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.

9.1             The Mayor noted that notification of 7 oral questions had been received and invited Councillor Geoffrey Theobald to put his question to Councillor Bowden.

 

9.2             Councillor Theobald thanked the Mayor and asked, “As a business man yourself, Councillor Bowden, and the Chair of the Economic Development and Culture Committee you will, I am sure, sympathise, with the plight of local traders in the city who are suffering this year as a result of the parking charge increases imposed by your administration in April. I’m wondering therefore, what input you had in to the debate that must have taken place amongst your administration colleagues prior to the decision made to increase the charges?”

 

9.3             Councillor Bowden replied, “First of all I’d like to widen it because if we just stick on parking it’s a one trick pony and this city is far more about other things than parking and the recent figures released by the council on their own estate, the museums and the royal pavilion where in the period we’re talking since the parking charges came in, have gone up by 10,000. Now that’s through smart marketing and that’s what we are working with the Chamber of Commerce on Right the Way, the initiative that we’ve work funded and helped them to promote.

 

            We’re going to work with businesses to show them how to ride the economic plights brought on us by this government and we’ve heard a lot about that and a lot of shaking of heads that it’s nothing to do with us and we can’t also de-contextualise this entire debate without thinking about what’s happened to the Euro and what’s been happening to our bankers.  So businesses that can’t get money from the banks may have something to do with it, if you want to put it all down to parking charges, well that’s a very narrow view. This city was identified by the centre for Cities as one of the super cities most likely to lead the way out of the recession and figures published only this morning in the Argus, no friend of this administration on times, they described the fact that there’s 11% reduction in the unemployed in this city, if you like that’s an example that the Green Administration policies work.

 

            So there are many other positives, we can’t divorce ourselves entirely from what is going on outside and nor would we wish to but I think we have demonstrated that we are a pragmatic party willing to work with government, willing to work and grasp initiatives and put in bids for money to bring jobs and prosperity to the system and this city. Here are some examples, coast to capital local enterprise partnership which has agreed with our proposal to fund the I360 something which was cross party support when it came recently to council and that will bring jobs and re-development to a part of the seafront which is in much need of improvement. 

 

            We have heard today from the earlier public questioner about the potential fines to be brought on to this city by the European commission for not meeting air quality standards and one of the main reasons for that is that we are bounded by the park in the north and the sea in the south so where are all these cars going to go?

 

            We need to manage our transport and the good news from Roger French who’s been mentioned in dispatches today is that use of buses has increased by 5% in the last 3 months now that’s to be welcomed.  All those people who want to see bus routes saved should welcome that because the more people who use it the better and more financially viable they are.  So we have listened to what people have said about parking, we have amended the charges, people are putting in FOI requests about how much revenue has been generated.  Parking charges are one thing, the city has also been suffering from the worst weather ever, we are a city that is working with local business, we are a city taking advantage of government initiatives and we are working with universities and the Chamber of Commerce to encourage business.”

 

9.4             Councillor Theobald asked the following supplementary question, “Would he please comment on the comments that Ellie Trimmingham said and she says, “I have been told by customers with children that they will not come down to the area anymore because they simply cannot afford to park here.  Elliott Reggio, boss of maintenance On Tap, “It is the Green’s who will not listen, they have failed to take on board the concerns of businesses. We’re still angry with the council over the parking hikes coming our way.”  Councillor Bowden, do you agree with all these businesses, and I’ve got lists of them who are actually saying that it’s from a business perspective, your administration is wrecking their chances?”

 

9.5             Councillor Bowden replied, “No I don’t agree with them, the fact is that the portfolio of attractions that we actually control, we’ve had an increase in numbers in the last 3 months, we’ve had a record number of tickets sales at the recent Brighton Festival with 40% of the people coming from outside the city, you can’t deny these things.  I just urge businesses, and I take advantages of these initiatives to get in touch with the Chamber of Commerce, take advantage of the initiative that we are helping to fund and learn how to market their way out of this recession.  You cannot keep blaming everything on parking charges, it’s just not credible.”

