Agenda item - Issues Raised by Members

To consider the following matters raised by Members:

 

(a)           Written Questions:

To consider any written questions

96.1.     A copy of the questions received was circulated ahead of the meeting. Responses provided are as follows:

 

1)             Councillor Meadows- Patcham Court Farm 

 

Why is the lease set to last 250 years (paragraph 2.1)? 

 

Response from Councillor Taylor:

 

Long leases of this nature are usually 125, 250 or 999 years and this is standard market practice. 

  

2)             Councillor Meadows - Patcham Court Farm 

 

Let’s assume the sale price is £3m.  That would amount to an income of only £12000 per year to the council.  Aren’t we selling this too cheaply for 250 years?   

 

Response from Councillor Taylor:

 

The city council is selling the property for best consideration, which is usually market value, and we have had specialist surveyors advising us on this.  

 

3)             Councillor Meadows- Patcham Court Farm 

 

What will prevent the Royal Mail in 10, 20 or 50 years time selling the lease on, or subletting the land to another organisation or building company? 

 

Response from Councillor Taylor:

 

This would be covered by the lease. The Heads of Terms are currently being finalised and the details of final lease are yet to be agreed.  The details are therefore commercially sensitive and confidential at this time and will be considered in Part 2 of the agenda.  

 

4)             Councillor Meadows- Patcham Court Farm 

 

Why are park & ride, housing, and Royal Mail the only three options considered for this site?  Why isn’t the land being considered as allotments or for growing food as per Cllr Alexander’s Notice of Motion from Full Council on 24th October? 

 

Response from Councillor Taylor:

 

As the report sets out, there is ground contamination dating from the farm use that would need to be cleaned up before the land could have been used for growing, and the cost of doing this would not be recouped by an allotment use. The Patcham Court Farm site already benefits from three large allotments sites within a 500m radius.  

 

5)             Councillor Meadows- Patcham Court Farm 

 

During the so-called consultation by Royal Mail and the council it was suggested to residents that this proposal freed up land for social housing.  Why were the Hove and North Road sites not financially viable given Royal Mail are getting such a cheap deal for Patcham Court Farm?  The lead councillors must have been aware this was not viable before planning was granted. 

 

Response from Councillor Taylor:

 

Royal Mail are paying the market value for the Patcham Court Farm site. They are, in turn, selling any freed up sites also at the market value. The Royal Mail has a duty to its shareholders to obtain best consideration for any sites sold just as the council has a duty to taxpayers to obtain best consideration for its own land disposals. As the report states, negotiations have taken place on the Hove site, and indications are that there is a viable scheme to build about 120 new affordable homes at an agreed price for the land. The heads of terms propose that the sale of PCF to Royal Mail includes a condition that Homes for Brighton & Hove is given first refusal to buy the Royal Mail site at that agreed land value.  

The North Road site is not viable for Homes for Brighton & Hove, but it will still be expected to deliver affordable homes as part of any private sector-led housing scheme. 

 

6)             Councillor Meadows- Patcham Court Farm 

 

What justifies the comment in paragraph 5.1 that the “considerable weight of public opinion was considered” given that residents attended and watched the whole process?   

 

Response from Councillor Taylor:

 

The report prepared by planning officers for the planning committee summarised all the comments received which members of the Committee would have read during their preparation for the committee.  All of the responses received are also available to view on the Planning Register.  Some residents did also speak at committee outlining their considerations.  Whilst the decision to approve the application, may not have been the outcome residents would have liked, this is not an indication that weight was not given to the residents and was something that was discussed during the meeting. 

 

7)             Councillor McNair- Corporate Systems Improvement 

 

The council must have known that our corporate systems approach needed renewing.  Was the £2.75m for phase one budgeted for this financial year 2024-25? 

 

Response from Councillor Burden:

 

As noted in the report, a previous review of corporate systems was undertaken and reported to the former Policy & Resources Committee in July 2022. According to public record, Cllr McNair was at that meeting, but allow me to refresh his memory. That report estimated the cost of replacing corporate systems with an integrated Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system to be around £8 million. However, the proposed scheme did not proceed to final approval for the reasons set out in this report, and therefore no budget was created. The report on this Cabinet agenda therefore seeks approval to create the capital budget to re-procure and develop corporate systems in accordance with a new, better value-for-money approach, and to authorise the associated financing (borrowing) over the period 2024/25 to 2026/27.  

 

8)             Councillor McNair- Corporate Systems Improvement 

 

How many additional staff will be required to ensure this back-office operation runs smoothly? 

 

Response from Councillor Burden:   

 

The staffing resources are expected to fluctuate over the implementation period - different skills and expertise are required at different stages of implementation. Some resources will also need to be secured externally, where the council does not have the necessary in-house expertise. This meands it is difficult to predict exactly the resources required until the work is underway, but overall staffing of between 12 to 18 staff (including external resources) are expected to work on the programme at any one time over the phase one period. This will largely be achieved by moving existing staff over to the programme and back filling or seconding their roles with temporary staffing. This will also have the benefit of broadening staff experience of different roles and responsibilities, something we’re always keen to introduce. 

  

9)             Councillor McNair- Corporate Systems Improvement 

 

What's the expected cost saving of the new corporate system? 

 

Response from Councillor Burden:

 

As set out in paragraph 9.2 and Appendix 2, full-year savings of approximately £572,000 are expected to be achievable by 2027/28 with part-year savings in 2026/27. Appendix 2 also shows that savings will be across corporate services and functions as well as council-wide in terms of reduced administrative and management time and effort. 

