Agenda item - 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.

43.1         The Mayor reminded the Council that councillors’ oral questions would be taken in the order as listed on the Council Agenda and that a period of 30 minutes was set aside for the item.  Should any questions not be reached at the end of the time period, those councillors would have the opportunity for their question to be carried over to the next Council meeting.

         

43.2         (a) Councillor G. Theobald asked, “As I had to learn of your administration’s plans for a permanent traveller’s site form the Argus, so much for the Green’s consultation they always talk about. Perhaps you can advise me as to the exact location of your preferred site at Horsdean in relation to the existing site. What would the access arrangements be and finally whether the tenant farmer has been consulted?”

 

43.3         Councillor West replied, “I actually wrote to you around the same time as when we released the information to the Argus so I’m sorry those emails failed to get back to you quicker than you received your email. I have made that apology before. As to the preferred site, Horsdean is the preferred site; there is a shortlist of three and they have been announced as that was the requirement with arrangement with the national park.  At this stage if you were to refer to Councillor Mitchell’s written question you’ll see the lengthy answer I’ve given there about permanent site and that might help. 

 

            At this stage we have research on over fifty sites; we’ve been looking at landscape and various other issues. We haven’t at this stage progressed towards building up a detailed planning application but we have considered access issues and the available space at Horsdean which is an ex-recreation ground and we have considered that to be appropriate.  There is existing access there, the site is level, it’s not under tenancy it was just spare land, the reminder of the grounds that was cut off by the bypass that the transit site is built upon. So it would just be the adjacent portion.”

 

43.4         Councillor G. Theobald asked the following supplementary question “Is this going to actually adjoin the existing traveller’s site? Are you going to have a traveller’s site and a permanent site right next door to each other? Will there be any division and as for as far as this being ex-recreation land, it depends how far forward you go with this land, it was countryside and that’s why south down’s conservation board was strongly against it. 

 

            Bearing in mind the two out of the three sites you are proposing fall within the South Down’s National Park, can you confirm whether you have consulted with the South Down’s National Park Authority and if so whether they are supportive of your plans given that the National parks predecessor the South Down’s Conservation Board was strongly opposed to the use of Horsdean as a transit site because of the adverse effect on the South Downs. So I would remind you that they were very strongly against the existing transit site being located at Horsdean.”

 

43.5         Councillor West replied, “We have considered all the potential sites together with the national park and they asked for a short list of three of which we have provided and they are happy of the criteria of which these three were judged upon. We can’t pre judge a planning application that they as a planning authority within the national park would have to consider. 

 

            I have identified exactly what piece of land we are talking about, it is the remaining portion of the ex recreation isolated by the building of the Brighton bypass i.e. next door to the existing transit site.  All the issues you raise about site separation and matters like that would be considered in the plan that we will offer up.”

 

43.6         (b) Councillor Mitchell asked, “By twenty fifteen the city will need an extra ten to seventeen secondary school classes for each year group. That equates to fifty additional school classes for school pupils the equivalent of another Blatchington Mill size school. This is taking into account the raising of the school leaving age. Can councillor shanks confirm that her administration has started work on identifying a site to provide a new secondary school for the city that the Green party promised prior to May this year?

 

            Or is the Green administration planning to adopt the same policy that it has for primary places one of fitting more and more children into existing schools?”

 

43.7         Councillor Shanks replied, “By twenty eighteen we will need two hundred and eighty five more places. This is something that is concerning, I met with officers this morning where to put a secondary school in an ideal world. There are other developments going on in the city in terms of a possible University Technical College (UTC) which is being looked at and Colleges building developments, sixth form provision for instance in Hove. It is certainly something we would like to do.

 

43.8         (c) Councillor Wealls asked,“According to my research on the cost of trader’s parking permits nearby towns and cities, Southampton is three hundred and six pounds a year, Eastbourne is two pounds a day, Crawley is ten pounds a week, Croydon is thee hundred and fifty pounds a year, Worthing two hundred and twenty five pounds a year and Portsmouth a hundred and eighty pounds a year.

