Agenda item - Oral questions from Councillors

27.1    The Mayor noted that oral questions had been submitted and that 30 minutes was set aside for the duration of the item. She asked that both the questioner and responder endeavour to keep their questions and answers brief, to enable the questions listed to be taken.

 

Q1. Cllr Davis asked a question: At Full Council on December the 14th, the Leader said, and I quote: “I must be clear, and for the record, the GMB has contributed nothing to the election of any of our Labour group members”. At our last meeting, I asked the leader to explain the £4200 pounds donation from the GMB to Lloyd Russell-Moyle on 27th of April. This donation was declared on the Electoral Commission and on the Register of Interest for, and I quote: “printing and distribution costs to local election material”. She said she'd get back to me. She didn't.

 

Councillor Sankey replied: Many thanks Madam Mayor, and I am very pleased to reply to Councillor Davis. He's right to say that at the December Council meeting, I said the GMB has contributed nothing to the election of any of our Labour Group members. It's true to say that no serving Labour Councillor received any direct financial contribution from the GMB towards their election in May 2023. However, in the interest of full transparency, I can confirm a donation was given by the GMB to the Kemp Town Constituency Labour Party, some of which was used towards the May 2023 election campaign and the Labour Party organisers for the local elections also had use of the GMB office for that election. As I was not the Labour Group leader until after the May elections, I was not aware of the GMB donations for Kemptown CLP and have no reason to be aware of it. But I want to stress in clarifying the record: all of the Labour Group are proud members of at least one trade union. You can hear the pride in the room. We are a party proudly born from the union movement. We make no apology for accepting donations from working people and organised labour and believe, in fact, that this is the cleanest money in politics.

 

Councillor Davis asked a supplementary question: I'm pleased to hear it and hopefully if we do see a new Labour government in the year they will repeal the anti-Trade Union laws that the Conservatives have brought in. I look forward to that. Thank you. As you said in this Chamber, the GMB had nothing to do with election. Could you explain why 17 or your current administration, including the Leader of the Council had their election invoices sent to Labour campaign staff at the GMB office in Hove.

 

Councillor Sankey replied: This is not a policy question. I don't know what your obsession is with our funding situation, but it seems quite unhealthy to me and I'm not going to be answering that question.

 

Q2. Councillor McNair asked a question: Patcham and Hollingbury has a very engaged population and plenty of meeting spaces. Why was Reimagine, at very short notice, moved from Patcham to Whitehawk?

          

Councillor Sankey replied: Again, not a policy question, but let me indulge Councillor McNair in the interest of transparency. The Reimagine event, held earlier this week, on Health and Wellbeing is part of this administration's programme to engage better and more often with our residents. It was moved from Patcham to Whitehawk to ensure the best fit between the events focus and its location. The aim of the event was to explore ways of improving access to, and participation in, physical activity in communities experiencing the worst health inequalities.

The acute nature of these issues in East Brighton meant that holding the event in Whitehawk was the most appropriate location to enable Members to engage directly with affected communities. Patcham residents did attend the event I'm pleased to say, in Whitehawk on the 29th of March. Members listened to resident concerns over sewage and flooding, and Officers are now exploring options for further engagement with Southern Water.

 

Councillor McNair asked a supplementary question: Many thanks to Officers for facilitating the useful event. At the last Reimagine event, there were more Officers and Councillors than residents. There were perhaps 10 residents, 4 from Patcham. If the administration is a listening administration, what plans are in place to increase public engagement at these Reimagine events, especially in North Brighton?

          

Councillor Sankey replied:

As a listening Council that is determined to engage more often and better with our residents, there are a number of things that we have initiated. One of them is our Reimagined series of which we have held four successful events. We've also initiated Leader surgeries which take place every two months and I go all over the city to hear evidence and to discuss policy issues, strategy issues as well as some case work matters. Those have been very valuable and are ongoing and we currently have a consultation live on our new Your Voice website which is seeking feedback and ideas and views from residents as to how they would like to engage with us as we move our governance system forward. That consultation, as I say, is live and I would encourage anybody that hasn't looked at it to take a look at the feedback, their views and ideas on the type of engagement we can bring forward.