 

9.6             The Mayor then invited Councillor Marsh to put her question to Councillor Davey.

 

9.7             Councillor Marsh thanked the Mayor and asked, “The results of the consultation on the Lewes Road traffic plans, Councillor Davey, I believe there were 4000 responses, what I would like to know form you please is how they are going to be analysed and how you are going to act as an administration on the results that you received on that consultation because I want to be assured that the residents and community groups and my constituents  who all responded will have their views taken very seriously into account when you role out the proposed plans whatever they are?”

 

9.8             Councillor Davey replied, “Well it was a very extensive consultation as you know, 30000 documents were sent out and I think there were about 30 exhibitions all along that Lewes Road corridor.  I would say unprecedented engagements with the local community. It is actually 4500 responses which has taken some to count to analyse and that’s what’s going on at the moment.  So over the summer period they will get analysed and a report will be coming forward to the Transport Committee at the start of October, so in mid-September the results will be available for public viewing.”

 

9.9             The Mayor noted that there was no supplementary question and then invited Councillor Wealls to put his question to Councillor Shanks.

 

9.10         Councillor Wealls thanked the Mayor and asked, “Councillor Shanks will remember the Children & Young People’s Committee meeting on June 11 where we discussed the performance gap between children on free school meals and those not on free school meals and the commentary on the report that was presented stated that this gap has stayed the same in 2012/11 since 2006 so there’s been no sustained improvement since then. For the record and for everyone’s information, children on free school meals in this city, only 26% of them, achieve 5 A’s to C’s GCSE that compares to 57% of children who are not on free school meals so we have a pretty disgraceful performance gap in this city between the most disadvantaged children and the rest of society.

 

            I want to ask councillor Shanks if she will do everything in her power to help this city reduce this gap and help young disadvantaged people achieve the best possible results please?”

 

9.11         Councillor Shanks replied, “Yes I agree with you that that’s an appalling gap, it’s happening throughout the country, that the poorest children in our communities do least well academically for a variety of reasons mainly because they are the poorest children in our communities.  Our school’s are working hard on this and that’s one thing we’re monitoring, often some of our schools do very well with those children and I know that Councillor Wealls has been instrumental in getting us to look very hard at the value added that our schools bring and that is something that’s going to go into our admissions because a lot of children; although the gap is wide, some schools do better than others particularly at primary schools level, some of our primary schools do a lot better than other primary schools with children who have free school meals.  It isn’t just; that there are children in a particular school like Westdene doing better than Moulsecoomb, some of our schools within similar circumstances and catchment areas, there’s quite a disparity between them.

 

            So there is an issue about quality of teaching in some of our schools which a lot of our heads are addressing.  Our schools are improving I think we will see an increase in our GCSE results across the city, not enough because there is no way we should be below the national average in our secondary schools.  We’ve got the highest education population in the country, 42% of our population are educated at graduate level so it is really shameful and it is something that I want to see, by the time my term of office finishes, that that has fundamentally changed and I know councillor Wealls will be helping me in that.”

 

9.12         Councillor Wealls asked the following supplementary question, “In that case you will also remember that I went to see the Chief Executive of Absolute Return for Kids which is a non profit academy sponsor and remember our kids on free school meals, 26% of them get 5 A’s to C’s including English Maths; our schools which are in some of the most deprived parts of our country, 60% of their children are on free school meals get 5 A’s to C’s including English and Maths. 60% that’s better than our non-free school meals, at the time I did ask you to meet with the Chief Executive to just chat through ideas with them.

 

            I would like you to share with the Council reasons why you didn’t want to meet them, just to share ideas with them or to please change your mind?”

 

9.13         Councillor Shanks replied, “I understand that ARK has mainly taken over failing schools and although a lot of our schools don’t do as well as we would want them to we don’t actually have failing secondary schools in the city.  We’re hoping that we can keep our schools as part of our family in the local authority, we don’t have schools that have any appetite for becoming an academy in our secondary schools the unions and staff are against this and the parents against it also.

 

            The unions are but so are many parents, teachers, educationalists; I agree with you that ARK may have a good record there are plenty of academy chains that  aren’t doing so well, Boundstone academy in Lancing has gone back into special measures after becoming an academy. There’s plenty of secondary schools that have managed to improve themselves particularly in inner London without becoming academies so I think we can do that within the local authority family and the reason we’re able to fund the healthy schools program is because we have still got money in the local authority to share that expertise around the schools which we wouldn’t have if all our schools were becoming privatised and becoming academies.

