Agenda item - Oral questions from Councillors

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

 

1.        Councillor Davis asked a question:

 

Councillor Muten, many months ago you made a statement in connection to parking charges about residents driving rounds and round looking for spaces, and many months ago, I wrote to you to ask to see that data about the residents driving round. Can I see that data please?

 

Councillor Muten, Cabinet Member for Transport, Parking and Public Realm replied:

Thank you Councillor Davis, I appreciate the question. The reason I know this happens is because I used to live in Zone M. I lived a decade in Zone M as the zone was introduced and that zone is constrained, it's got a limit. When the zone was put in, many drivers would drive and park just north of Zone M, such as Davigdor Road or near St Ann’s Well Park, for instance. That was fine at that point, but then the next zone was introduced to the north and to the west. Zone M is very constrained and the residents of Zone M will tell you that they have to wait a very long time to get a parking permit, and that’s in the hundreds, and that's the case in other inner city zones. So I myself drove around looking for a space between five and seven o’clock because there were very few spaces at that time.

 

Since being elected, I've gone to many residence meetings and I've heard this again, time and time and time again. Residents are driving around, they pass their house, they're driving to the end of the road, they're going to the next road, not finding space, going to the next road. So I can categorically say this is happening, because I've heard it from testimony after testimony from residents, time and time again. Now one of the things that we are in this party, we’re a listening party. We've knocked on doors campaigning. This is something we were told. Perhaps you should do the same.

           Councillor Davis asked a supplementary question:

 

Earlier in this meeting, you said we are a data-led administration. You're clearly not because you can't give me the data. My supplementary question is: many months ago I wrote to you and asked you whether you could keep the Traffic Regulation Order on Balfour Road, so that hopefully we could get the information with cameras. I did write quite a while ago, so could you let me know whether you can keep the Traffic Regulation Order on Balfour Road for the School Streets please Councillor Muten?

 

Councillor Muten replied:

 

I do want to be really clear about Balfour Road School Streets Scheme. Last year it was introduced as an experimental traffic order, it was very effective with a volunteer base of schools. One end of the road were committed to put staff on that, but it did require the community to volunteer to make it work. Now this school year, we have found that many drivers have been dropping off their children on the way to school, or perhaps just driving through their area ignoring the signage at the beginning and the end of the school day. In a meeting we had with all Councillors, and which I attended with officers, you offered that you would go as Ward Councillors to talk to the school community to see whether you may be able to find some volunteers and I agreed, reasonably, that you would try and do that and that if you could find those volunteers by Christmas we’d continue with the scheme.

 

It is the case, I am advised, that you have not found those volunteers from the school and it is really with regret, because I think it was quite an effective scheme with those volunteers prepared to put the time in. But if we haven’t got the volunteers from the community, then I think we probably have to withdraw those restrictions during those beginning and end hours. We can keep the signs up, we’re more than happy to put the signs up and perhaps keep a review of that. But whilst we haven’t got moving-traffic power offences we’re unable to really enforce it within the resources we have. Thank you.

          

2.        Councillor Theobald asked a question:

 

With so many parents rightly anxious about their children’s school places, will the Council consider extending the consultation?

 

Councillor Taylor, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Finance and City Regeneration replied:

 

Thank you, Councillor for your question. As you say, this is always a difficult subject. School admissions and indeed anything to do with schools because it relates to people's families, their children, their education and future. So it's a really, really important subject.

 

In terms of the consultation, and as I mentioned earlier, the consultation exists within statute, and it must be concluded by the 31st of January for us to be able to set our admissions. But the important bit to reiterate is it's a genuine consultation, we will listen to the input and decide what to take forward.

           Councillor Theobald asked a supplementary question:

 

Can parents be reassured that all their children will be able to attend the school of their choice within their catchment area?

 

           Councillor Taylor replied:

 

It's a really important question because, in today's system, and indeed every other previous system, there has never been a guarantee that you can choose a school within catchment and it be guaranteed. That was a really important principle that was set out in 2007 when the council established catchment areas and, indeed, there have been years where because of changes in demographics, or bulge years, that families have not been able to secure a place within catchment. So the Council has never, and will never, guarantee that someone can choose a specific school within catchment and be guaranteed a place.