 

            As we know next year you are proposing to put traders parking permit prices up to seven hundred and fifty pounds a year. Councillor Davey what is your festive message to the hard-pressed traders of Brighton and Hove and please don’t tell us it would be even worse if they lived in Lewes in your answer.”

 

43.9         Councillor Davey replied, “The prices of Trader Permits and Business Permits vary a great deal across many for urban areas and the parking issues and problems vary a great deal over various urban areas as well so I think Brighton’s problems are particularly unique and the situation we’ve inherited with the Trader’s Permits is that there’s a waiting list of two years on Trader’s Permits, so many trader’s are having to go through the inconvenience of going down to Hove Town Hall and queue up to pay to get a waiver and park on double yellow lines or go through the inconvenience and expense of using one of the pay and display so the proposal is to increase the traders permits so they will be around two to three pounds per working day and can be significantly less than other places.

 

            Also to take the cap off the list so that many of those trader’s that have been asking for permits for many years will now be able to have one so for those traders that will be able to have one  think that is a positive message.”

 

43.10    Councillor Wealls asked the following supplementary question, “The other bit of research I did was what the average skilled trader’s income was per annum in this city and it was twenty three thousand eight hundred pounds which is quite considerably less than the deputy leader of the Council, do you have an extra four hundred pounds spare at the end of the year that you fancy spending on parking permit to go about your business?”

 

43.11    Councillor Davey replied, “That is a personal question; I don’t know whether that is either relevant or appropriate.”

 

43.12    (d) Councillor Marsh asked, “Can the cabinet member confirm where in the administration’s manifesto’s pledge to protect youth services especially for young people at risk of becoming not only NEET’s or following into the criminal justice system and therefore at risk of offending and not only a very great tragedy to them and a great drain on resources.”

 

43.13    Councillor Shanks replied, “We do have to comply with national targets to reduce the numbers of young people not in education, employment and training, teenage pregnancy, young people misusing substances and first entrants to the criminal justice system. We are continuing with our provision in that area.”

 

43.14    Councillor Marsh asked the following supplementary question, “Would you agree with me that clients of council’s services for young people are complimented by the excellent community and voluntary sector provision in this city and would she therefore agree with me that she will maintain the funding for those organisations who deliver so well and efficiently in this city to continue providing these much needed services?”

 

43.15    Councillor Shanks replied, “The overall spending on youth services is the same as it was with the previous administration and we are also going to be increasing that provision for youth services in that budget by an extra three hundred thousand for the community and voluntary sector because I agree with you that they’re extremely important and we want to support that provision as much as we can.”

 

43.16    (e) Councillor Norman asked, “Seventy percent of those responding to an Argus survey want a council tax freeze, given your stated intention to be the most open and transparent council ever, in the face of such an overwhelming response from our council tax payers; what can the Green administration say to justify it’s intention to raise council tax by three point five percent in the next three years?”

 

43.17    Councillor J. Kitcat replied, “The online poll is just a poll, and I understand that they were votes across the country particularly from certain conservative associations so it may not be the most accurate.  But also we are continuing to consult, we’ve had a number of events and we’ve also had the online budget simulator. They’ve all had a different set of views and we need to take a look at the fullness of that.   Let’s be clear; the gimmick of the tax freeze is just that, it would leave this council five point four million pounds worse off over two years, if you’re in favour of that tell us where you’re going to save the money, you’ve yet to do that yet, I’m waiting.”

 

43.18    Councillor A. Norman asked the following supplementary question, “As well as not thinking in the same way as two thirds of the Argus readers, will councillor Kitcat also be ignoring the views of more than one thousand five hundred and fourteen who have so far signed a petition to stop the proposed cuts of the children’s music service?”

 

43.19    Councillor J. Kitcat replied, “I would like to point out that so far only twenty four percent of responses to the budget proposals have actually been negative in our monitoring of that and in relation to the music service we are reviewing that and we’re listening to the consultations responses. 

