Agenda item - Oral questions from Councillors

22.1    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:

 

1.    Councillor Davis asked:

 

In a recent FOI response, it came to light that there has been a significant drop in the Council's FOI compliance. The Information Commissioner's Office defined an organisation's compliance with FOI legislation as quote, “unsatisfactory”, unquote, if fewer than 90% of FOI requests fail to meet the 20-day legal deadline. In quarter 1 of this year, this council missed the legal response deadline 53 times. One reason given for the drop in FOI compliance says there is, and I quote again from the report, “nervousness around releasing certain information leading to pressure on the team to agree exemptions”, unquote. Now in the Council Leader’s former role she once said, “without FOI requests, decisions on what to publish will lie with those in power, those with vested interests, in keeping politically embarrassing, contentious or damning information out of public hands.”

Now hopefully you agree that it is wrong for FOI officers to be under pressure by others within the council to agreeing exemptions in the way suggested. And it's worrying that there's a culture of nervousness around releasing certain information. So my question is, what steps will the administration take to address the resourcing issues within the FOI team?

 

Councillor Sankey replied:

 

As you say, I'm a huge proponent of Freedom of Information and I'm proud that in my previous life I was involved in campaigning to maintain our FOI legislation in the interest of transparency and openness. I was not previously aware of the resourcing issues that you have flagged, so I will certainly take that away and look at it and I'll come back to you with an answer.

But just to say, we as a Labour group are very supportive of transparency and openness. That's why we recently commissioned a report into the failings that led us to invest in the i360 under the previous Green Leadership of this Council. I would urge the Green Group, that in the interest of transparency, your Green Chair’s Audit Committee, consider that report and ensure that the public have full transparency and openness when it comes to that critical decision.

 

Councillor Davis asked a supplementary question:

 

Yeah, not bad, and I hear you about coming back to me. I will remind you that three and half years ago I asked you a question about GMB involvement and the then newly elected Labour administration. I'm still waiting for an answer, so I won't hold my breath. I think the question I really wanted to think about here is if officers or the administration are putting undue pressure on officers low down the chain, that is unacceptable. So, what I'd like to hear about when the Council Leader comes back, and I will ask this question again, is how they're going to address the wellbeing and safeguarding of council officers?

 

Councillor Sankey replied:

 

Nothing is more important to me than the wellbeing and the health of council staff. That's why we commissioned, as you know, very early in our administration, a KC report into allegations of mistreatment of staff in our depot and why we acted on all of the 10 recommendations in that report to promote staff wellbeing.

I'm pleased that we'll be bringing forward a notice of motion jointly with Brighton & Hove Independents later on this evening, also recognising the role of our staff in the seafront office and in other roles who have been dealing with a very difficult fallout from some of the tragic incidents that we've seen on the seafront.

The administration is absolutely committed to staff wellbeing in this organisation. As I say, I'm not aware of any undue pressure being put on staff members in the FOI team, but it's something I will certainly look at and make sure that I can satisfy myself that that is not happening. One thing I would say is, it's really clear to me that the way that FOI works is incredibly important from a transparency perspective and ensuring that decision makers are held to account.

It's also incredibly important that there is a safe space for policy making for political administrations. And so it may be on occasion that full disclosure is not possible when FOI requests come in, because that safe space is essential for the good working and the good governance of an organisation and being able to make decisions and to discuss some policy matters with the required privacy that is needed. But I'll absolutely take this away. I will look at the allegations that you're making and ensure that I come back with an update.

 

2.    Councillor McNair asked:

 

What has been happening to our rubbish collections? In Patchman Hollingbury it's been appalling. Rubbish, recycling, garden. For a good month we were being inundated with complaints. It felt like the Greens had taken over again. It was that bad. And it started before the hot weather and there was no information coming out. And the council still insists fortnightly collections will begin.

What needs to change Environmental Services for this fortnightly collections to start?

 

Councillor Rowkins replied:

 

Well, apologies to your residents and any other residents around the city who've had less than satisfactory service. You mentioned the heat wave. I just want to sort of reiterate how significant that was and why it's relevant to this conversation. So, and we're actually going to talk about this later in terms of the effects of the changing climate on public services and the wider picture in the city and more broadly. We, to look after our staff who obviously have to do quite manual work, wearing PPE and not the kind of clothes that you would ideally be wearing in such extreme heat. We had to cut basically every single round in the city short for a few days in a row. So that obviously is going to create very significant backlog of missed collections.

