Agenda item - Questions from Councillors

(a)         Written Questions from Councillors. 

         A list of the written questions submitted by Members has been included in the agenda papers (copy attached).  This will be repeated along with the written answers received and will be taken as read as part of an addendum circulated separately at the meeting.

 

(b)        Oral Questions from Councillors.

         A list of Councillors who have indicated their desire to ask an oral question at the meeting along with the subject matters has been listed in the agenda papers (copy attached).

 

26.1         The Mayor reminded the Council that councillors’ written questions and the replies from the appropriate councillor were now taken as read by reference to the list included in the addendum, which had been circulated as detailed below.

 

            Written Members’ Questions

 

26.2         (a) Councillor Hamilton asked:

 

“I understand that as part of the current organisational transformation the council intends to produce a comprehensive approach to the management of talent.  When do you expect to have this in place?  Will career pathways be part of the employment framework of the council?  Will this lead to greater career and development opportunities for all employees who seek them, and will there be a structured approach for all abilities as a way of motivating and retaining the existing workforce?”

 

26.3         Councillor Alford, Cabinet Member for Central Services replied:

 

When do you expect to have this in place?

“We hope to begin work on a talent management strategy for the organisation from April 2011. This allows time for the leadership team to work with HR to analyse the current workforce profile, predict the future needs and develop a workforce plan by end of March 2011. The thinking involved in doing this will allow the talent management plan to be targeted to BHCC needs.”

 

Will career pathways be part of the employment framework of the council?

“We already have career pathways in some areas of the organisation e.g. legal services. It is intended with the introduction of job families, for this practice to widen, however we are at early stages in our thinking. Job families enable more flexible use of the workforce and for employees themselves to identify development needs required to move up in their existing job family or transfer to another job family.”

 

Will this lead to greater career and development opportunities for all employees who seek them? Will there be a structured approach for all abilities as a way of motivating and retaining the existing workforce?

“Our intent would be for any talent management strategy that we put in place to be about motivating, retaining and developing the talent that the organisation needs to be successful. It is not clear yet how it will be applied across the organisation.”

 

 

26.4         (b) Councillor Elgood asked,

 

"Can the Cabinet Member for Finance give a progress up-date on the implementation of the Coalition Government's requirement for councils to publish items of expenditure over £500, and to explain why the council has yet to implement it when other councils already have?”

 

26.5         Councillor Young, Cabinet Member for Finance replied,

 

“The Council will publish items of expenditure over £500 on 25 October 2010. This will include both a detailed breakdown of expenditure incurred in 2009/10 accessible through a user friendly free software package “Spotlight on Spend” and monthly files showing expenditure for 2010/11 derived from our creditor system. This provides a huge amount of information on council spending for example the April 2010 spending data file alone runs to 8,875 lines, and at has taken some time to process all this data in a form that satisfies the draft regulations. A recent survey has shown that so far 27% of all councils in the South East Region had published their spending data, but most of the authorities were small districts and only 16% of Unitary and County Councils had published their data.”

 

 

26.6         (c) Councillor Elgood asked,

 

"Can the Cabinet Member for Children & Young People confirm the number of users of the Connexions service (for the year from September 2009) listed by council ward?"

 

26.7         Councillor Brown, Cabinet Member for Children & Young People replied,

 

“We are currently not able to give the requested information listed by council ward.  However, the citywide figures for the period requested, by age of young person, are as follows:

 

 

Please note that this table shows individual, different young people. The vast majority had more than one intervention over the year. Interventions can range from sending out information, telephone support through to a full intensive one-to-one interview.”

 

 

26.8         (d) Councillor Kitcat asked,

 

"The latest Sitemorse local government website benchmarking report placed Brighton & Hove City Council's site in 331st place out of 429 Local Authority sites reviewed.  Among other things the report flagged the site's accessibility as being 'impaired’.

 

Given the key role the new media industry plays in the local economy, can the Cabinet Member responsible explain what plans are in place to remedy this situation so that the site is improved and is accessible to users of all abilities?”

 

26.9         Councillor Alford, Cabinet Member for Central Services replied,

 

“1.  Accessibility is a key requirement for the ongoing development of the Council website. The website has been designed to meet established industry standards and conforms to recognised accessibility guidelines.