 

The broader consultation and the issues we're looking at is trying to balance, as I say, the question of fairness and access to schools with the geographic realities of the city, and that's what we'll need to do. Thank you.

3.        Councillor Fishleigh asked a question:

 

You might remember that Ben Carr, who Farms Council-owned land in owing Dean, came to the last full council to beg for help. I also sent you all photos of his crops that have been ruined by fires, barbecues, picnics, fly-tipping and emptying of portaloos and bowels by some of the people who stay overnight, roadside and vehicles.

Councillor Leslie Pumm subsequently visited and heard direct from Farmer Ben. Please would you update us on what the Council is planning to do to prohibit overnight camping on the road, called Greenways in Ovingdean?

Councillor Alexander, Cabinet Member for Culture, Heritage and Tourism replied on behalf of Councillor Pumm, Cabinet Member for Communities, Equalities and Human Rights:

 

I'm replying on behalf of Councillor Pumm who can’t be here tonight so this is his response: I was pleased to accept Councillor Fishleigh’s invitation to come to Ovingdean, and I'm grateful that she and Ben Carr took the time to show me firsthand the problem of antisocial behaviour and damage to Ben's crops.

 

It is frustrating that our existing legal tools, such as notices, are not as effective a deterrent as we had hoped. I have discussed Councillor Fishleigh’s proposal to introduce a bylaw with Officers and have concluded that the bylaw is uncertain in its effectiveness and expensive to introduce. If something is expensive to do, it should at least have a high degree of certainty that it will work. But I don't want to just bury my head in the sand. So one of the solutions is to identify proper sites, with adequate access to bins and other facilities, which would relieve the issue in Ovingdean and other parts of the city, because it is not just about this street or that street, and moving van dwellers around the city is not the answer.

 

I do apologise that things are not progressing as quickly as I would have liked, but I can assure you that they are progressing.

 

Councillor Fishleigh asked a supplementary question:

 

Those people that I've spoken to who stay on stay on Greenways know about Balsdean, but they just can’t afford it and they don’t want to access the funding that’s available to help them pay to stay so it’s great that you’re looking at alternative sites. I mean I’m not quite sure where they will be and how long this will take.

 

In summary I’m going to go back to Ben. He’s going to be absolutely devastated that we’re still not helping him, you know. He’s growing crops that are eaten by people and animals in our city, he’s having them regularly damaged, it’s affecting his livelihood and we can’t do anything. That’s not really a supplementary, it’s just a comment.

 

4.        Councillor Thomson asked a question:

 

It's Christmas time, people might have noticed, and I found myself not getting my bicycle out quite as regularly and catching the odd taxi here and there and I’ve been told recently by a couple of our local taxi drivers that the city is currently being swamped by drivers from outside the city. They mentioned Lewes, they mentioned Portsmouth, they said that some of them come from even as far away as Essex simply because there’s more work here. But it’s hurting our local drivers who are already facing stiff competition from Uber and I wondered what we can do to protect their business?

 

           Councillor McGregor, Chair of Licensing Committee replied:

 

It’s actually a bigger problem than Essex. I was in a taxi last week, I think it was in Manchester that he’d got his taxi licence, and I asked ‘why didn’t you get it in Brighton?’, and his response was ‘the test is very difficult in Brighton and I would rather get it from a cheaper place’. So what we have to do, especially in Licensing, is to make it much more competitive and have much more understanding of the issues the taxis are having. We’re currently doing the consultation work with transport to see whether we should change the rules on that. So there’s a lot that we can do.

 

It is a bygone thing of the Cameron government, I’m afraid, they opened up County Lines for taxi drivers so, again, another fantastic movement by the last Tory government. But thank you for your question and we are going to look into ways we can actually help taxi drivers in the city because it's a big, important issue. Thank you.

5.        Councillor Shanks asked a question:

 

We’re very lucky, or we fought hard, or people in the city don't really want the academisation in the city or privatisation of our schools. At the moment we've got less than 10%. So I know that there have been initiatives recently. I just wondered what the plan is to try and keep our schools within our family of schools, both in the short term, with, I think it's West Hove currently, and in the longer term?

 

Councillor Taylor, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Finance and City Regeneration replied:

 

As we discussed before, we're in agreement on this issue. We generally don't think that academisation is the way to go for the country. As you say, there's a current consultation for two schools within one Federation in the city which we have strongly opposed as an administration, and we’ve been taking part in that consultation.