 

The Mayor noted that Cllr Fishleigh was not present to ask question 3 and moved on the following question.

 

Q4. Councillor Asaduzzaman asked a question: In the last few months I visited many sports facilities. Residents have made clear that they want to see investment in the city’s sports and leisure facilities, including provision of swimming pools. Can the Right Honorable Chair of the Culture Committee provide an update on what we are doing to fulfil this?

 

Councillor Robins replied:  The Sports Facility Plan was published and launched as a strategic plan for investing and improving sports facilities across the city. One of the key recommendations of the plan was to create three large multi-sports hubs in the city. In the north, the east and the west, as well as investing in maintaining our network of smaller community leisure centres. This will ensure that a good geographical spread of provision and also help to achieve financial sustainability offered with the larger, more efficient hubs, subsidising the less commercial smaller leisure centres in the local communities. The Council's ambition is clear: residents and visitors should have access to outstanding sports facilities which support year round, healthy lifestyles, and are designed to facilitate inclusion for all. The Council recognises that the significant contribution that sport and physical activity make to the quality of life for residents and the local economy. As a plan, we currently have three capital projects underway at North Hub Withdean Sports Complex, which will enhance facilities there and expand the offer to new activities. There is also plans to add a community swimming pool to this site. This will be a 25 metre 5 lane pool which will it be integrated into the existing sports leisure centre and operated by Freedom Leisure. Plans for the new pool will be developed over the coming months which we will look to engage with the community and swimming clubs. This new pool will help to address the shortfall of pool water space in the city and help to meet the demand for swimming as one of our most popular activities amongst the city's residents. It will also help provide additional capacity to deliver more swimming lessons for children and young people living and studying in the city. This pool could see the first publicly funded swimming pool built in the city for around 40 years. This investment shows the Council's commitment to delivering the Sports Facility Implementation Plan and improving our sports facilities in the city. As you'll be aware, through the recent public engagement, the Council is progressing its plans to redevelop the King Alfred Leisure Centre, the West Hub. The location of the new centre is still to be decided, but the new facility will include improved swimming facilities, especially with a larger 8 lane, 25 metre competition pool, separate teaching pool, learning pool and some fun leisure water for the young people to enjoy. In the meantime, until the new centre is built, the pools of the existing King Alfred continue to be very popular and serve a variety of communities. This is why we continue to invest in the centre and our pools especially in order to maintain and improve them so that people can continue to use them until a new centre is built.

Most recently we have started some major works to invest £800,000 in pool areas to improve the heating and ventilation which will be more modern, energy sufficient and improve the environment for the pool users. The Council has also been successful in being awarded just over £200,000 from Sport England Swimming Pool Sport Fund to replace two of the 40-year-old boilers for new ones: more sustainable and energy efficient models. Again, this £1 million investment in the King Alfred demonstrates the providing improved sports facilities for our residents is a priority. It also sets our longer term plans to provide new swimming pool provisions in the east of the city, as well as making further improvements and developments to our smaller community leisure centres such as Moulsecoombe and Stanley Deason and Portslade. We hope that these new improvement sports facilities, when complete, will provide additional opportunities that are accessible and inclusive to encourage our residents to be physically active and will contribute significantly towards a positive impact and physical and mental well-being.

 

Q5. Councillor West asked a question: I'd like to ask the leader of the Council: what was the exact date on which you personally first found out about the allegations relating to the two former Labour Councillors who’s recent resignations has led to the two costly By-elections?

 

Councillor Sankey replied: Again, this is not a policy question and I say to opposition Members, take aim at our policy, ask us questions, probe us, hold us accountable. But please focus on policy rather than everything else.