 

2.   The council subscribes to The Society for IT Management (SOCITM), an association for ICT professionals in the public and third sectors. In the 2010 SOCITM review of all local authority websites, the Brighton & Hove website received a 3 star rating. This is assessed against a range of different factors including accessibility.

 

3.   Sitemorse is a private organisation which sells its consultancy and audit services to organisations. The Sitemorse ranking of the Council website is based on their own diagnosis and prioritisation of a range of different factors.

 

4.   We are currently implementing the first of a three phase web development program as part of a channel shift strategy which underpins our commitment to citizen centric services.

 

5.   Stage 1 will review and improve the design and navigation aspects of the existing website. Working with Community Contact Point staff we will incorporate user feedback to inform future design and accessibility needs.

 

6.   Stage 2 will include significant changes to the structure and architecture of the website to move it closer to the council's ambition of a personalised, transactional and transparent web experience which meets the needs of all its customers.

 

7.   Officers are establishing an approach using the established Equalities Impact Assessment process which will directly address accessibility issues across all services impacted under this programme.”

 

 

26.10    (e) Councillor Kitcat asked,

 

            "Will the Leader of the Council commit to wherever possible now publishing Council information, including spending data, under an open licence such as Creative Commons or the National Archive's new Open Government Licence?"

 

26.11    Councillor Mears, Leader of the Council replied,

 

“The Council is committed to openness and transparency and will always make information available to the public unless there are good legal or other reasons not to do so, such as the need to protect people’s privacy.

 

The exact form in which information is published depends on the subject and the intended audience. We will always adopt the most appropriate means taking into account legal requirements, good practice as well as government guidance.

 

On the issue of publishing expenditure, I confirm that we will publish items of expenditure over £500 on 25 October 2010. This will include both a detailed breakdown of expenditure incurred in 2009/10 and monthly files showing expenditure for 2010/11 derived from our creditor system. We will be using Data.Gov terms and conditions for our published information which is in line with government guidance to ensure that the data is presented in a usable format.

 

I hope this answers your question”

 

 

26.12    (f) Councillor Kitcat asked,

 

            "The option of a return to the committee system for this Council as a part of the Localism Bill is not to be even voted on in Parliament until late 2011. Given this fact, can the Leader of the Council explain why the Independent Remuneration Panel's report on councillor allowances still has not been voted on by this Council?”

 

26.13    Councillor Mears, Leader of the Council replied,

 

            “As you will be aware, the Independent Remuneration Panel’s report was deferred at Full Council in March because of concerns raised by some of the Members over a number of the recommendations put forward.  Since then Group Leaders have had an opportunity to put forward any comments for the Panel’s consideration and as you will have seen, their report is on the agenda for today’s meeting together with an officer report.

 

            The matter of a possible return to the committee system is a subject for separate debate and in no way affects the decision we will be making today.”

 

 

26.14    (g) Councillor Duncan asked,

 

“Does the Cabinet Member believe that American Express is doing enough to compensate residents suffering severe inconvenience, and in some cases loss of earnings from working at home, as a result of the construction of the firm’s new facility in the Carlton Hill area of the Queen’s Park ward?”

 

26.15    Councillor Fallon-Khan, Cabinet Member for Enterprise, Employment and Major Projects replied,

 

            “I would like to thank Councillor Duncan for his question.  It is my understanding that Amex is doing a great deal to assist local residents who may be suffering inconvenience.

 

            In addition to a range of long term community benefits secured through the planning permission under a section 106 Agreement, AMEX has arranged a range of measures to reduce the impact of the works on the local community. These include:

 

-     Monthly residents’ liaison meetings and a monthly newsletter distributed by hand to 250 neighbours informing them of the progress of the works.

 

-     An information website.

 

-     Providing residents with prior warning of any particularly disruptive construction activities which are unavoidable.

 

-     Appointing a full time neighbour liaison manager who is contactable on a freephone number during working hours.

 

-     A free fortnightly window and car cleaning service to 166 households around the site. I understand that 108 households have taken up the window cleaning and 54 households the car cleaning.

 

-     An off site community room for home workers and residents to use free of charge. This has been equipped with four computers, a printer, wi-fi, 2 sofas, TV, kitchen facilities and is available by pre-booking. This room has been available for two months now, although I understand that only 4 passes have been issued and 5 bookings made to date.