 

We've also made representations to the school about the offer of the local authority. Essentially, a counteroffer to what the academy chain is proposing, and the real benefits of staying within the local authority which, in my view, are sometimes taken for granted and not always fully understood. Because there are many benefits, including the different services that we offer within the local authority.

 

I think more generally, locally, we need to be more proactive and promote the offer of the local authority and the benefits; promote the principles of public services being run by the public for the public and publicly funded.

 

Nationally there is a white paper, I believe, that's just been published that has some interesting things on academies, including a proposal to bring admissions back to local authorities for academies, which I think will be an important factor as schools and local authorities think about the structure of education. So I hope that sort of demonstrates that, nationally, I think there's a focus on this issue and, locally, we’re very clear that we want our schools to remain within the local authority and we think there are many benefits of doing so.

Councillor Shanks asked a supplementary question:

 

I'm really pleased to hear that you're lobbying the Labour government who, after all, introduced this awful policy. Obviously it was expanded greatly by an awful, well, Mr Gove.

 

Locally it might be possible to do parental ballots, for example. I think lobbying, nationally, if Labour really are going to change their mind on this, they need to do it quickly because we’re lucky that we've only got 8%, but there are plenty of authorities now where 100% of schools have become academies and I'm not sure quite how they're going to roll the clock back on that really. But, I suppose, the question is whether you can run a local ballot for those parents who would probably vote against it?

Councillor Taylor replied:

 

This is something that we've suggested. We understand, and we've tested this to death with legal, but we as the authority can't run the ballot and contact the parents, only the school actually has the contact details of parents and are justified in in contacting them.

 

But we have requested a ballot, I think it'd be a good idea. I think the consultation has shown a relatively high-level of opposition and concern from parents and I would just urge, again, on the record that the governing body of the Federation think really carefully. There's absolutely no animosity between the local authority and the governing body, they’re a are brilliant governing body and a brilliant head teacher, we want them to stay as part of the local authority family and I know that they're considering that very carefully now.

6.        Councillor McNair asked a question:

 

Thirteen schools in this city are not on track to be out of deficit within five years. This is likely to hurt Council services to all residents. What is the Council doing to ensure these schools finances are brought under control?

Councillor Taylor, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Finance and City Regeneration replied:

 

Thank you, Councillor McNair. It's a really important question and the answer is we're doing very many great things to address this issue. There's a number of different ways that the local authority need to intervene on this.

 

The first is that we had to address the issue of falling pupil numbers, which is a significant driver of financial difficulty for schools because they're funded on a per-pupil basis and, in particular with one-form entry primary schools, if they're well below their overall size, it is difficult to set budgets. If the number decreases each year, you’re chasing your tail in trying to set budgets.

 

So we had to make some difficult decisions on school organisation and we had to close two schools, which is the last thing that we wanted to do. But we're convinced that we know that was the right thing to do, and by the way, so did 90% of chairs and governors and head teachers in the city. And then we also reduced the size of some of those other schools. Now that's not the only piece, there's an intervention on budgets and the Council is scaling up their resources to assist schools directly with that budget planning and budget analysis to be able to get them to bring their budgets in scope. We know it's difficult, we know the context is difficult. We are very much focused on trying to get those deficits down and get schools into a more sustainable place.
          

 

           Councillor McNair asked a supplementary question:

 

Many schools in this city are making huge sacrifices to stay financially on track. One school has been offered £40,000 not to academize. Can all schools which are in the black have an extra £40,000?

           Councillor Taylor replied:

 

It's important to be very clear on the amount that Councillor McNair is referencing in the in the context of this consultation. That is an amount that the council has suggested to the school in response to submissions they've made as to why that deficit was historically accrued. We’ve got to be very, very clear that schools with deficits, the council can't just wipe those out in a way that, in my view, the multi-academy trust are somewhat disingenuously offering to the schools. Because ultimately wiping out a deficit means taking a reserve from somewhere else, and that academy trust will have built up those reserves from other schools and their funding. So, I think that's an interesting offer and probably not a good system.