 

Councillor West asked a supplementary question: It will become a policy question when I ask my supplementary, because I'd quite like an answer from the Leader of the Council to this: Given this entire mess has been a direct result of the failings on behalf of the Labour Party, should the Labour Party, and not the taxpayer, be responsible for paying for the two by-elections, particularly at a time when the authority is making tens of millions of pounds in cuts to local services.

 

Councillor Sankey replied: I'll be honest, Councillor West, I find this suggestion absolutely shocking. Under our system, it is right and, in my view, essential that when Councillors step down by-elections are held. The alternative, albeit cheaper, option would be that councillors are appointed, maybe by me, as a sort of shadow Council of sorts which would be much less democratic. Under our political system, candidates and political parties are required to fund their own political campaigns, but not to bear the administrative costs of elections. Councillors and MPs stand down, or are required to stand down, for all sorts of reasons, and this is commonplace throughout our country, throughout the year. It is important to ensure access to politics and as level of playing field as possible so that individuals, or political parties, are not required to cover the administrative costs of elections. To reverse this would be a major departure from current practise and not something that we would consider. As a responsible Council, we've budgeted for one by-election per year and as these by elections are being held on the same day as the PCC elections, the required funds are available.

I can confirm that the two Labour candidates that have now been selected to fight these by-elections, and the Labour Party, will be funding the cost of their campaigns. And I'll say this additionally, I've come to expect little better from the Conservative Party. Their attack ads against our London Mayor this week adopted similar tactics, accusing him of seizing power and terrorising residents rather than being democratically elected. I thought the Greens were meant to be the cuddly teddy bears of politics. The ones with principles. Yet locally now you are going in a very odd and unprincipled direction. In a Trumpian direction, and so I'd really ask you to revisit this sort of line of questioning and this line of attack. I don't think it serves our local democracy well.

          

Q6. Councillor Meadows asked a question: What is the likelihood of City Clean workers going on strike?

 

Councillor Rowkins replied: Members are obviously aware that there's been an ongoing dispute and discussions have obviously been ongoing. I can report that they've been very productive and we will update members in due course and obviously our focus is really on delivering the lasting change that the service needs to see. Thank you.

          

Councillor Meadows asked a supplementary question: Residents are still experiencing problems with their collections, and we are given the excuses that vehicles have been sabotaged and we are waiting for new ones. When is the culture change going to happen in City Clean?

          

Councillor Rowkins replied: It is happening. The service has been poor for residents for too long and unfortunately the previous administration just failed to grasp the nettle. When Councillor Sankey and I first started visiting the depot regularly last year, to be honest, we were met with surprise. Staff at the depot were just not used to seeing senior Councillors, and it seems to me that it was just kept at arm's length. The data from October 2023 to January 2024 shows just how well the service can perform with missed collections way down from where they were in the previous months. Most of our staff just want to do a good job in a safe and respectful environment but as Councillor Meadows points out, there has been some deliberate disruption. There's also been some legitimate vehicle issues, particularly on our communal rounds. Members will be aware that we've got new vehicles incoming. We’re expecting to have four new communal vehicles to cover the three rounds in the city and by the end of April, notwithstanding any further unfortunate and events. Some of you may have seen that there was a fire in one of our vehicles due to a battery, probably from a vape, but some piece of electric equipment and these things tend not to happen in our old struggling diesels, they always have to happen in our newer electric vehicles. So that's obviously very unfortunate. But you know I will just reiterate that this administration will not relent in our efforts to fix and deliver what residents deserve and have been deprived of far too long.