 

            I am aware that senior officers of the council are continuing to work with local residents and Amex representatives to help ensure that any inconvenience is kept to a minimum.”

 

 

26.16    (h) Councillor Duncan asked,

 

"The weekend of October 9^th-10^th was one of the warmest October weekends in years.  Temperatures reached 20 degrees, and the beach in many areas was packed, both with tourists and local residents, some of whom were enjoying swimming in the sea. How many council-provided lifeguards were on duty?"

 

26.17    Councillor Smith, Cabinet Member for Culture, Recreation and Tourism replied,

 

            “The council provides a full beach lifeguard service from the end of May until the first week of September.  The service is made up of 26 seasonal lifeguards and patrol boat crew and covers 11 stations across our 13 km of Seafront. 

 

            During the summer months byelaws come into place which provide designated bathing zones which are identified by yellow marker buoys.  These zones are lifeguarded from 9.30 am – 7.00 pm 7 days a week and red and yellow flags are used to inform the public when it is safe to swim.  All buoys and flags are removed at the end of the season and anyone choosing to swim does so at their own risk. 

 

            Outside of the summer season the Seafront is managed by a team of 6 permanent full time Seafront Officers.  The team is based at the Seafront Office and operates 365 days of the year. 

 

            On the weekend in question there were 4 full time Seafront Officers on duty who are all beach lifeguard qualified.  The Seafront Officers patrol the seafront but are not permanently based on the beaches as lifeguards are in the summer. 

 

            The water temperature drops considerably after the summer season and Seafront Officers would not encourage people to swim unless they are equipped for these conditions.  A rescue undertaken by Seafront Officers on 25th September this year resulted in one officer and 2 casualties being taken to hospital suffering from hypothermia after having been in the water for only 20 minutes.”

 

 

 

 

26.18    (i) Councillor Duncan asked,

 

“Do you think the system by which tenant participants are involved in decision-making about the council’s housing policies, through Housing Management Consultative Committee meetings, and in other ways, could be improved in any way?”

 

26.19    Councillor Caulfield, Cabinet Member for Housing replied,

 

            “Council housing residents have a very powerful influence in the development of housing policies in Brighton & Hove.  Our recent annual report demonstrates how closely a wide range of residents are involved in shaping our housing policies and priorities and in checking on our performance. 

 

            We currently support around 70 resident associations, four Area Housing Panels and nearly 20 other resident groups, including the City Assembly.  Housing Management Consultative Committee is the meeting where final policy proposals are debated by both Members and residents, but much wider consultation takes place before reports are presented to the committee.   

 

            During the last 12 months we have increased the range of ways in which tenants and leaseholders can get involved.  We now have a database of nearly 2000 residents who are interested in getting involved.  We use the database to involve residents from under-represented groups and to involve residents in ways which suit them, including using social networking media.      

 

            Through our involvement of residents we empower them to gain new skills.  We’ve trained resident volunteers as ‘mystery shoppers’ to test our customer service, involved residents in a ‘rate your estate’ initiative and offered training for residents to become energy advisers. 

 

            Residents are involved in the procurement of new contractors such as the new repairs partnership, and a new group looking at building new Council homes.  Residents also control a yearly Estate Development Budget for improvements to their neighbourhoods.  

 

            The Council is continuously working with residents to further improve their meaningful involvement in the management of their homes and neighbourhoods.  Residents are currently working with us on the development of our Resident Involvement Strategy and over the next two weeks we are holding a series of ‘Tell us what you think!’ events to find out resident priorities for our services.” 

 

26.20    (j) Councillor Duncan asked,

 

“Members of Brighton and Hove Older People’s Council have warned that the withdrawal of the Free Swimming Scheme for over-60s will have a negative impact on some people’s health, and ultimately will cost society more money than it saves.

 

Will you reconsider the council’s decision not to subsidise entirely swimming locally for all under-18s and over 60s, and reinstate free swimming for all children and older people in the city’s public swimming pools with immediate effect?”

 

26.21    Councillor Smith, Cabinet Member for Culture, Recreation and Tourismreplied,

 

“The Free Swimming Initiative was originally to be funded for a limited period of 2 years.