 

I want to be very clear that this is not a bribe to the schools, this is a response to their specific submissions as to why that historic deficit was accrued and it's a very, very small proportion of the overall deficit. But it's an important part of a much broader offer that we've said to the school, about giving them the support that they will need over the coming years to maintain the fantastic outcomes they have at that school, and then work through the budget issues.

7.        Councillor Earthey asked a question:

 

My question is sort of inspired by the recent briefing note we've got on the i360 at the end of November. So the dire situation at the i360 affects us all as we as Members are collectively responsible to our council tax payers for recovering their losses as best we can and to mitigate against further ones.

This burden of collective responsibility does not fall solely upon the Labour Group, although with your majority you may think that it does, or you can wish it to be so.

 

So bearing this this in mind, this notion of collective responsibility, my question is: can the Labour Group assure this Council that as the i360 is in a near-terminal state of financial health, will a full cross-party special Scrutiny Committee be set up to investigate and report on a) how this situation has arisen, and b) to consider a full range of commercial options to minimise the financial and job losses to our council tax payers?

Councillor Taylor, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Finance and City Regeneration replied:

 

Thank you, Councillor Earthey for your question. In terms of Labour Council wanting to take all the responsibility, now I can assure him I'd love nothing better than to not to have to deal with it and take responsibility for it. Alas, it’s the inheritance from our Green and Conservative colleagues that we have to deal with, as is similar with many areas.

 

In terms of his question about the Scrutiny Committee, that will obviously be for the Chairs of Scrutiny Committee, but I think it sounds like a reasonable idea that Scrutiny may wish to look at this. I also think that so serious is the amount of money at play here, and so serious is the legacy, my personal view is we actually need, probably, an external audit on this issue to look at the historic decision making and the amount of money that was extended. I think that is another bit. And again, that's not about blame game at all, that's about genuinely learning the lessons. I mean, this is a vast amount of public money, whatever the outcome is. A vast amount of public money to be lost on one decision, and I think for good health and good governance, we need to learn the lessons of that. So scrutiny might be one way and an external audit might be another way.

           Councillor Earthey asked a supplementary question:

 

Yes, I think we're more or less in violent agreement here but I’ll just make an observation anyway. Last time I talked about having a cross-party thing I was knocked back on the grounds of confidentiality, although I think in this case it's quite clear that all of us Members in this Chamber have already signed an issue of confidentiality to protect Council business. At least half the Members in this Chamber belong to Cabinets and Committee things with even more stringent things of confidentiality.

 

But I think the most important point is that the poor quality of the commercial judgement of the i360 Management Team is an open secret in every venue in the city and it's remarkably easy to get any information we want from this peer group within the city. Although the other thing I just want to say is that as we are now collectively responsible for the fate of the i360, there can be no secrets from us. So you can forget a whole thing of confidentiality, if we are responsible for it nothing can be hidden from us, otherwise you can't discharge our duty.

So really I think my question, again, possibly in violent agreement here. So Councillor Taylor, can you assure this Chamber you will now dismiss these redundant excuses of confidentiality and implement a totally transparent cross-party approach, open the books of the i360 for the Members and fully exploit the commercial talents contained within our city?  

 

           Councillor Taylor replied:

 

I'd certainly like to unlock the many commercial talents that exist within the city and I agree with him on that. In terms of the confidentiality point I think I'll have to just consider it, because my understanding is that during the administration process, the administrators would want that information on the full finances to be available only to commercial partners that were seriously exploring the prospect. I believe that is what is happening, well I know that's what's happening, that you can enter a data room and look at that. Perhaps Councillor Earthey might want to buy the i360 and then he can sign the NDA and go in the data room and have a look himself. But I can come back to him on what we could potentially make available via Scrutiny or elsewhere.

8.        Councillor Nann asked a question:

 

My question is what can be done to ensure that disability access to our nightclubs is a level playing field citywide? Research is showing that some nighttime venues receive good reviews for this feature, whilst the others do not, and we need to ensure equality of access to all.

Councillor Alexander, Cabinet Member for Culture, Heritage and Tourism replied on behalf of Councillor Pumm, Cabinet Member for Communities, Equalities and Human Rights:

 

So the Council's own venue, the Brighton Centre, has received a gold-status from Attitude is Everything, a national organisation working to connect people with disabilities to music and entertainment venues across the country. But work definitely needs to be done on some of our city’s venues that are outside of the Council's control. I have been speaking with Councillor Leslie Pumm this week on this issue and we have agreed that we will arrange to visit venues that fall short of where they need to be when it comes to being fully accessible, and we can definitely advise venues on what would be best practice, and we will encourage venues to improve where needed. Thank you.