          

Q7. Councillor Earthey asked a question: There remains inadequate mobile phone signal coverage in Rottingdean to support the Pay by Phone app. This has been reinforced recently by the phone company EE, who has recently obtained a High Court order to install a temporary phone mast in a local car park on the grounds that there is no mobile phone signal in Rottingdean. So therefore, on that basis, the contract between Brighton and Hove City Council drivers for parking is legally frustrated, right? So my question is, why are parking enforcement officers still ticketing vehicles in Rottingdean car parks where the only payment option open to drivers is the Pay by Phone app but there is no mobile signal? So basically if there's no mobile phone signal according to EE and the High Court says there's no mobile phone signal either, then I think we can conclude there is no mobile phone signal in Rottingdean. Thank you.

 

Councillor Muten replied: May I firstly take the opportunity to thank many  residents and visitors keen to use the mobile phone app or pay for parking by phone or SMS and text message. This is encouraging and reflects the experience of many in Brighton and Hove who once set up in a on the Pay by Phone app, find it an effective, versatile and helpful way to pay for on-street an public car park parking. The app provides a more accessible facility to pay for parking for your vehicle or from a cafe, for instance, without having to stand in the rain or wind beside a parking metre and a handy reminder ahead of parking period running out to add time to your paid parking without having to rush back to your vehicle or fixed location metre. However, it is appreciated that the Rottingdean phone mast signal has not been as good as it could have been recently, and recognise the inconvenience to local residents and visitors, which we are very keen to see mitigated. I now welcome a new temporary mobile phone mast which was installed on the Marine Cliffs Car Park on 18th of March and I wish to specifically thank the Independent Group of Councillors for pursuing better access of pay-by-phone options and consistently calling for improved mobile phone signal in Rottingdean to enable this, which I trust Councillor Earthey’s support for this phone mast is supported by residents to help improve the parking in his ward.

Furthermore, I'm sure Councillor Earthey will be very pleased to hear that Paypoint are in contact with Tesco Express in Rottingdean, and are contacting other potential agents in that area to become Paypoint outlets. With Tesco Express opening from 7:00 AM to 11:00 PM seven days a week, this will enable much improved availability of the option for cash and card parking payments in Rottingdean. Aligned with our ongoing parking review, we're working hard to improve and enable parking for all with appreciable improvements now imminent in Rottingdean.

 

Councillor Earthey asked a supplementary question: So when is Tesco going to offer this?

 

Councillor Rowkins responded: In short, Paypoint are in discussions with Tesco we would hope as soon as possible.

 

Q8. Councillor Daniel asked a question: My question relates to an update from the Leader of the Council about the changes she has led in relation to children in care. In particular a commitment to improve the role of Councillors in undertaking our work as Corporate Parents. Please can she update us on the steps she's taken so far to improve that?

 

Councillor Sankey responded: The Corporate Parenting Board is now co-chaired by myself as Leader of the Council and a care leaver. Alongside this, support has been given to care leavers and Care Leaver’s Forums supporting the development of new young people as co-chairs. Every new Councillor was made aware of their Corporate Parenting responsibilities when we set up our administration in May and were offered Corporate Parenting training, which was jointly delivered by Officers and care leavers. All Councillors are now routinely invited to every Corporate Parenting Board, and there is really good Councillor attendance. Councillors led the work on care-experienced people receiving protective characteristics and the Equality Impact Act templates that we have as a Council have now been changed to reflect this.

New reports to Cabinet, should that proposal pass this evening, will ensure that any changes or developments will consider the impact on children in care and care leavers and we're just about to set up a new forum which will involve our Care Leaver’s Forum to look at policies in detail to ensure that we are not directly or indirectly discriminating against care leavers or children in care in anything that we do. The Corporate Parenting Board has agreed the new Corporate Parenting Strategy for children in care and care leavers 2024-2028, which was written in conjunction with young people and a pilot is currently under way offering care leavers mentoring and shadowing by Councillors. Shadowing can be for one day and mentoring from six months to one year. This provides care leavers the opportunity to explore and learn the work of Councillors and their Corporate Parents, as well as senior Council Officers. The offer is ongoing mentoring, helping a young person to network and build links to explore career opportunities, develop new skills, knowledge and confidence.

