Lisa
Petitt
Curtis James
Will McInnes
Catherine Mercer
Darren Snow
Dave Bailey
Ward
affected: All
Councillor
Clare, Chair of the Children, Young People & Skills Committee
will reply.
Deputation
concerning the Fossil Fuels and Climate
Change and BHCC’s Lack of Representation on the East Sussex
Pension Committee
Spokesperson
– Luke Simanowitz
In 2017 and again
in 2020, Brighton and Hove City Council (BHCC) passed motions
calling on East Sussex County Council (ESCC) to stop investing
local people’s pensions in the giant fossil fuel companies
that are driving the climate crisis – companies like Shell
and BP.
Yet, despite
declaring a ‘climate emergency’, ESCC has repeatedly
refused to divest the East Sussex Pension Fund - the local
government pension scheme for East Sussex, Brighton and Hove - from
fossil fuels (oil, coal and gas), most recently in June of
2020.
The window for
limiting global warming to 1.5°C – and thereby avoiding
the most calamitous impacts of climate change – is rapidly
closing. Doing so will require dramatic cuts in emissions from oil
and gas over the next ten years.
Yet despite many
years of ESCC’s official policy of ‘engagement’,
not a single oil and gas major is currently anywhere near aligning
with this goal. Indeed, an analysis by Oil Change International,
published in September, found that ‘not a single climate plan
released by a major oil company comes close to aligning with the
urgent 1.5ºC global warming limit’.
Brighton and Hove
City Council (BHCC) is a major contributor to the East Sussex
Pension Fund, which currently has over £100m of local
people’s pensions invested in fossil fuels. Brighton and Hove
also account for over a third of the population of East Sussex,
Brighton and Hove. Yet, for purely historical reasons, BHCC
currently has no representation on the East Sussex Pension
Committee, the ultimate decision-making body for the Fund.
This
means that the
residents of Brighton and Hove have no real say in how these monies
are invested.
With less than a
year to go before this year’s crucial UN climate summit in
Glasgow, we need all institutions to be showing leadership on the
climate crisis.
We therefore call
on BHCC to demand adequate representation on the East Sussex
Pension Committee to ensure that these climate-destroying investments can finally be eliminated from
the East Sussex Pension Fund.
Deputation
concerning Class Divide
Spokesperson
– Carlie Goldsmith
Summary of
Deputation for Full Council meeting of Brighton and Hove City
Council
Class
Divide is a grassroots campaign fighting to urgently bring
attention and change to the deeply unjust educational attainment
gap between young people from the communities of Whitehawk, Manor
Farm and Bristol Estate and their counterparts in the rest of
Brighton and Hove. The campaign is made up of parents, residents,
experts and supporters who have experienced these problems or have
expertise in education. For more information about the campaign see
www.classdivide.co.uk.
Class Divide
wants Brighton and Hove City Council to:
1.
Face the problem by producing an annual report on the school
outcomes and attainment of children living Whitehawk, Bristol
Estate and Manor Farm that is presented to the Children, Young
People and Skills Committee and shared with the community and
online.
2.
Address the issues revealed by publishing a plan that
specifically addresses what actions will be taken to reduce the
identified educational inequalities experienced by children, young
people and adults in our area. This should include closing gaps in
attainment, exclusion, access to learning across the life-course,
and levels of financial investment. Subject the plan to annual
review and make it available to the community.
3.
Find a solution by training all school leaders and
school staff on the experiences of working-class
children.
4.
Our children are two times more likely to get excluded from school
so we want you to Improve your response and work with
schools to reduce the rate of school exclusions and the placement
of our children in alternative schools to the Brighton and Hove
average, with a plan for further reduction by moving away from
punishment approaches to behaviour management towards models
informed by an understanding of the social and emotional
development of children.
5.
Offer ongoing support and give local people a second chance by
providing local learning and training opportunities and develop
advocacy support for parents struggling to keep their children in
school.
● Brighton &
Hove City Council data shows that in 2019 less than 1 in 4 (37%)
young people from Whitehawk, Manor Farm and Bristol Estate equipped
with basic grades at GCSE English and Maths, leaving school at a
serious disadvantage to the citywide average of 69%. A
basic grades gap of 32% . [1]
●
The basic grades gap is not confined to English and Maths.
Attainment 8 - a measure of a pupil's average grade across a set of
eight subjects - for young people from Whitehawk, Manor Farm and
Bristol Estate was 32.2 in 2019 compared to 47.6 for young people
in the rest of Brighton and Hove. [2]
●
Children and young people from the East Brighton communities of
Whitehawk, Manor Farm and Bristol Estate are twice as
likely as their counterparts across Brighton and Hove to be
excluded from school at least once. [3]
●
They are three times more likely than other children
in Brighton and Hove to be educated at a special school or pupil
referral unit. [4]
●
IMD, 2019 data shows the most advantaged area for education, skills
and training in Brighton and Hove was ranked 32,690 out of a total
of 32,844 areas in England. By contrast, North Whitehawk ranked
134. The gap between the most advantaged area and North
Whitehawk is 32,556 ranked places . The same data
shows South Whitehawk ranked 238 and Central Whitehawk 260.
[5]
●
The pandemic will make the basic grades gap worse. Families in the
East Brighton communities of Whitehawk, Manor Farm and Bristol
Estate will be hit hard by Covid-19. Many will lack the resources
to support homeschooling or make up the gaps in learning caused by
school closures in the first wave. In addition, some families will
need additional support to help their children and young people
learn because of the lasting legacy educational disadvantage has
had in the area, for example, local authority figures show that
51% of households in our area hold Level 1 qualifications
(GCSE grades 3,2,1 or D,E,F,G) or No Qualifications compared to 27%
of households in the rest of Brighton and Hove .
[6]
●
East Brighton is in the top 10% least economically advantaged areas
in the country [7]. Figures show that in 2017
43% of children living in the ward live in poverty, the
highest level of child poverty in any ward in Brighton and Hove.
[8]
[1]
Local Authority data
[2]
Ibid
[3]
Ibid
[4]
Ibid
[5]
Index of Multiple Deprivation 2019
[6]
Local Authority data
[7]
Index of Multiple Deprivation 2019
[8]
Valadez-Martinez, L. and Hirsch, D. (2017)
Compilation of child poverty local indicators, update to
September 2017, [online] Available at
http://www.endchildpoverty.org.uk/poverty-in-your-area-2018/.