 

That leads me to my next point, which is that the day-to-day service in our refuse and recycling collections is now running better than it used to. The key problem that we have is one of resilience, is what happens when things aren't going to plan. And that's why I spoke about this at length in the recent Cabinet meeting earlier in July about the additional measures we're bringing forward to increase that resilience for when things are going wrong. Now, look, that extreme heat was quite an extreme example and there are other times where things don't go to plan and it has a similar impact, albeit not for as long. But, to your point on fortnightly collections, I just want to be clear with everyone that no decision has yet been made on fortnightly collections, and there are several things that we want to have in place before any decision is made, and one of them is improved reliability of collections and service resolution.

 

Councillor McNair asked a supplementary question:

 

The poor service was not just because of the heat. It started well before the heat. If 100% of our rubbish, garden waste, and recycling is not collected every week between now and next May or July, when it's been mentioned the fortnightly rubbish collections will begin, will the idea for fortnightly collections be scrapped?

 

Councillor Rowkins replied:

 

I think it's pretty well documented that in our collection services, one of the issues we face most regularly is one of vehicles and the maintenance of those vehicles. You've heard me talk in this chamber and in Cabinet meetings and so on about new vehicles and the need to invest. The problem with new vehicles is that they take a while, right? You order them and they take on average about 18 months to arrive. We've set out investment and made those investments and ordered those new vehicles quite a way back into this administration. It's only really now that they're starting to arrive. So, between now and December, we've got 10 new vehicles entering service. Now that is a very, very significant improvement.

 

One of the other improvements that we've made is more staff in the workshop, particularly to cover evenings and weekends to make sure that where there are vehicle issues hanging over from the previous week, we can hit the ground running on that Monday morning because those have been addressed.

 

I'm not going to lay out specific conditions for fortnightly collections. Like I say, no decision has been made, but we're certainly making sure that the service is as resilient as it can be. And look, residents need to have confidence, and this is what I will say with confidence, they need to know that a missed collection on a fortnightly regime will not mean no collection for a whole month, and that is what we'll make sure is in place before we make any decision.

 

3.    Councillor Fishleigh asked:

 

Given the difficulty in recruiting and retaining people to open, close, and clean our public toilets, an increase in wages would surely make the job more attractive. Is this something Council has already considered and if not, would it be a good idea?

 

Councillor Rowkins replied:

 

There are various jobs in the Council that are that are difficult to recruit to, and the public toilets we have a sort of solid core full-time team, and we also have a seasonal team, because we have different and extended opening hours in the summer.

 

The combination of the nature of the work and the seasonal nature of the work does make those seasonal roles in particular difficult to recruit to. We are carrying a small number of vacancies. I think the total team for opening, closing, and cleaning is about 15 and I think we're carrying either 2 or 3 vacancies on that. And if you want me to, I can to come back to you with a firm number.

 

We are taking steps, in fact, we're onboarding staff at the moment. Actually, I just want to say thank you to you because I know you, along with your ward councillor colleague, have been instrumental in extending the hours at the Ovingdean Undercliff toilets. And actually, we're moving more in that direction. I would love to be able to double the number of staff we have in our public toilets and extend the opening hours both in the morning and in the evening. But as you know, it's a very expensive service to run. Thankfully, we've got some very willing and very well-meaning and very community-minded businesses and partners in the city, yourselves included, obviously. Babble have recently kindly agreed to extend the opening hours of the toilet there and take responsibility for some of the opening up and closing. The latest partner to come onboard is Hove Park Tennis Club, so we're very grateful to them and we're openly seeking partners elsewhere in the city to help us extend those hours because we know how important it is to all of our residents and visitors.

 

I also just want to say, while we're on the subject of staff, I just want to take the opportunity to thank those staff, because they work long hours, it's not particularly enjoyable work, but you know, I always, whenever I can, take the opportunity to say thank you to them, and I hope that others will too when they see them out in our parks and in the city.

 

Councillor Fishleigh asked a supplementary question:

 

I just know that two of the seasonal people left because they basically said it wasn't worth £14.50 an hour. It was quite stressful and difficult, etc. and not very pleasant. So that was where my question was coming from, really. But I guess your answer, maybe you didn't actually answer my question, is no, there's no money and there's different bands and what have you?