  

10)          Councillor McNair- Open Spaces Events Programme 

 

What is the makeup of the May festivals forum (paragraph 3.12)? 

 

Response from Councillor Alexander:

 

The May Festivals forum consists of representatives from the key May events including: Children’s Parade, Brighton Festival, Brighton Fringe, The Great Escape, Spiegeltent, The Ladyboys of Bangkok and Land Beyond Festival (Waterhall). 

  

11)          Councillor McNair- Open Spaces Events Programme 

 

This approach seems to outsource all outdoor events in the city.  Who's responsible when events fail? 

 

Response from Councillor Alexander:  

 

The current strategy does take a low-risk approach to events. In case of an event failing to go ahead, the full responsibility for refunding patrons falls on the organiser. There is a robust system of examination through the SAG process to ensure the safe operation of events, however, if a significant issue was to arise on an event there would be some responsibility on BHCC as the land owner alongside other statutory authorities. To manage this, all medium and large events in the city have a representative from the Council Outdoor Events team within the event control room. We retain the right to close or cancel any event if at any stage we are unhappy with the operation of said event. 

 

12)          Councillor McNair - Open Spaces Events Programme 

 

Why do we track Manchester’s more expensive site hire fees? 

 

Response from Councillor Alexander:

 

The Outdoor Events Team benchmark across several key cities in the UK. While we are currently in close alignment with Manchester, we do not specifically track this price point. This is offered only as a comparator to demonstrate the high value we are currently able to realise for our spaces, and that we must charge to maintain income targets. 

  

13)          Councillor Sykes- Corporate Systems Improvement 

 

Social value: With increasing sums planned to be paid to global and national tech firms in license fees for software and cloud access, and cashable savings arising it seems from reduced future need for technical, management and administrative roles, is this proposal doing enough to maintain in-house /in-city capacity and resilience to support and possibly help develop new systems? 

 

Response from Councillor Taylor:

 

Given local government’s financial challenges, it is clearly sensible and efficient to have a number of large IT providers developing systems for the sector rather than local authorities individually developing their own solutions. We have done that where we can, and with reasonable but limited success. Our current councillor enquiry system is one example. Although the cost of systems licences have increased in recent years and may seem relatively expensive, the alternative of developing and maintaining such systems in-house would be unfeasible if not close to impossible, given the complex and technologically advanced systems now in use. And curcially it would increase costs by three to five times the amounts we’re currently proposing. And in contrast to your claims about reducing future need for technical and in-house expertise, the programme will provide opportunities for local staff to learn about new technologies and develop new skills that could help keep our costs lower and make the best use of the systems in future. 

  

14)          Councillor Shanks- Homewood College 

 

What meanwhile use has been considered for Homewood College? Has other educational use been considered as it is an easy to access location? 

 

Response from Councillor Taylor:

 

At this point in time the school remains open until 31 December 2024 subject to a decision later in this meeting. We continue to undergo a process of reviewing the availability of our education accommodation and the need to meet the demands of pupils in the city. No firm proposals have been considered for Homewood College at this time, but we will review the options available and consider our next steps, noting that permanent change of use or disposal would require the consent of the Secretary of State.  

 

15)          Councillor Shanks- Open Spaces Events Programme 

 

Events – Can this be amended to reflect measures suggested in the recent petition by Derek Wright on the use of our public spaces? Does the council support measures to compensate residents for the loss of amenity caused by events by reinvesting some receipts for direct improvements to the area where the event is held? 

 

Response from Councillor Alexander:

 

The considerations raised by the petition have been taken into account in the report. There were some good points raised by the petition and many of the suggested improvements are already in place.   We do recognise the need for as low an impact as possible on the local communities and we work closely with event organisers with this.  There is a very robust process in place for the selection of operators and ongoing scrutiny of plans throughout the pre-delivery and live phases from all statutory authorities.   

Net income raised does goes into the council’s general fund, which is of benefit to residents across the city.   A decision on changing the allocation of income from events would need to be taken at Cabinet level.  

  

16)          Councillor Hill- Corporate Systems Improvement 

 

Phase one of this scheme has a capital investment requirement of £2.75 million from borrowing with a loan period of 10 years. £4-6 million more is estimated in phase 2. Are there proactive steps the council is looking into to ensure that the phase 2 of the procurement is more affordable? 

 

Response from Councillor Burden:

 

One of the key reasons for the phased approach is a more measured implementation so we can track technological developments very closely. We are in a period of enormous and rapid evolution and improvement of emergent technologies, particularly with AI and machine learning, but also with blockchain and the Internet of Things. The proposed phased approach may well mean that lower cost solutions present themselves as we progress through the programme, and could well reduce the overall cost envelope for the second phase. Put another way, it’s to keep costs down and limit financial risks that this is in two phases in the first place!  

 

17)          Councillor Hill- Open Spaces Events Programme 

 

Are there ways that the council can help ensure there is suitable space on the Level for football during and/or immediately after events? There is a school group from Fairlight who use it with their headteacher for practice who often raised concerns with Councillors about their lack of access due to events. Sometimes the Level is left in a poor state after events that means it looks like ‘a scene from War Horse’. 

 

Response from Councillor Alexander:

 

No event on the Level currently utilises all three of the north lawns of the Level. It is a deliberate decision to ensure that one lawn is always left available, whenever possible. However, there will be a period of 2 weeks in the 2025 programme where this has not been possible, due to the lack of available space elsewhere in the city. This is not usual though.   The new framework contract which is now in place will ensure that all reinstatement is carried out as quickly as possible and likely to be significantly more efficient than previous years.