 

           Councillor Nann asked a supplementary question:

 

I've collected a number of reviews from various venues across the city. If I forward them to you, Councillor Alexander, would you commit to using them to inform the work you did?

           Councillor Alexander replied:

 

           Yes, please, that, that would be really useful information. Thank you.

 

9.        Councillor Sykes asked a question:

 

For the second time in recent history, Labour's axed the council’s sustainability team and lost their long-serving officers. And this time the team has been replaced by a net zero team focusing on citywide decarbonisation projects, which are largely out with Council control.

Can councillor Rowkins tell us where leadership now sits for internal sustainability and environmental management, in which tasks and activities continue under the new net-zero team?

 

           Councillor Rowkins, Cabinet Member for Net Zero and Environmental S           Services replied:

 

Well, Councillor Sykes, I'm both discombobulated and disappointed. I thought you were going to take this opportunity to congratulate me on all the hard work that we've been doing on decarbonization. Perhaps the largest solar deployment in the in the Council's history, or as we heard earlier, the nation-leading EV charging infrastructure, or maybe bringing the National Wealth Fund to the city so quickly after their formation by this new government.

As you rightly said, we do now have a net-zero team, which incidentally is larger than the previous sustainability team. It currently has nine people in it and will continue to grow as projects come online. The short answer to your question is that all of the functionality of what was the sustainability team now sits within the net zero team, including risk and adaptation and various other things. There's also exciting stuff happening in other teams like the Circular Economy Route map, which is coming through, led by Councillor Goddard over there. So, I'll leave it there. Thank you.

           Councillor Sykes asked a supplementary question:

 

It's great news that the new team is larger than the previous one, I'd understood that not to be the case so that's great. Thanks very much for that. My supplementary is: independent accreditation and peer review is important to demonstrate leadership and promote sustainability in the Council's supply chain. So I wonder if you could update us, Councillor Rowkins, on where we are with the Council's sustainable environmental policy, any relevant accreditations such as ISO 14001 Environmental Management Systems, newer accreditations around carbon in construction PAS 2080, things like sustainable events management  ISO 12021 external accreditations. I wonder if you could update us? Thank you.

           Councillor Rowkins replied:

 

Well, Councillor Sykes, you clearly have a much more encyclopaedic knowledge of all of those regulations than I do. I can certainly assure him that embodied carbon, and certainly scope 3 emissions and all of that, is very much within consideration. I'm happy to come back to you if you want to give me a list of those particular accreditations. I'll happily come back to you on that. But clearly what we're really focused on in the net zero team has only been in place for a few months now. The city is belting out nearly three million tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year, and that's been our focus. So when I get a minute, I'll happily come back to you on that.

 

10.      Councillor McNair asked a question on behalf of Councillor Meadows:

          

In the e-mail I sent out on the 4th of November to Councillors regarding City Plan 2041 Consultations, Patchman and Hollingbury was not listed as a consultation location. Why were Councillors not updated about the consultation in Patcham on the 4th of December?

Councillor Taylor, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Finance and City Regeneration replied:

 

Thank you, Councillor McNair, for your question instead of Councillor Meadows. The honest answer is I don't know about that. If there was an event in your Ward and you weren't aware of that, then that is not correct and I will ask officers to look into what happened because you should have been invited.

Councillor McNair asked a supplementary question:

 

Why was the consultation at 2pm in the afternoon when most people are working and not, for example, at 6pm?

 

Councillor Taylor replied:

 

Fair question. As someone who's currently doing a lot of consultation events on schools, we often get feedback that if you do meetings in the evening, that's difficult for people who have children. If you do them in the daytime, it’s difficult for people who work. If you do it at the weekends, that's difficult for those who've got family to look after at the weekend. So I think it's important, and what we try to do when we have large consultations, is to have a spread of events across both locations and times and formats. So that one was at 2pm, perhaps that wasn't great for everyone, but the Council tries to accommodate everyone in our consultations.