 

Councillor Rowkins replied:

 

Yeah, apologies, I didn't mean to dodge that question, so thank you for bringing me back to it. We have discussed the pay issue. Obviously, staff across the Council, there are pay bands and everything, and there are mechanisms for where you have particular problems with recruitment around being able to offer a market supplement. We have had that conversation, whether or not that can be justified. It's quite a high bar to justify that. You have to demonstrate very significant problems with recruitment over a long period of time. It may well be that's something we choose to look at, but it's not something that we've done for the moment, but we clearly need to make sure that we've got the team fully staffed, particularly in the summer. So, we'll factor that in our thinking for next year. Thank you.

 

4.    Councillor Hill asked:

 

With the support of the Equalities Minister, the EHRC's updated code of practice will come into effect on 5th August. This new code replaces the previous guidance and will be statutory in nature. Despite widespread cross-party backlash, including comments from the Council Leader, the government has pushed ahead on making it statutory without a vote on this. This guidance appears to conflict with the public sector equality duty and other equalities legislation and so seems unworkable to me. How does the Council seek to navigate this uncertainty whilst upholding the dignity of trans people which the guidance undermines?

 

Councillor Alexander replied:

 

I do recognise that the recent judgement has had an awful negative effect on our trans and non-binary communities and also on people who have a non-gender conforming appearance. We remain as a trans inclusive employer and will continue to remain a trans inclusive council, whilst also ensuring compliance with the law. The Council is meeting regularly with reps from the trans and non-binary communities throughout TNBI roundtable group so that we can better understand the sense of feelings, the concerns and what we can do to help mitigate some of the harms felt by the trans and non-binary communities currently. We also do believe that the guidance is flawed and confusing, and we will be pressing the government to legislate to ensure the dignity of trans people is protected.

 

Councillor Hill asked a supplementary question:

 

So, in response, I think the difficulty is that partly that compliance with the law is hard when different parts of the law say different things. So, what would you say to transgender people like myself who feel that this government treats us as a disease unwelcome in society? Why should we trust a government who endorses guidance that treats us as sexual predators simply for existing as who we are?

 

Councillor Alexander replied:

 

To be honest, I don't really know how to answer you, except that I'm really sorry and I'm trying to understand your pain and the pain is felt by trans and non-binary people at the moment and it's really understandable that there is the pain felt.

But believe me, we are working towards a solution. And as you say, it is really hard. The guidance is confusing and we are trying to navigate it currently. There's a team in the council working on it at the moment.

And we do and we will remain a trans inclusive council. And I'm sorry I can't better answer you at the moment, but hopefully I can stand here in a couple of months time and be able to answer more clearly.

 

5.    Councillor Meadows asked:

 

The War Memorial at Doric Temple in Patcham Peace Gardens is designated as a centenary fields, but it is in a very poor state. We thank the U3A for all their work in looking after the gardens. On officers of been out to examine the war memorial, but no action has yet been taken to safeguard it. It has weeds grown out of the roof and we're concerned about its overall structure. The crazy paving has also been left in a state of disrepair for many years. Can this memorial be restored please?

 

Councillor McGregor replied:

 

I'll be very honest, I don't know why this has come to me. But yes, we will look into it and I will get back to you some time with a plan for how we can restore it in the heritage of the site. I'm assuming that's where it's come to me for the heritage site. So, yes, I agree.

 

Councillor Meadows asked a supplementary question:

 

Just to say, as the Council has an Armed Forces Covenant Gold Award, do you feel it is important that this historical war memorial and gardens are valued and restored to former glory as other historic monuments in the city?

 

Councillor McGregor replied:

 

So yes, 100% and I think to give you some sort of trust in the Council is what we've done around Valley Gardens, the Battle of Boar’s Head that is so different and it looks amazing and it's so much more fitting for the occasions that we're having in the Council. And I know from the work that Councillor Grimshaw is doing as well, as our Armed Forces Lead, that we are so keen to make sure that the spaces that we have for these special events are up to scratch.

 

6.    Councillor Earthey asked:

 

My question concerns a new compensation mechanism for missed recycled collections. Previously, subscriptions were extended, but this is no longer possible because of the move to a fixed April invoicing date. This lack of clarity of the right to compensation has caused a lot of anger and confusion amongst residents, especially those suffering missed regular collections. So, my question is, please can you explain the new mechanism involving adjusting subscription payments that compensate for missed collections, which includes the criteria for making a claim, the process of making a claim, the need for any supporting evidence, when this new mechanism will come into existence, and how will residents be informed of their right to claim?