 

Following the government announcement in June that the funding would cease 8 months earlier than planned, the Council explored the option of retaining the initiative. With the continued support funding from NHS Brighton & Hove, we have been able to continue to offer free swimming to children aged 11 and under until 31st March 2011.

 

We shall continue to work in partnership with NHS Brighton & Hove to explore further options to extend the initiative beyond this date. This will be subject to available Council and NHS Brighton & Hove funding.

 

In the meantime, over 60s continue to benefit from the concessionary rate for swimming which provides a discount of approximately 40% off the standard price.

 

There are also plans to develop a leisure card scheme to encourage further use of the Council’s sports facilities.

 

*Note – We have yet to begin discussions with NHS Brighton & Hove on the extension of an initiative beyond 31st March 2011.”

 

 

26.22    (k) Councillor Randall asked,

 

            “Can Councillor Caulfield tell us when the survey of potential sites for social housing in the city on council-owned land will be published?”

 

26.23    Councillor Caulfield, Cabinet Member for Housing replied,

 

“As reported at Housing Management Consultative Committee, the Cabinet Member for Housing has announced that the Council wish work with tenants to take advantage of potential investment opportunities to build new Council homes.   The Proposals are being developed in partnership with a Tenants Working Group on Building New Council Homes Chaired by Cabinet Member for Housing and consisting of representatives from the Repairs & Maintenance Monitoring Group and Asset Management Panel.  A paper is being brought to HMCC and Cabinet in November updating on progress. 

 

The aim of the Tenant Working Group is to ‘To work together to provide quality new council homes that meet the needs of our residents’.  The objectives are:

 

·      Identify suitable sites for development

·      Advise on acceptable design and unit mix for sites

·      Assist with the tender process to identify a suitable build contractor

·      Assist with the design of a local apprenticeship programme

·      Monitor the contract to ensure the necessary standards are achieved

·      Advise and assist with promotional activity for any new scheme

·      Advise and assist with local lettings plans for new developments

·      Help with the official opening and welcoming new tenants onto the scheme.”

 

 

26.24    (l) Councillor Randall asked,

 

            “Can the Leader of the Council give an assurance that charitable organisations running public events in the city that require street closures will not be charged for loss of parking revenue?”

 

26.25    Councillor Mears, Leader of the Council replied,

 

“Historically there has been no charge for loss of parking revenue due to road closures for a defined number of events on Madeira Drive. In addition to this, we do not currently charge for suspended parking bays during the London to Brighton Bike Ride or during Pride.

 

The council also facilitates a number of other charitable events and community events that can involve road closures, often without charge. 

 

It would not be possible to offer a blanket no charging policy otherwise we would face an avalanche of requests for road closures that could be disruptive to general movement across the city.  However there is normally only a nominal fee for charitable organisations where it is possible to accommodate such requests.”

 

 

26.26    (m) Councillor McCaffery asked,

 

            “Petitions to the council demand a lot of time and work from residents who believe they will be listened to. I therefore ask this Council:

 

1.   How many petitions were received by the Council between May 2009 and May 2010?

 

2.      How many of these petitions resulted in the outcome requested by the petition?”

 

26.27    Councillor Alford, Cabinet Member for Central Services replied,

         

“I can confirm that for the municipal year 2009/10 a total of 77 petitions have been received by the council.

 

Individual petitioners themselves will be best placed to follow up on any actions they have asked for. It would be extremely time consuming for officers to determine exactly how many of the 77 petitions have resulted in the outcome requested by the petition, not least because the outcome is often not clear cut.. Petitions may be noted at the time by the Cabinet Member or other body and, whilst often not resulting in any immediate action, can be built into future work programmes. Examples of this are many road safety and parking related petitions. I would, therefore, recommend to residents that it is always worthwhile petitioning the Council to raise awareness of any matter of concern to them – the Council agenda before us today perfectly illustrates why.”

 

 

            Members’ Oral Questions

 

26.28    The Mayor noted that notification of six oral Members’ questions had been received and invited Councillor Simson to put her question to Councillor Duncan.

 

26.29    Councillor Simson asked, “As the council’s sole representative on the Sussex Police Authority, Councillor Duncan should represent the views of the whole city in policing matters, including demonstrations, even if this clashes with Green Party policy.  Could Councillor Duncan give us an example of when this has happened recently?”