 

            Five days before our budget was announced the government did announce a raft of changes to music services nationally and we are working through that so we look forward to working with all councillors, with the music service and understanding the full depth of the information coming from the government. As you know it’s not always put forward as clearly as you would like.”

 

43.20    (f) Councillor Morgan asked, “I should first declare a personal non prejudicial interest as a season ticket holder at the Albion and apologies for not doing that earlier.

 

            Given the significant successes of Brighton and Hove Albion Football Club in getting sixty eight percent of its supporters to travel to the stadium by sustainable modes of transport and his professed support for the club’s expansion plans, will councillor Randall now make a clear statement to the full council today that he sees the provision of the additional parking spaces on the council attained land at Falmer as being an integral part of the overall transport solution for that expansion which will provide more jobs and secure the club’s future as a potential premier league team?”

 

43.21    Councillor Randall replied, “I’m impressed by the work that the Albion has done on getting that percentage of people to the ground by public transport. It measures well against other clubs in the country, in fact its better by two thirds than the average of clubs in the football league and it’s twice as good, I believe, on average as clubs in the premiership and it’s something, I think the Albion should be proud of.”

 

43.22    Councillor Morgan asked the following supplementary question, “Given the urgent need for more student accommodation in the city what will Councillor Randall be doing to ensure that the universities get this additional accommodation and the council gains a capital receipt from this land in the shortest possible time?”

 

43.23    Councillor Randall replied, “We have been talking to the Albion, who have been talking to the universities about the provision of student housing on the site and that’s one of the options we are looking at.”

 

43.24    (g) Councillor Cobb asked, “What steps is the council taking to address anti social behaviour by rough sleepers on the seafront?”

 

43.25    Councillor Wakefield replied, “We have had a very great risein rough sleepers in Brighton and Hove at the moment, which is a sad occurrence. As far as anti social behaviour goes, complaints and nuisances are initially investigated by the housing officer if it’s a housing issue. If it’s on the streets it will normally be dealt with by the police. There is also a ‘rough sleepers’ who go out and visit the rough sleepers on the street there any anti social behaviour of a rough sleeper will be treated exactly the same way as anti social behaviour by anybody else on our streets in Brighton and Hove.”

 

43.26    Councillor Cobb asked the following supplementary question, “Can the arches on the Kingsway pitch and putt be bricked or bordered up to provide a long term solution to prevent further rough sleeping for reasons of public nuisance and health and safety. In the past the area has been left in a terrible mess and open fires have been lit on the site.”

 

43.27    Councillor Wakefield replied, “That is no solution to the rough sleeping issues in Brighton and Hove. I personally, as Cabinet member from housing, would like that there is a roof over the head of every rough sleeper in Brighton and Hove.”

 

43.28    (h) Councillor Barnett asked, “Does the Cabinet member for housing think it’s fair that council tenants who have taken a pride in their homes and paid for home improvements themselves are then denied the opportunity to have a new kitchen or bathroom as part of the Council’s decent home work? There are residents who have provided their own new kitchen but have been deprived a bathroom.”

 

43.29    Councillor Wakefield replied, “We follow a very strict system that all our tenants as far as housing improvements go for kitchen and bathrooms. As Cabinet member for housing I also have a mailbox full of queries about kitchens and bathrooms and decent house standards.  The governments decent house standards ahs two separate tests that mentioned kitchens and bathrooms. The first test is to ensure that the home is in a reasonable state of repair.

 

            A kitchen will fail this test if it is thirty years or older and in poor condition. A bathroom will fail this test if it is forty years or older and in poor condition. Kitchens and bathrooms are considered as other building components and one is allowed to fail and still meet the decent home standard this means that two need to fail to have one replaced. This is something that we are working with.”