 

Councillor Rowkins replied:

 

I fully appreciate and recognise the frustration that, well, obviously the frustration from the missed garden waste collections, but the lack of clarity on how that is reflected in the arrangement.

 

So, for the benefit of those not opposed to it, what used to happen is that if there were missed collections, people's subscriptions would be extended by a period of time, but the services moved to a fixed sort of subscription period that models the financial year, which means extending it then gets very messy very quickly.

 

I can confirm that what is happening is that missed collections will be compensated for in the reform of refunds after each missed collection. I met with the team about it this morning and letters will be going out to every garden waste subscriber to make it really clear what exactly the process is.

 

Councillor Earthey asked a supplementary question:

 

I think in this day and age, really, when we have customer-centric integrated CRM and billing systems to go back to a kind of fixed term, fixed start date, is going back 20 years anyway, that's your choice. But, my question is, it really is vital that you tell people what they're rights are. So, when is that going to happen? When is it going to letter? Next week? Next month? Because they really are very angry.

 

Councillor Rowkins replied:

 

I appreciate it. It will be imminent. I can't say if it will be this week or next week, but we've basically worked out that that is the mechanism because there was a brief discussion about whether it would be immediate refunds or adjustments to future payments, whether there's a bit of stuff to work through. But it will be going out fairly shortly. I do think the confusion has come a little bit because the change to the way the subscription mechanisms were made, but the standard previously existing terms and conditions were sent out to everybody, which obviously didn't reflect the fact that that changed. So, I appreciate that's why that's caused a bunch of confusion, but hopefully that will all be clarified. If you want to put any residents in touch, then please feel free to do so. But like I said, I would expect by this time, hopefully next week, the letters will be drafted and going out. So yeah, fingers crossed.

 

7.    Councillor Atkinson asked:

 

I was pleased to read the recent report on antisocial behaviour in social housing and I look forward to seeing the recommendations from the People Overview and Scrutiny Committee and those issues being put into action.

My question though starts at the very beginning of the housing process and relates to how people are placed in council accommodation in the first place when it's known that they have issues with alcohol or drug abuse or have exhibited anti-social behaviour in the past. I have numerous cases in North Portslade where elderly residents, sometimes in their 80s, suddenly find they have a new neighbour who quickly makes their life a misery. I have one whose neighbour's dogs bark all night, another whose neighbour uses cannabis which seeps through the walls of their flats, one who has been sworn at regularly when all she's trying to do is ask her neighbour not to be so loud, and another whose neighbour comes home at 3 o’clock in the morning under the influence of drugs and proceeds to throw furniture around his flat.

So, my question is, does any sort of screening or risk assessment take place in terms of neighbouring residents before a person with known behaviour issues is placed in council accommodation?

 

Councillor Williams replied:

 

It is an important concern. We do understand why residents are concerned about the allocation of council housing, where there might be some known issues there.

Antisocial behaviour, we all know, can have a really serious effect on neighbours and the quality of life, and residents ought to feel safe and secure in their own homes. We all agree with that. But the council needs to balance two responsibilities here. We have a duty to allocate social housing for those in need. But we also need to make those decisions responsibly and consider any known risk and you're right, that is what happens. The council's housing allocation policy does allow us to consider previous behaviour. This can include a history of antisocial behaviour, tenancy breaches, relevant criminal behaviour, or whether someone might be unlikely to manage a tenancy unsuccessfully. In some cases, this can mean a person doesn't qualify for social housing for those reasons. They may qualify for supportive housing in some other way, but not as a council tenant as such, or may need further assessment before any offer is made. So that does happen and we do that with every prospective council tenant. There are also circumstances where a property can be treated as a sensitive net and this is used in exceptional cases where there are clear housing management reasons to take extra care. For particularly a community that has been traumatised by antisocial behaviour, for example, and we need to take extra care when a property is being left there or offered.

But decisions must be made on evidence. We need the evidence. They must be proportionate in law, or we can be challenged in law, and relate to the specific risk being managed. I know some residents who raised it at a housing panel, and I'm always sorry to hear about this. And we do recognise the strength of feeling in communities, it can be very disruptive, and we are taking forward the work with residents to look at ASB, to look at allocations, including how those decisions are made, how they are explained, and where the process can be improved.