 

26.30    Councillor Duncan replied, “Obviously as the council’s representative on the Sussex Police Authority, I’ve been given the opportunity by the officers and Chief Executive of that Authority to sit on a number of Scrutiny Committees within the Police Authority looking at individual aspects of policing and I am, in fact, the Vice-Chair of the Sussex?wide Neighbourhood Policing Scrutiny Committee.

 

Taking your question entirely at face value I contribute widely to those meetings and indeed have just recently put in a submission on the future of neighbourhood policing as a Member of that Committee and I regret that we don’t have a representative, if you like, that means that the Tory Group on this council feels able to express their views on policing via me and in the past at Police Authority meetings we’ve had to endure veiled attacks from Brighton & Hove City Council on the police delivered by Conservative Members from East Sussex County Council because they convey, if you like, more faith from the Conservative Group here than this council’s representative.”

 

26.31    Councillor Simson asked the following supplementary question, “I wonder if it maybe should be my first question again because I don’t think that was an answer at all to the question I asked, but I will ask the supplementary.  Does Councillor Duncan agree with the MP for Brighton Pavilion, Caroline Lucas, that spending over £1M of taxpayers’ money in two years on policing ‘Smash EDO’ demonstrations in her constituency is justified?”

 

26.32    Councillor Duncan replied, “The short answer is yes.”

 

26.33    The Mayor then invited Councillor Hawkes to ask her question.

 

26.34    Councillor Hawkes asked, “It is part of every council employee’s terms and conditions of their contract that they should be given the opportunity to apply for a place at Bright Start Nursery.  The response given at the call-in earlier today described access to Bright Start as a benefit for staff, rather than a right.

 

Would the Cabinet Member care to comment on the terms and conditions of this current staff contract that I happen to hold in my hand.  Under Maternity Provisions and Support it clearly states the Employees Rights and Responsibilities document Section B, Part 3, issued to you on appointment give details of family-friendly policies adopted by the council.  Page 45 of that document, Employees Rights and Responsibilities, details Bright Start Nursery as a facility for children of council employees.  What are the potential implications, financial and legal, on the council for a change in contract for this large number of staff?”

 

26.35    Councillor Brown replied, “I have to say it was a very technical question, Councillor Hawkes, and I haven’t personally seen the terms and conditions but we have been advised by Legal, by the solicitors here, by the lawyers, that it is a benefit and it’s not a term and condition.”

 

26.36    Councillor Hawkes asked the following supplementary question, “Well I’m questioning that, of course, that was why my question was so.  I will pursue it.  Why were there no other viable alternatives offered other than the closure of Bright Start Nursery and will there be an Equality Impact Assessment carried out before you possibly decide to close this wonderful facility?”

 

26.37    Councillor Brown replied, “There are other alternatives, Councillor Hawkes, because we do have a lot of nursery provision in this city and you will know that when this Bright Start was first set up it was when there was hardly any nursery provision in the city.  We now have a very good coverage of nursery provision and there are other alternatives, Tarnerland which is an excellent nursery is very close and we will, of course, bring out all the rest of those queries in the consultation.”

 

26.38    The Mayor then invited Councillor Duncan to ask his question.

 

26.39    Councillor Duncan asked, “Will you join me in offering congratulations to Brighton & Hove Albion for currently being top of League Division 1 and then wish the club well for the rest of the final season at Withdean before moving to the Amex Community Stadium in Falmer?”

 

26.40    Councillor Smith replied, “I used to play for Brighton & Hove Albion at one time for a few years and I think some of our colleagues in this room would be Brightonians and they have supported Brighton & Hove Albion all their lives.  Their achievements this season and we’ve got to keep our fingers crossed they are there now but we want them to be there at the end of April next year, that’s the most important time: next year with the new stadium and what I said to that gentleman from Westdene earlier that we intend to make the athletics stadium at Withdean a super place, so that we can be the regional sporting capital of the city.  Obviously I will thank the Albion on your behalf.”

