Agenda item - Written questions from members of the public.

A list of public questions received by the due date of the 12^th July 2012 will be circulated separately as part of an addendum at the meeting.

5.1             The Mayor reported that 7 written questions had been received from members of the public and invited Mr. Tilley to come forward and address the council.

5.2             Mr. Tilley thanked the Mayor and asked the following question; “With the introduction of bus key cards, bus journey information is electronically stored.  An analysis of this journey information would greatly aid the understanding of current and future public transport service usage.  It is requested that the Council produce a timetable for publishing monthly individual bus journey data as Open Data?”

5.3             Councillor Davey replied; “Thank you for your question.  Whilst the Council is supportive of Open Data initiatives bus journey information on services operated commercially is the property of bus operators.  However, we will pass on your request to the bus companies. 

            The public transport industry is gradually moving towards more use of smartcards and, as they are introduced by bus operators on supported services, we will endeavour to make use of the additional data supplied by the smartcards.  It should be noted that smartcards are not a stipulation of the supported bus services contracts which start in September.”

5.4             Mr. Tilley asked the following supplementary question; “I note the Government’s policy of delivering services digitally by default and providing open data by default, Brighton Council’s provisioning of public digital services and open data needs improvement.  It’s taken some of my colleagues 3 or 4 emails of chasing to get answers to digital access questions.  People require information like parking revenues, visitor’s numbers, and council attendance.  Many cities nationally or internationally have a digital convenor, that person acts a centre point for open strategy, open data, digital inclusion etc…  It is requested that the Council please consider restructuring its service to enable such an appointment of a digital convenor.”

5.5             Councillor Davey replied; “You have taken this well out of the realms of my responsibility but I will pass this on to colleagues who have heard all of that.”

5.6             The Mayor thanked Mr. Tilley for attending the meeting and putting his questions and invited Mr. Campbell to come forward and address the council.

5.7             Mr. Campbell thanked the Mayor and asked the following question “Is the current Green administration anti business or just inept as a result of their lack of practical commercial experience?”

5.8             Councillor J. Kitcat replied, “No.”

5.9             Mr. Campbell asked the following supplementary question of Councillor Mac Cafferty,” Is it appropriate for councillors to use Twitter and other social media to promote themselves and their particular political agenda as councillors but then to block those who don’t necessarily share their point of view and so stifling legitimate political debate?”

5.10         Councillor Mac Cafferty replied, “Who I follow or who follows me on Twitter is entirely a personal matter.”

5.11         The Mayor thanked Mr. Campbell for attending the meeting and putting his questions and invited Mr. Kemble to come forward and address the council.

5.12         Mr. Kemble thanked the Mayor and asked the following question, “Does the Council recognise the Hackney Carriage Trade as part of the City's integrated transport system?''

5.13         Councillor Davey replied, “Yes we do, it features strongly in the local transport plan. The taxi operators now have a taxi forum which sits under Licensing rather than with Transport but also taxi representatives attend the transport partnership meetings, for example we had a workshop on the station gateway project a couple of weeks ago; we were very pleased to have a taxi representative there and also spent a long time talking to taxi representatives at the tourism alliance recently so yes absolutely we do.”

5.14         Mr. Kemble asked the following supplementary question, “As the Council has publicly stated it does recognise the Hackney Carriage Trade as part of the City’s integrated transport system, will the councillor agree to install a taxi rank on land owned by the City Council from Ridgeway, Falmer to provide a service to the Amex stadium?”

5.15         Councillor Davey replied, “I think that’s been presented in the past, I don’t know the history of that, however I would suggest that you put that proposal forward in the usual way so that it can be considered by the officers.”

5.16         The Mayor thanked Mr. Kemble for attending the meeting and putting his questions and invited Ms. Turner to come forward and address the council.

5.17         Ms. Turner thanked the Mayor and asked the following question, “Could the Council please tell us what plans they have in mind for a large separate and augmented public art gallery in Brighton and Hove?”

5.18         Councillor Bowden replied, “Having a large and separate public art gallery in the city is something that is an ambition of this administration.  Given the current state of public sector finance, it would not be an easy thing to achieve on our own or in the short term.  We do have a number of successful public art galleries in the city already; Fabrica which gets very large attendance figures across the year, the University of Brighton, Phoenix and of course the Brighton Museum and Art Gallery as part of the Royal Pavilion Estate.  We also have a number of temporary visual arts festivals and exhibitions throughout the year – the Open Houses was phenomenally successful again this year and had an extra programmed element called HOUSE,  Brighton Photobiennial launched earlier this week and will be on in October, the Brighton Digital Festival will be taking place again this Autumn to name but some.

            However – the success of these does go to show the incredible appetite for visual arts in particular in the city and we would like to do more.  We do have plans for greater use across the Museum and Art Gallery buildings and of course we would like to repeat the success we have had with the contemporary art commissions in the Royal Pavilion itself.  Additionally, we do recognise the central importance of digital culture in the city and the role it plays in creating jobs here and adding to the city’s reputation.

            In summary, there is a lot of very successful visual arts practice in the city, both traditional and more contemporary.  We would like to build on this and we do still harbour ambitions for an art gallery, perhaps with a photographic and digital focus delivered in partnership with the leading organisations that we have based here.”

5.19         Ms. Turner asked the following supplementary question “If a private party were to try and open an art gallery, in what way could the Council assist them?”