 

43.30    (i) Councillor Hyde asked, “Figures obtained through freedom of information requests show that Brighton and Hove City Council has the third highest number of tax payer funded Union representatives after all the unitary authorities just behind Birmingham, Nottingham and Leicester.  Does the Cabinet member consider that this expenditure is just a fireball in the current economic climate and will he make a commitment to significantly reduce it in 2012/2013?”

 

43.31    Councillor J. Kitcat replied, “We have more services in house so we have a greater need for union representation but let’s not forget that the number of union representatives was actually increased by the Conservative administration to help deal with single status issues. As they are now winding down we are discussing with the unions about the opportunity to reduce some of that provision. I will be able to update the council in the New Year.”

 

43.32    Councillor Hyde asked the following supplementary question, “The tax payer’s money being used to fund the unions is almost three times the funding cut that you’re proposing to the children’s music service, so does the cabinet member think that some of the money might be better spent supporting our children’s music services?”

 

43.33    Councillor J. Kitcat replied, “Why are the Government imposing above average reductions in this Council’s funding? I’ve asked both the Tory MPs for the city to ask the minister why we are getting above average cuts and they have refused to respond. Why are the Government cutting this Council’s funding by above average? It is unfair and we oppose it.”

 

43.34    (j) Councillor Simson asked, ““Two years ago when I was cabinet member for communities, the conservative administration recognised the need to work with children younger than youth services provided for, that’s the 8-13 year olds especially now more deprived communities. We wanted to see what positive outcomes we could achieve by giving this age group new and different opportunities, letting them experience different things and hopefully to try to raise their aspirations for the future so that they could make a positive contribution to their communities.

 

            Since May we seem to have heard nothing from the new administration so I would like to ask the cabinet member, when will we see the results of the 3 projects set up and how will these be incorporated into the youth services review and the way youth services are delivered in the future?”

 

43.35    Councillor Shanks replied, “I personally feel that it was a national mistake for the youth service to concentrate only on over 13’s and I would certainly like to improve provision for 8-13’s in the long term.  Our play service does a good job but has limited funding. We are not proposing to reduce funding for the play service in this budget. The three projects that you mention; I have spent a lot of time with t he children can do project, where young people actually work together to look at bids other young people put in for provision and I visited them and it is an excellent project so there will be a review to see how that money was spent and the sort of provision that we might be able to carry forward from that.  People in the city do a lot of good voluntary work; we certainly want to encourage the work that goes on.”

 

43.36    Councillor Simson asked the following supplementary question, “£ 200,000 was allocated to the budget each year 2011 and 2012. The budget for the first year allocated £60,000 each to the three projects that were agreed and £20,000 for setup analysis and reporting costs. Could the cabinet member please tell me how the £200,000 for this year has been allocated and if it hasn’t as I suspect it may not have been, could she please commit to using this money in the way it was intended to support children and young people aged 8-13 years through community work provided by the community and voluntary sector.”

 

43.37    Councillor Shanks replied, “It is still in our budget for this year, I think it’s in the communities’ budget. I will provide you with a written answer as I do not currently have the details at hand.”

 

43.38    (k) Councillor Mears asked, “Following on from our administration when tenants were fully consulted and engaged in the formulation of the allocation policy, can the cabinet member give me assurance that she will consult, fully, with all tenants the very proposed changes affecting council tenants that her administration brings forward?”

 

43.39    Councillor Wakefield replied, “At the moment we are in consultation about allocation police specifically on care leavers, as you are aware. We had a housing CMM on 19^th October where we agreed to a twelve week consultation to the proposed changed to the Council’s portal on the 17^th November. To comply with the community engagement framework this consultation will take place with all communities of interest including young people in council care; those who have left our care aged up to 21 years together with their representatives such as social workers, foster carers, children’s homes and supported housing staff and participation advocacy workers.

 

            Full details of the consultation and its responses will be contained in the final report of housing CMM and to full council in March 2012. I do have a list here of the program of consultation of all the different groups including tenant consultation and I am happy for you to have that.”