 

26.41    Councillor Duncan asked the following supplementary question, “I was interested to see a council issued press release issued earlier this month in which it was explained that there would be block letting of the football facilities, the all-weather pitches at the Stanley Deason Leisure Centre to City College and I just wondered how you square that enthusiasm for football in the city with the policy that will reduce public access to relatively inexpensive facilities to play football?”

 

26.42    Councillor Smith replied, “I look through the years that we are very supportive of all sports, not only football but everything else but you have to err when its pricing realistic ones and when you think through the years we’ve got all-weather pitches with floodlights now, whereas before it used to be playing just the daytimes in the park on grass.  I know when I used to play and probably when you were young you put a couple of jumpers down and someone would bring the ball and you played there.  The facilities are there, Albion in the Community are doing a hell of a lot of things for the ones there.  I think we’re doing well and a lot of the clubs have raffles and other things like that to raise money so they can hire those pitches and I know when I was playing at the end of my career, about your age I should think it was, we had to pay so much each week to play.”

 

26.43    The Mayor then invited Councillor Harmer-Strange to ask his question,

 

26.44    Councillor Harmer-Strange asked, “One of the recommendations of the Environmental Industries Scrutiny Panel on which I served was to look at how more suitable office space could be made available in this city.  Could the Cabinet Member tell me whether the recently unveiled plans for New England House could potentially provide a contribution towards this?”

 

26.45    Councillor Fallon-Khan replied , “New England House is just one of the projects that we will be looking at to increase inward investment into the city but as from the Cabinet last week it’s not going to be exclusively just for the digital media industry or creative industries it will also be hopefully for some of the green industries coming into the city as well. 

 

In terms of what we have managed to do so far, we’re very pleased that Eon have decided to set up a base here.  They could have done it anywhere on the south coast but the offshore wind farm is going to be eight or ten miles off the coast here.  We’re delighted that they’re coming to our city and we’re hoping that a lot of the other green technology, green industry companies will be coming in to follow. 

 

There is a big issue about employment regeneration.  This Administration believes very much in spending the next few years trying to get as much employment regeneration as well as housing into the city and these are the kind of industries that we would love to be able to come to Brighton and Hove. 

 

We’re talking to the universities trying to align some courses that they’re going to be doing with these other industries as well.  But in terms of the specific question about office space, the Leader of the Council and her Administration, we are looking to knock on the door of lots of people who own big chunks of land in the city which haven’t been used for five or ten years and perhaps get a bit of flexible use in planning terms for them to be able to build more offices, because one of the issues that we’ve had in the last seven or eight years is that a lot of these companies love starting up here and then when they get to 14, 15, perhaps 16 people there’s not an awful lot of office accommodation for them to move into.  Therefore we sometimes lose them to competitor cities, those being at the moment Bristol, Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham, so we do want to keep them here. 

 

Office space is important but there are three elements really that businesses who are going to come into the city, green industries in particular, that they will be looking for.  One is proactivity from the council, now we’ve helped businesses network despite the recession and we will continue to help new businesses start up in this way and also reputationally, now we have the Sustainable Cities Index results that were published a couple of days ago and we are in the top three again.  In fact every year that we have had this Brighton and Hove has been in the top three, so we are consistently hitting the top three which no other city has done.  Also in terms of Leadership we’ve got to actively go out and try and encourage these industries by providing the right kind of conditions that they can come and work here. 

 

On the subject of leadership here, it’s a real shame actually that before I did an interview with Radio Sussex the people who actually did the assessment, the Futures Forum, on us said how brilliantly we had done and how regularly and across the board how brilliantly we do.  It was just a bit of a shame that one of the local newspapers kind of dampened that down but I think it’s very encouraging for Brighton and Hove that we get these industries here amongst others and we are planning on positioning ourselves to come out of the recession in a much better place than other cities and part of this regeneration work is some of the stuff we are doing at the moment.”

 

26.46    The Mayor then invited Councillor Allen to ask his question.

 

26.47    Councillor Allen asked, “The CYPT Performance Report presented to CYPOSC at its meeting on 15 September contained the following statement: ‘Clearly the recent cabinet decision to significantly reduce funding for the Connexions Service will have a significant impact on our ability to both support and track outcomes for young people in relation to education, employment and training in the future.’  Would Councillor Vanessa Brown care to comment?”