 

Q9. Councillor Goldsmith asked a question:  Over the past few months, we've heard a lot about the difficult situation our city's primary schools are in due to falling pupil numbers. Given that this issue will undoubtedly end up hitting our secondary schools in the coming years, when will this administration be publishing a plan on how they hope to deal with this? And will that plan make sure that any decisions do not disproportionately hit those from already disadvantaged communities as recently happened with Labour’s closure of St Bart’s.

 

Councillor Taylor replied: As you imply, it seems likely that the fall in numbers that we've experienced in primary may feed through to secondary school. The Council forecast’s secondary numbers but using a different methodology for primary - clearly primaries is primarily based on birth rates and GP registrations - whereas secondary is really based on feeder primary schools and numbers. As an administration we're currently working through what that means for the city and what that means for our schools and we will be coming back to Council and the public in the coming months.

 

Councillor Goldsmith asked a supplementary question: In the early 2000s, Labour closed down a secondary school in East Brighton. Earlier this year, Labour councils in this Chamber voted through the only primary school closures in the Council's history. Can this administration confidently say that they won't be proposing to close any secondary schools in the remainder of their term?

 

Councillor Taylor replied: I would correct slightly the assertion in the previous question that we closed primary schools in the most deprived areas of the city. That's not really borne out by the statistics. The most deprived areas of the city are Moulsecoomb, Whitehawk and Hangleton. Those closures that we very sadly had to propose in response to the really serious situation we have with pupil numbers and deficits, were driven by planning areas and driven by the number of pupils in certain areas and that was very clearly laid out. And I would say respectfully to the Green Party, they never really engaged and got to grips with the seriousness of the issue. They never really offered alternative solutions. They are in opposition, they have to oppose, that’s fair enough. As I say on secondary, we're currently working through the numbers, we're looking at the plans and we'll come back to the city and to the Council very shortly.

 

Q10. Councillor Lyons asked a question: Does the administration find it acceptable that the city's bus service attached to the park and ride scheme at Withdean Stadium takes 30 minutes plus and potentially stops at every bus stop to reach the city centre?

 

Councillor Muten replied: I will just briefly reference what's been happening at the Withdean Stadium and into the parking. Freedom Leisure operated Withdean Stadium and took the decision to start to charge parking there.  There's a £3.00 charge for three hours stay for non-leisure centre users, enabling a limited car parking site to manage given the likely increased demand for increased sport facilities which we certainly support and are very positive for the lifestyles etcetera.

We work in partnership with Freedom Leisure and the bus operators. Freedom Leisure did contact the bus company before the implementation of the automatic number plate recognition and PR management to see that they would be able to assist in terms of maintenance costs in relation to car parking operations. However, this was not forthcoming within the timeframes Freedom Leisure wished to introduce pay parking to car park. And the reasons are that the number 27 bus stop outside Withdean Sport’s Centre is actually a regular scheduled bus service rather than a dedicated park and ride offer. As such, there is yet to be a dedicated park and ride public service in our city and in reference to my response to Councillor Fishleigh on the 1st of February at this Committee, there has been a 20 years saga of park and ride indecision and inaction, often with conflicting policy direction and ineffective compromise between the three parties rotating in overall control. As a majority administration we set out to achieve a park and ride, and to resolve that once and for all and so in response, the number 27 bus service is a regular bus service stopping at each stop. We do not have a dedicated park and ride for our city and therefore no dedicated park and ride bus service but we wish to change that and that is what we're going to do.

 

Councillor Lyons asked a supplementary question: I appreciate your comment about the park and ride, but as soon as you come into Brighton there's directions: Park and Ride down Dyke Road. The very first sign you see is Park and Ride and then at Valley Drive: Park and Ride; London Road: Park and Ride. On the website we've got that Brighton and Hove have got a park and ride service, so I would address that.

But my supplementary is: Can there be consideration for park and ride to include car-pooling, van-pooling and car-sharing with the benefits of high occupancy vehicles being allowed to use a bus or taxi lane to get into the city centre?