 

8.    Councillor Wilkinson asked:

 

Clean, well-maintained streets, and public spaces contribute to civic pride, accessibility, support local businesses, and improve accessibility for everyone.

 

The Council has introduced a number of initiatives to improve street cleansing and public realm maintenance. Can the Cabinet Member for Environment outline what further action is planned over the coming months to improve street appearances across Brighton and Hove, including street cleansing, weed management, and ensure that all neighbourhoods benefit from these agreements?

 

Councillor Rowkins replied:

 

The condition and look and feel of our streets is absolutely fundamental to civic pride, and it's what people rightly expect councils to do. There's a range of things that we've that we have done, are doing, and will be doing in the future. We've obviously fairly recently launched the overnight street cleansing service. Now, I would say that's albeit been on a fairly limited footprint so far. I visited the area around Churchill Square in the day or two after they visited, and the whole place was really quite substantially brighter and much improved. We're obviously reviewing that service in terms of what it's doing, where it's doing it, and how it's doing it and all of that. I think, to be honest, if the Council's financial position improves in the coming years and I was asked for suggestions on what to spend more on, I think the street cleansing service would probably be at the top or very near the top of my suggestion. So I would certainly like to be able to expand that in the future.

 

The weed management programme has started this year. I appreciate, I think one of the changes we made this year is that instead of having one team working across the city from one side to the other, these two teams working from the outside and working in, but obviously those areas closer to the city centre, like the western edge of Kemptown, for example, I appreciate that's meant that you saw been a little bit late in the line on that.

 

We're doing a lot of work on fly tipping at the moment. We recently, earlier in the year, cut the bulky waste collection charge from starting at £60 for a single item to £25 for a single item. That's obviously a very significant cut and I'm pleased to say we've had a real spike in items being collected. It's worth mentioning that about half of all fly tips are single items. So, if you can get those picked up for 25 quid, then that's obviously a bit of a win. And we're working on further plans on fly tipping fairly shortly.

 

Lots of work going on graffiti, we've got some new equipment just landed, the laser jet machines that's going to enable us to remove more graffiti and do it quicker because you don't need a team of two to remove tags, you only need one. We should be able to do twice as many and that combined with the additional vehicles we put in will have an impact. So, there's lots going on.

 

We've talked a fair bit of length about the digital system in collections and the fact that collection service used to run on scraps of paper and the difficulties that led to. We're also now looking at bringing in a digital system for the street cleansing service to be able to get people to respond in a much more agile way to reports and enable those operatives to report things in. We're always looking for ways to improve the street cleansing service, so I hope that your residents in Kemptown will start seeing even more improvements soon.

 

Councillor Wilkinson asked a supplementary question:

 

Thank you, Councillor Rowkins, and I welcome all those productive and great initiatives that are in place. Kemptown Ward is one of the city's busiest visitor destinations, and I hear from residents right across the ward about persistent weed growth and the overall appearance of our streets. Could you confirm when the programme is expected to reach Kemptown, whether residents can request that particular streets are considered, where there are significant concerns, and when the enhanced city centre st cleansing and overnight cleansing programme will be extended to St James Street and the surrounding area?

And in addition, will you also work with us as ward councillors to ensure that local priorities are reflected in their programmes?

 

Councillor Rowkins replied:

 

The weed programme has, I think, now reached Kemptown. I think it's actually happening this week, so you'll start to see the effects of that fairly soon. The overnight street service initially covers the area that we allocated to the newly appointed city centre manager, which we launched last year. That includes St James Street, Kemptown, and that kind of surrounding area. So that area will definitely be done. I haven't got dates for you, but I can certainly liaise with officers and try and come back, because obviously, it's only been up and running for a few weeks, that service. We're still working out how quickly it moves. My view with that service is that I would like to get us to a point where we can deploy it to all parts of the city that need it, but obviously the city centre pressures, including St James Street are very significant because of the amount of footfall that we get and the impact that that has.

 

Just to remind everyone that anybody, councillors, or residents, businesses can request a clean up from the street cleaning service and that is a service that works. You stick it in the website and they will turn up and do what's been asked of. And again, I suppose I just wanted to take the opportunity to say thanks to all our staff. We often hear about what isn't going right or what we want more of, but I think given we have 11 million visitors to the city each year, our streets cleansing service do an amazing job of clearing all that stuff off the beach and everything. So I just want to say thank you to them.