 

26.48     Councillor Brown replied, “I’m not sure that actually was in the official report.  Obviously if you try to reduce any service it’s going to have some kind of impact but we are working to ensure that Connexions will still work and be of good service in the future.”

 

26.49    Councillor Allen asked the following supplementary question, “First of all to clarify, it was in the official report   This was the performance report written by the CYPT about the CYPT and that’s official surely and yes when I first read this I thought, ‘well that’s letting the cat out of the bag’ and it clearly still is letting the cat out of the bag. 

 

You know at a time when whatever one’s view of what will happen in the future, in the immediate future it’s going to be very rocky, particularly for young people, and isn’t it absolutely essential that we actually know what is happening out there in society as far as the NEET figures are concerned and if Connexions isn’t there in its current form to compile the figures, who’s going to do it, the schools?”

 

26.50    Councillor Brown replied, “As I have to keep saying we do still have £1.5M in the budget which is a lot of money.  It will be coming back to Cabinet to be talked about again and we will be very careful in looking at our NEET figures and there will be PAs to deal with the NEET in this city.”

 

26.51    The Mayor then invited Councillor Kitcat to ask his question.

 

26.52    Councillor Kitcat asked, “There are studies, including work by the new Economics Foundation, which show that when a local authority spends locally each pound can be worth as much as four times to the locality as when it’s spent elsewhere.  This highlights the critical role this council plays directly and indirectly in our city’s economy, so, as I’ll explain later, given that the public deficit is at manageable levels, how can the Leader of this council justify the economic damage of 28% cuts to local government budgets which will be unleashed on our city’s economy?”

 

26.53    Councillor Mears replied, “I just think I need to respond firstly about the Greens national response to the financial crisis.  Finances for the Future says something you need to know about their approach: one of the chapters is entitled: ‘Debt is not the huge issue it’s claimed to be’.  I think that’s slightly contradictory to Councillor Kitcat’s statement then, but I would like to put on record this Administration’s commitment to this city. 

 

We have set up through this Administration: Be Local, Buy Local.  When we were going into the recession we worked with businesses in the city.  Our staff proactively went out and knocked on over 2,000 doors to ensure small businesses could claim rate relief and we have worked right across the city.  As Councillor Fallon-Khan has already said we are now looking at New England House to improve the offer for small businesses, so I do find Councillor Kitcat’s comments quite amazing really.

 

I know he’s very busy but he obviously doesn’t read what the Administration does around these issues and I think, you know, Councillor Kitcat, you need to put it in perspective.  You can’t talk about debt as if it’s not an issue and then say actually what impact you think it’s going to have on the city. 

 

I mean some of the responses you had nationally were to recommend raising taxation by a massive £71 billion a year.  I wonder what effect you thought that may have on Brighton & Hove city’s small businesses and that includes raising council tax by £1.7 billion.  Now Councillor Kitcat I have to assure you that would have an impact on small businesses in this city and also raising £2 billion from ‘buy to let’ landlords which would have a massive negative effect on the availability of property to rent in the city.  Not only are you proposing to tax people to the hilt, you are also proposing that they won’t be able to afford to have somewhere to live, so Councillor Kitcat I really do think you need to look at the economics in this city and understand why in this Administration one of the first things that we took on board was Be Local, Buy Local, support the city.”

 

26.54    Councillor Kitcat asked the following supplementary question, “I do feel that my original question was completely misunderstood but we’ll try again another time.  My supplementary question is, given the importance of creative professions and arts to our city what is the Leader’s response to the Government’s cuts to arts funding?”

 

26.55    Councillor Mears replied, “I think if Councillor Kitcat carefully read the response from the Arts Council they were confident that actually they would be able to deliver and I think it’s important to recognise actually the culture element within this city.  We have some fantastic culture and art within the city but they also work collectively, Councillor, right across the city themselves, it isn’t just about what the Arts Council brings in.  They are able to create themselves. 

 

I think you need to recognise, I’m not quite sure if you really follow some of the projects that go on around art and culture within the city.  I think we’ve got a fantastic offer.  It creates a real boost to our tourism.  We have over 8 million visitors a year so I’m sure Councillor you would like us in this Chamber to support everything that goes on within the city.”

 

26.56    The Mayor thanked the Members for their questions and moved to the next item on the agenda.