 

43.40    Councillor Mears asked the following supplementary question,“Following on from the Green budget proposals and the study that’s been brought forward with adult social care, can the Cabinet Member confirm if she proposes to consult with all tenants regarding the proposed loss of sheltered housing from the council’s stock to adult social care regarding extra care?

 

            As Members will know many tenants look to access sheltered housing later in life, the Green’s budget proposals will clearly block this for many tenants, can the Cabinet Member tell us when she’s proposing to consult tenants on sheltered housing?”

 

43.41    Councillor Wakefield replied, “This question crosses over two portfolios of housing and adult social care and health. There have been two scoping meetings of the extra care housing commissioning group a tenant representative is, at the moment, being sought by the housing commissioner who is part of that commissioning group. When that tenant is chosen or comes forward they will be the tenant’s voice on that particular commissioning group.”

 

43.42    (l) Councillor Peltzer Dunn asked, “In regards to Victoria Gardens and the occupation of that land. Can you comment on the basic reasons, rather than just the weather, which has led to the administration altering its policy and what cost was incurred by the city council for the clearing and cleaning for the site which of course thus represents a charge to the representatives whom you represent?”

 

43.43    Councillor Duncan replied, “The council administration hasn’t altered its policy; I will give you a written answer regarding the exact cost incurred by this Council clearing the site.  If you go back and tweak the phrase and ask a silly question you will receive a silly answer.  I find it surprising if the cost for cleaning the site were anything like as high as the cost would have been the legal cost for seeking possession for the site earlier.”

 

43.44    Councillor Peltzer Dunn asked the following supplementary question, “Would he confirm that the statement made on Radio Sussex to the effect that many complaints received by the council regarding the occupation of Victoria gardens is factually correct? Can he confirm that administration many of which were refrained from making comments which could by some be taken as an active encouragement of such occupations?”

 

43.45    Councillor Duncan replied, “In regards to the first of your two supplementary questions, I can confirm we received no complaints at all apart from conservative politicians many of whom it would appear represent areas not Victoria Gardens.  In terms of the second question, it is not our role to either encourage or discourage any particular forms of protest it is our role to maintain public safety, to work with our colleagues in the police and elsewhere to minimise crime and disorder and to effectively minimise nuisance for those living, working and visiting the city. I think these are all things our policy has done.”

 

43.46    (m) Councillor Janio confirmed that in view of Councillor Kennedy’s absence he wished to withdraw his question.

 

43.47    The Mayor noted that the question had been withdrawn.

 

43.48    (n) Councillor Turton asked, ““At October’s council meeting, councillor Davey said increases in parking charges would not be significant. Less than a month this administration said it was increasing parking charges, trader permits up by £350 to £750, business permits form £175 to £400, fifteen minute pay and display from 20p to £1 all with the policy aimed at deterring cars from the city.

 

            Does the Cabinet Member stand by his response that increases would not be significant or will he apologise for misleading the council?”

 

43.49    Councillor Davey replied, “The proposed changes are to bring some order to a rather chaotic collection of tariffs which have developed over many years and as everybody will see if you look at the whole range of them some have gone up some have gone down and some have stayed the same. So there is a broad range of adjustments up, down and no change for some.

 

            There is a rationale behind various changes particularly when it’s encouraging the use of the car parks on the edge of the city centre where it is as minimal as possible such as London road, Trafalgar Street and Norton road. There is even a reduction in the one arrow week day rate for those areas.”

 

43.50    Councillor Turton asked the following supplementary question, “Does he not recognise that these increases will hit families, local businesses and jobs hard at a time of severe economic difficulty or does he actually simply not care about introducing the congestion charge by stealth which would be damaging to our local economy? It is the wrong decision for the wrong reason at the wrong time and he may wish to come back to Councillor Theobald about exactly how much money this going to be created in 2012 – 2013.”

 

43.51     Councillor Davey replied, “I could not pick out a question so I will leave it there.”