 

Councillor Muten responded: I do accept there is some legacy signs indicating there's park and ride. We have actually updated some of the signage and updated our website. As said, we do not have a dedicated park and ride facility, but we do know some people choose to park in those in those car parks, and we've certainly encouraged them to do that. They are linked to routine bus services, and it does provide a reasonable way to park and come into the city without having to park in the city centre. So, I certainly encourage that. In terms of car occupancy and multiple occupancy, we certainly encourage people to think about sharing cars. Car share is a very positive way to reduce number of vehicles on the roads etcetera and particularly for people want to park up somewhere and choose to car share to somewhere else. That's a really good way to help. In terms of the technology to monitor whether vehicles of multiple occupancy are in a bus lane, for instance, we do not have the technology to do that effectively and also there are questions about the legality of some of that as well and it has been considered carefully in one of our bus routes or bus lanes and it's come to the conclusion that it's not actually a viable route, even the bus companies have expressed quite some concern about that because it's very difficult to regulate. They feel that it’d be abused considerably and very large numbers of vehicles other than buses will be using those lanes and the buses themselves which they're set up for, fast transit for buses will be impeded.

          

The Mayor noted that question 11 had been withdrawn and moved on the following question.

 

Q12. Councillor McLeay asked a question: So the Council has an ambition for the city to be carbon neutral by 2030 and it has been good to hear Councillor Muten say that they are fully committed to improving air quality across the city. So my question is to ask Councillor Muten to set out what the new administration plan is, to build on the work done by officers during the previous administration to meet this target, and ideally without treating this as an opportunity to simply dismiss previous efforts.

 

Councillor Rowkins replied: Members will be aware, obviously, that Brighton and Hove City Council is responsible for less than 2% of the city's carbon emissions, and Council is also aware and has heard before, how incredulous Councillor Muten and I were to learn that there was no plan for the remaining 98%. Indeed, it seemed so absurd to me that a Green-led administration would fail to plan for net zero that I've often wondered if it was in fact a hoax, and that one day I'd be sat in a meeting and a senior officer would slide a thick, bound document across the table and safely say of course there was a plan. Here we are though, almost a year in, and I'd all but given up hope. But when I saw the title of this question, to be honest I lit up. I thought at last here at the final Full Council of our first year, the Greens themselves are going to hand it over. Alas, I've been disappointed again. Fortunately, Madam Mayor, we have been making a plan and this administration will be focusing on large-scale, high-impact decarbonization projects that not only help us towards net zero, but also improve the lives of our residents.

 

Councillor McLeay asked a supplementary question: Do the administration realise that within the HRA, a 6 million sustainability investment a year is woefully inadequate to achieve even EPCB fuel efficiency across our housing stock by 2030? And with Council budgets being so restricted, why is the administration passing up the opportunity to apply for social housing decarbonization Fund 2.2? And if they did apply on a smaller scale to the Green-led Lewes District Council, they would be able to bring in an extra 11 million investment to benefit Brighton and Hove tenants. I heard last week or we have heard that the Housing Committee previously didn't apply because they did not identify a suitable size project that can be delivered within the criteria and time frame of the funding. But Lewes Council did and are managing to, so, you know, will we be able to do the same? And it requires leadership from Councillors to be able to do.

          

Councillor Rowkins replied: I'm not aware of what Lewes have allocated their funding to, but if the Housing committee or Members or Officers assert that they couldn't find a suitable project for that sort of funding, then I would have to trust that that is accurate. But, you know, again like I said earlier on, even when you take into account our not insignificant housing stock and property portfolio generally, the task I understand it has already been asked at Housing. So, you know, we'll certainly continue to push for any funding sources that we can get. But, you know, we need to be thinking much bigger here. We need to be thinking about national and international investment and strategic partnerships to deliver really high impact solutions to get us on track for net zero.