 

            As you know I’m not in favour of the academies program I don’t think this will be a benefit to Brighton and Hove and I don’t think parents and teachers in the city support academies.”

 

9.14         The Mayor then invited Councillor Robins to put his question to Councillor Davey.

 

9.15         Councillor Robins thanked the Mayor and asked, “On page 18 of the Local Transport Plan there's a paragraph which says, Tourism brings real benefits to local people providing nearly 16,000 jobs to the city's thriving culture industries. The city faces competition from home and abroad as a tourist destination in both the leisure and business tourism market. It also faces competition from developments and improvements to the tourism and retail offer from nearby towns, such as Crawley, Eastbourne, Lewes and Worthing.

 

            Can you tell us how much it costs to park on the seafront in Eastbourne and Worthing or how much town centre parking is in Crawley and Lewes and how do they compare with Brighton?”

 

9.16         Councillor Davey replied, “I’m not sure why you’re asking me; the price of parking in Worthing, Eastbourne and Crawley I’m sure you could have found it out for yourself.  What I’ve been provided with is on the seafront in Eastbourne it costs 80p per hour, Worthing £1.20 per hour, town centre in Crawley it costs 80p per hour and Lewes it costs £2.00 per hour.

 

There are many different prices in Brighton and Hove including city centre car parks which are £1 for the first hour during the week and at the eastern, southern and western ends of the seafront it is £1 for the first hour and then less for subsequent hours so there’s a broad range of prices there.  Independent research shows that people base their choice of destinations on a whole range of factors, the cost of parking is not a primary consideration and I would say that this city has never been known for cheap parking, not under the previous administration or the administration before that.

What is more important is to attract visitors and I think this city has long learned this, is for quality of the attraction and the destination much rather than the cost of parking. People come here because of the culture, because of our fantastic restaurants, for the shops on the seafront, for lots and lots of reasons.  Evidence for the research clearly indicates the proper parking policy measures support the economy rather than hamper it. The introduction of paid parking results in a higher turnover creating space for more customers. Reduced long term parking charges, the use of parking bays releases the use of parking bays for visitors etc.

 

            Visitor numbers, as we’ve heard already, to attractions such as the Royal Pavilion, Preston Manor and the city’s museums are up by more than 5% compared with last year and even the aquarium on Madeira Drive has reported record attendances this year. We have serious air pollution problems in some areas which affect people’s health and serious traffic congestion with cars queuing miles out of town on summer weekends.”

 

9.17         Councillor Robins asked the following supplementary question, “I think that you did know the cost of certain parking, let’s take 3 hours on Eastbourne seafront which is £2.60.  3 hours on Worthing seafront is £3.60, 3 hours on Brighton seafront £10. 3 hours on in Crawley county mall, £3.50 unless you go on a Sunday when it’s £2 full day, Lewes needle makers is £2.20 for 3 hours Brighton Laines is £12 for 3 hours.   3 hours on weekends in the Laines is £15, if you accept, as you must do, that parking charges are at least one of the factors determining whether people visit Brighton and spend money then you must see that we’re not competing with the local competitors, Lewes, Worthing, Eastbourne and Crawley and you must agree that this puts some of the16000 jobs in jeopardy?”

 

9.18          Councillor Davey replied, “I don’t agree.”

 

Note:

 

9.19         Councillor Fitch moved a motion in accordance with procedural 17.2 to terminate the meeting at 22.15 in view of the fact that the meeting had been in progress for 4 hours.

 

9.20         Councillor Marsh formally seconded the motion.

 

9.21         The Mayor noted that a motion to terminate the meeting at 22.15 had been moved and put it to the vote which was carried.  He therefore stated that unless the business before the meeting was conducted by such time, he would look for a motion to be moved to close the meeting at 22.15hrs.

 

9.22         The Mayor then invited Councillor Barnett to put her question to Councillor Wakefield.

 

9.23         Councillor Barnett thanked the Mayor and asked, “Is the Chair of Housing Committee aware that the council tenants in this city who are convicted of serious criminal offences such as drug dealing are sent to prison for a period of years in some cases; are arranging for friends or family members to live in that social housing whilst they are behind bars?  Does she agree with me that this is completely unfair for those law abiding citizens who are stuck on the waiting list with little prospect of being housed?”

 

9.24         Councillor Wakefield replied, “Indeed the council housing is held for people whilst they are in prison.  If they are paying their rent on time, that’s usually something the court actually says.  If there is unlawful subletting going on, it’s referred under the council’s counter fraud strategy to the audit and business risk team who investigates.  Members of the public can also report suspected unlawful subletting via the council’s confidential counter-fraud telephone line and email address.  I do agree that we have a very long waiting list and if people are in a house that do not have the right to be in that house then I’m very happy to ask officers to act on that.”

 

9.25         Councillor Barnett asked the following supplementary question, “I have it in my own ward, where they have friends and family living there and the benefits are paying for their rent.  Will you please assure me that you will look in to this issue as part of the forthcoming review of the council housing allocation and will you also join me in signing a letter to the Minister Grant Schapps asking him to put a stop to this practice?”

 

9.26          Councillor Wakefield replied, “I think the best thing to do is, if you have information on this, is to let me and the officers have it then I am really pleased to ask them to act on it for you.”

 

9.27         The Mayor then invited Councillor Hyde to put her question to Councillor J. Kitcat.

 

9.28         Councillor Hyde thanked the Mayor and asked, “The Leader of the Council will be aware that a year ago almost to the day, full council passed a notice of motion instructing the administration to prepare and sign up to an Armed Forces Community covenant in time for remembrance day 2011. He will also be aware that this received the full backing of the local Royal British Legion, will he therefore please explain to me why it has taken him and his colleagues to so long even start discussing the covenant let alone signing it?”

 

9.29         Councillor J. Kitcat replied, “There has been a lot of work done in the year in fact meeting representatives from the MOD and others and the draft covenant has been prepared. We’re working to find other partners in the city and I know that Mr Mayor has been having conversations as well with potential partners to sign up to the covenant so it’s a broader set of people engaged with that and a report will be coming to the first meeting of Policy & Resources in Autumn so that we can have an official signing ceremony ahead of the remembrance day commemorations in November 2012.

 

            So we are progressing on that, it was a very complicated piece of work and we’ve also been awaiting some of the detail from the government about how this will actually work so it will progress and you have our word on that councillor.”

 

9.30         Councillor Hyde asked the following supplementary question, “At the Cabinet meeting last October, the Green administration agreed to submit a bid for funding by March this year to the Ministry of Defence to support the work on an Armed Forces Community Covenant in Brighton and Hove, my understanding is that this bid has yet to be submitted.  So I ask the Leader of the Council, could he give his personal commitment to the Armed Forces community in the city that this and the signing of the covenant will be done now as a matter of urgency?  I’m particularly interested to see if the bid has been submitted.”

 

9.31          Councillor J. Kitcat replied, “The work is ongoing on that and we won’t be able to submit it until we actually have the partners signed up to the covenant but as soon as that signing happens then we will be able to progress.  It’s a rolling program so there’s not a deadline which you miss it’s when there’s the agreement across partners that you can apply for it.  So that will happen, I look forward to your support for the partners and us signing to it in the autumn.”

 

9.32         The Mayor then invited Councillor Mears to put her question to Councillor Wakefield.

 

9.33         Councillor Mears thanked the Mayor and asked, “Following on from how the Housing Minister’s Grant Schapps new statutory guidance on Social Housing Allocations Central Local Authorities can the Chair of Housing tell me, following from the Park Review which took place earlier in the year, she will be undertaking a full policy review of the allocation policy?”

 

9.34         Councillor Wakefield replied, “It will be in the autumn that we will be looking at the allocations policy.”

 

9.35         Councillor Mears asked the following supplementary question, “In the Green’s budget for Adult Social Care set in February 1.6million of savings was identified mainly by taking 30 sheltered housing units for extra care.  Can the chair of Housing say how she proposes to deal with this within the allocation policy bearing in mind there are already 500 plus tenants on the waiting list who have applied for sheltered housing and with our ageing population will in all probability increase?”

 

9.36          Councillor Wakefield replied, “It may be best if you have a more full response jointly from myself and Councillor Jarrett because it does come in his portfolio area, but what I want to reassure you is that I am aware of that but it’s not necessarily HRA houses that will be used for those people so it will not necessarily affect those other people on the waiting list.”

 

9.37         The Mayor noted that there were no more questions and therefore the item had been concluded.