5.20         Councillor Bowden replied, “If someone came to me with lots of money and wanted to open a gallery I’d be the first to welcome them. It’s finding the space; and if they came to us you’d find they may be looking at an open door so if you know someone come and talk to me afterwards.”

5.21         The Mayor thanked Ms. Turner for attending the meeting and putting her questions and invited Mr. Lowe to come forward and address the council,

5.22         Mr. Lowe thanked the Mayor and asked the following question, “With 70% of monitoring sites in Brighton and Hove recording illegal levels of nitrogen dioxide and the likelihood of the EU issuing a multimillion pound fine next year for breaching safety guidelines will the administration get tough on monitoring perpetual road works thereby insuring that they are completed within the shortest time frame in order to negate such build ups of noxious gases from stationery vehicles caught in the queues?”

5.23         Councillor West replied, “Throughout every year it is necessary for a considerable number of road works to be carried out within the city. These include highway maintenance, new schemes or developments and utility companies renewing or maintaining their installations.  There are also several major events which have to be worked around.  Quarterly meetings are held, with representatives from the council, utility companies and developers, in order to plan and co-ordinate future works around the city.  A monthly city centre liaison group is also in place.  With its own works, the council delivers co-ordinated packages of maintenance works and transport improvements to minimise disruption and maximise the public benefits when completed. 

            Utility works are regularly monitored on site by the council.  So far this year, the council has raised fines of over £30,000 on the utility companies for overrunning works, with fines of £96,000 raised last year.  The council is currently examining the possibility of a permit scheme, which enables a greater level of co-ordination and advance planning.   A report on the business case will be presented to the Transport Committee later this year.

The Council records NO₂ levels above the limit value across less than 2 % of the city’s area.  The majority of monitoring sites are located in ‘hotspots’ adjacent to busy transport corridors.  It would be an unwise use of council resources to spread monitors across areas of the city where there is little traffic.   The temporary nature of road works and events mean they are unlikely to have an impact on long-term pollution, but the measures I’ve mentioned, help ensure road works are carried out efficiently and any pollution, even temporary, is minimised.  Two of the council’s main transport goals are to reduce carbon emissions and improve public health.  In the long term, this will be achieved though a range of different measures and projects designed to increase the range of sustainable transport choices for everybody; and by using innovation and technology to reduce congestion and improve air quality, and therefore residents’ health.  The Administration’s commitment to developing and delivering these measures is demonstrated by the allocation of significant levels of capital investment totalling tens of millions of pounds we are committed to sustainable improvements over the next 3 years.”

5.24         Mr. Lowe asked the following supplementary question, “So far Councillor West, with excessive parking charges costing businesses a fortune, attempting to reduce bus services mainly park and rides I could go on. Should the city be hit with an EU fine or these pollution levels continue will you and your partner in bio-crime, Councillor Ian Davey, resign forthwith?”

5.25         Councillor West replied, “One of the key points on parking charges is that we have altered the charges across the city.  One of the reasons for this is that we want to reduce the parking pressure in the city centre which is contributing to our pollution so we would actually like people to spread a little bit further along and to use other areas to boost the economy in those other parts of the city and that would be very welcome by those areas.

            What my colleague, Councillor Davey, has just reminded me as well is that we have very recently seen a high increase in bus patronage which has gone up 5% so that is a good piece of news.  If you wish to correspond with me about any of your further points then that might be the easiest way to tackle them.”

5.26         The Mayor thanked Mr. Lowe for attending the meeting and putting his questions and invited Mr. Warmington to come forward and address the council.

5.27         Mr. Warmington thanked the Mayor and asked the following question, “In answer to a public question to this Council meeting a year ago, the Administration undertook to investigate an all-operator Oyster-style travelcard for public transport in Brighton & Hove.  As several developments in the last year have made this all the more desirable, what steps has the Council taken to give this serious consideration?”

5.28         Councillor Davey replied, “I’m not sure that I agree that we did undertake, to investigate or operate an oyster toll or travel card but we did say multi operated ticketing.  The introduction of a city wide travel card accepted by all public transport operators serving Brighton and Hove is a complex issue that will require co-operation and significant investment by all local transport operators as well as by the City Council.  As I’m sure you’re probably aware, it isn’t in our gift to tell any public transport operator what to do or how to run their business. There’s a big difference between London where London’s oyster card is similar to what is called the quality contracts model which comes under the 2008 Local Transport Act whereby the local authority, in this case transport for  London, tenders every route and no commercial operation is actually allowed.

            This makes the use of single oyster cards style much easier to apply however the introduction of quality contracts system in Brighton and Hove would require a full public enquiry and their will be powers of objection from the public and existing public transport operators and as you may well be aware I don’t think there’s any quality contract system anywhere in the country outside of London at the moment.

            I’m aware that the Transport Minister’s recent statement supporting the introduction of multi operator smartcards outside London. He made the statement following the competition’s commission’s findings. I understand the Transport Minister has made a statement and proposes new legislation for transport authorities to mandate such schemes so I look forward to hearing further guidance from the Transport Minister and from central government.

            In the meantime what I’m going to do is ask officers to prepare a short briefing paper on multi operated ticketing for the October transport committee, I think it would be a really good opportunity to look and see what else is happening in other places in the country and see what lessons can be learned. So that can be presented at the October transport committee and I think there’s a strong possibility that the November transport partnership will look at public transport so we could also bring it to that partnership meeting as well.”

5.29         The Mayor thanked Mr. Warmington for attending the meeting and putting his question.  He noted that Ms. Paynter was not present and therefore the final question could not be put and a written response would be sent to her instead.