This Council notes with grave concern that visitor numbers in Brighton & Hove dropped by more than 14% year on year in the first four month period of 2012/13

CONSERVATIVE Group Amendment

Council Service Delivery

That deletions are made as shown with strikethrough below and additional recommendations are added as shown in bold italics below.

This Council

1. Notes the high volume of complaints that Councillors receive from residents rightly angry about basic council services failing to deliver – from missed refuse, recycling and garden waste collections; to overgrown weeds; to graffiti and litter on our streets, beaches and in our parks; to mismanagement of parking permits; and the general maintenance, upkeep and cleanliness of our city;

2. Notes that responsibility for the above predominantly results from proposals made by the Official Opposition using existing Council machinery including Committees and meetings of Budget Council such as:

a. Ending the use of glyphosates with immediate effect, without an alternative plan in place for clearing weeds (Environment, Transport and Sustainability Committee, November 2019).

b. Cutting the City’s graffiti budget (Budget Council, February 2021).

c. Opposing six measures to tackle crime and antisocial behaviour, including tackling graffiti, overflowing bins, and seafront hotspots (Tourism, Equalities, Communities and Culture Committee, 23 June 2020).

d. Neglecting an invitation to apply for Safer Streets Funds to improve lighting in the city (Tourism, Equalities, Communities and Culture, 2019-20).

e. Altering the system for issuing public parking permits, without a suitable delivery plan in place, causing widespread disruption (Environment, Transport and Sustainability Committee, 2019).

f. Failing to reform City Clean, especially in 2019, which left the City vulnerable to strike action (Policy and Resources Committee, 2019).

g. Deciding not to renew the City’s Public Space Protection Orders (PSPOs) for Parks and Open Spaces (Tourism, Equalities, Communities & Culture, 2019)

3 Notes that the Council’s own 2020-21 year-end Corporate KPI results reflect the complaints from residents, and show the Council is performing below-target on the delivery of some essential services, and that some of these failures are systemic and long-running;

4 Recognises the challenges the pandemic has presented, and thanks and acknowledges the hard work council staff have undertaken over the past year, particularly as less than 10% were furloughed;

5 Recognises also, however, that lockdown is over and despite ongoing pandemic related challenges, residents are right to expect improvements to the delivery of council services from the leadership of the Council;

This Council resolves to ask the Policy & Resources Committee to:

1. Urgently establish a cross-party Member Working Group consisting of six Members, two from each political party, and chaired by a Member of the official opposition on the Council. It would have the remit to investigate, review and discuss solutions to the systemic management failures behind the delivery of basic council services, namely waste and refuse collection, parking permits and street cleanliness, and provide recommendations to the Policy & Resources Committee and the Environment, Transport & Sustainability Committee on ways to improve these services.

1. Review the current number of Working Groups following the creation of excessive numbers of these groups under the previous Administration leading to service failure across the Council.

Proposed by: Cllr Miller Seconded by: Cllr Nemeth

Motion to read if carried: