Agenda item - Written questions from members of the public.

A list of public questions received by the due date of the 18^th October 2012 will be circulated separately as part of an addendum at the meeting.

29.1         The Mayor reported that seven written questions had been received from members of the public and invited Ms. Shepherd to come forward and address the council.

 

29.2         Ms. Shepherd asked the following question;

 

“Given that this council states that it wants to provide cost effective services for all of Brighton and Hove residents and to be an attractive destination of choice for tourists and businesses I would like to know whose short-sighted decision it was to cancel in 2011 the creation of a much needed extension to the existing coach park in Madeira Drive which at the same time would have produced much needed revenue and when will this decision be reversed.

 

The recent parking survey and City Plan are ominously silent on coach parking facilities. Why?  Whatever the pro’s and cons are for committing over £14,000,000 towards the construction towards the i360 tower, an investment in coach parking of £200,000, one seventieth, over 40 additional places would have been provided creating the opportunity of increasing the gross annual income from parking, a basic requirement for a premier league city and resort such as ours with clear economic, strategic and ecological advantages, the coach park would have been in profit in under a year.

 

What other business schemes currently under consideration can demonstrate that? ”

 

29.3         Councillor Davey replied;

 

“The administration is fully aware of the important role of tourism and visitors in the city’s economy and that coaches bring day trippers here on a regular basis to enjoy what the city has to offer.  As you know the current coach parking site in Madeira Drive is in high demand and in the summer particularly though some drivers choose not to pay but to use Roedean Road.

 

Previous Conservative and Labour administrations have also recognized this over the last ten years or so, they have tried and have not been able to address the needs of coach drivers.  A single site, the former gas works above the Marina, was identified in 2004 as a possible site but I understand it proved too expensive to develop.  Planning permission was granted for a temporary coach park at the Black Rock site in 2011 but the cost exceeded the budget that was made available.

 

No decision has been reversed as you suggest other than planning consent, no public decision was made to implement a coach park at Black Rock. Sufficient funds were never identified, the £100,000 which I understood was set aside to build that park was barely half of what was required and no funds were identified for running it and I certainly didn’t see a business plan.

 

You ask also, what happened to this money. The £100,000 which was a seaside town grant was spent by the Conservative and Labour opposition groups at budget council in February 2012 to help fund their Council Tax freeze.

 

The City Parking Review is very much focused on provision for residents but it’s certainly an opportunity for you to put forward your reviews and I hope very much that you have done that or if you haven’t you will do so very soon.

 

Officers are developing a seafront strategy and transport access for people and vehicles needs to be part of that and I’ll be asking transport officers to input into that seafront strategy on this topic particularly and as you know there’s also the City Plan which mentions coach parking.”

 

29.4         Ms. Shepherd asked the following supplementary question;

 

“What mechanism is in place to measure the demand for coach parking in the city? The recent local transport plan makes no reference to the problem of coach parking, so what precise steps are being taken to address this?”

 

29.5         Councillor Davey replied;

 

“I will ask officers to look into that and get a response back to you.”

 

29.6         The Mayor thanked Ms. Shepherd for attending the meeting and putting her questions and invited Mr. Green to come forward and address the council.

 

29.7         Mr. Green asked the following question;

 

“As Deputy Leader of the Council and apparent spokesperson for the Green administration - notwithstanding anyone's right to Freedom of Information - what protocols do you have in place to protect the confidentiality of individual cases that you and your colleagues deal with and, indeed, any sensitive business that you have been elected to manage and guard wisely?”

 

29.8         Councillor Mac Cafferty replied;

 

“Information that Councillors have access to is obviously restricted by law, there are categories of confidential and exempt information that are set out in that legislation. Including information relating to any individual and information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person.  There are some exemptions to that as you might expect, including information on a need to know basis and a protocol that is set out in the Council’s Constitution that all 54 Councillors sign up to as well. We are also bound by a code of conduct which specifically addresses our responsibilities in relation to how we handle confidential information.

 

We’re prohibited under that code from disclosing information which we ought to be aware of, is of a confidential nature. Any complaints in relation to the breach of that code can be investigated and indeed they can be brought to the new Audit and Standards Committee.

 

Our employees must comply with the data protection and freedom of information act.  When they’re processing and disclosing information, it’s also a condition of their employment that they must not inappropriately publish or otherwise divulge confidential information. That responsibility continues, thankfully, even after the individual has left their employment. Those are rules are set out in the Council’s employee code of conduct as well. I imagine you may have a specific supplementary and I’ll do my best to answer that as best as I can.”

 

29.9         Mr. Green asked the following supplementary question;

 

“As a follower of a number of blogs and social media sites, how do you expect me and the people of Brighton and Hove to believe that this administration and in particularly yourself, are capable and trustworthy to exercise the necessary and proper confidentiality, following a complete lack of discretion in passing and publishing sensitive and in-accurate information concerning Councillor Summers and the Green Party Group to activists in the social media who, like you, have made it their personal crusade to publicly discredit her?”

 

29.10    Councillor Mac Cafferty replied;

 

“I can’t speak for others but I have not tweeted on the sad subject of what has happened to Councillor Summers and I take very seriously any comments that have been produced in the public domain about Councillor Summers. I’m more than happy to have a discussion with you about the very serious subject of what has happened to Councillor Summers.”

 

29.11    The Mayor thanked Mr. Green for attending the meeting and putting his questions and invited Ms. Joseph to come forward and address the council.

 

29.12    Ms. Joseph asked the following question;

 

“Seventeen months into your term as the first Green administration, to what extent do you feel you have tackled, or begun to tackle, the priorities identified in your manifesto in a way that has included, engaged and benefited all the different people groups that comprise this city?”

 

29.13    Councillor Mac Cafferty replied;

 

“We obviously take very seriously how we engage the population of the city and we hope to that end that the way that we’ve been consulting over our budget has been quite a good start. We’ve included the opposition parties, for example, in how we relate to the budget and we’ve been actively including the opinions of the city’s residents for example in some of the budget work we’ve done as well.

 

Specifics, underneath what we’ve done since we became the administration; we’ve signed up to a thing called the Open Government License which sees content on the Council’s website made available for re-use. We’re working with ‘My Society’ to adapt better workflow for Freedom of Information Requests.

 

We’re publishing increasing amounts of data including map data for Council services and assets. We’re re-writing the economic strategy with the Local Economic Partnership which brings together the lead businesses in the city. We’re writing a City Prospectus so that we can attract inward investment. 

 

We’re bidding for Government through the City Deal and a few weeks ago we launched the Eco Technology Show all of which demonstrates our commitment to involving and working with businesses in the city. Also, only a few weeks ago, we thrashed out the final finances for the i360 which will be on the sea front and we only did that with the co-operation of the Local Enterprise Partnership as well.

 

We financially supported a local supported employer, ‘Able and Willing’, which you may have heard of, it’s formally known as Castleham Industries. They employ 20 staff, 90% of whom have a disability, with the investment and the involvement of the Council and the way that we spoke to them, they’ve been able to buy new equipment and continue supporting people with disabilities in to work.

 

We’ve also been investing in ‘Riding the Wave’, with some support for small businesses. We’re examining, currently, what way we can offer more apprenticeships and training opportunities to young people through partnership working with the Council and City College who we obviously relish working with. We have the establishment of a One Stop Shop for young people in the city centre where they can go for advice from a variety of agencies, that’s on Queen’s Road.

 

We introduced an Eco Tourism Strategy for the city showing how Brighton and Hove can make best use of its sustainable assets and attractions. All Councillor Officers now get £7.19 as their wage because we have set up a living wage at commission. That was set up by the Chamber of Commerce and in conjunction with the Hotels Association and, indeed, the Albion.

 

We’re also promoting the Sussex Credit Union because we realise that times are tough. We’ve met with various landowners, developers, housing co-ops and other partners to kick start developments that have otherwise become stuck. We’ve agreed a Tenant Scrutiny Panel so that our tenants can keep an eye on what’s happening with their Tenants’ Tenancy Agreements. We’re working with partners including Brighton Housing Trust on an ethical lettings agency. We’ve brought more than 100 homes back into use because we’ve sat down with housing providers and private owners of empty properties.

 

We’ve supported Brighton Women’s Centre. We’ve introduced a carer’s card which supports carers and people who have a disability, mental health problem or long term illness. That enables them to discounts that are supported across the city. We’re bringing in a Safe in the City delivery unit, we’ve set up Cumulative Impact Area to deal with Licensing, I could go on but I realise that there’s probably a supplementary that you would like to ask as well.”

 

29.14    Ms. Joseph asked the following supplementary question;

 

“Before I give the Supplementary question, I want to make a point of saying I am not coming from a biased position where I connect with people’s hearts, I connect with people‘s emotions and I see people for who they are not what label they come from. As someone who’s been actively involved in the community at grassroots level and invested so much over the first of the last 15 years I’d like to know when this Administration is going to come clean on it’s equality drive and what we know is equality and admit that, to date, it has done little to assist encourage the significant representation of Christians in this city who invest untold amounts of time, energy and resources providing services that the Council for various reasons, probably very good reasons, have been unable to do so.

 

We’ve seen this Administration consistently and unashamedly promote resources countless to LGBT which I have no problem with but when it’s a bias I have a huge problem with it.  I want to know whether or not this Administration has the will to deal with Christian groups on an even playing field and if so, how you intend to demonstrate it?”

 

29.15    Councillor Mac Cafferty replied;

 

“The inclusion of all faiths in Brighton and Hove’s life and the inclusion of all faiths and non, in the way the city is run is of an incredible importance. To that end, there are indeed Christians in our Group and Christians in our Party and the Chief Executive of the Green Party is an active Christian, for example. To that end we fully acknowledge their role in what way we understand our own politics.

 

In terms of what way we engage, I know, for example myself and my colleague in my Ward Councillor Ollie Sykes, talk all the time to faith leaders and that’s of all the Abrahamic faiths, that’s Jews, Muslims as well as Christians and we take very seriously their opinion and what they have to say, not least because of the very important role that you’ve identified in your supplementary question to me which is the very important role that they play and I want to carry on with that and I would hope that all of my colleagues in this Administration would take very seriously the important role that all faiths play in our city and that we carry on doing that in the future and I’m more that happy for us to have a conversation outside of these four walls to carry on how we do that best.”

 

29.16    The Mayor thanked Ms. Joseph for attending the meeting and putting her questions and invited Mr. Bell to come forward and address the council.

 

29.17    Mr. Bell asked the following question;

 

“As you have announced an underspend in this year’s council budget can you please inform us as to why for the sake of £60,000 the 52 bus service has been cut so that the elderly in Woodingdean can no longer get to the hospital, working council tax payers can no longer commute to the station and children going to BHASVIC, Cardinal Newman and Blatchington Mill schools are now put in danger by having to wait in the dark to catch three buses instead of the direct route they use to have on  the original 52 bus route.”

 

29.18    Councillor Davey replied;

 

“I very much wish you were right on the difference between the £110,000 per annum that this Council is paying the Big Lemon to run the shortened 52 service and the price of the extended route which we received was only £60,000. The reality is it isn’t and it was much higher than that and much more like double that. Of course the contract was for 4 years so the overall commitment over that period was substantially greater than £400,000. The Council is not able to afford that sum of money in the current economic climate, we should only have to listen to the news every single day to comprehend the situation that the extra cuts imposed on this Local Authority and other Local Authorities throughout the Country are getting worse week on week.

The revised 52 route is timetabled to synchronise with the Council’s subsidised 47 route at the Marina and neighbouring continuous journeys to the hospital and to the city centre. There are also many other services running along the coast road to connect to and from Woodingdean into the city centre itself.”

 

29.19    Mr. Bell asked the following supplementary question;

 

“Is this an attack on the lives of us living in Woodingdean because this is devastating the lives of the elderly, the school children and those trying to go to work. I’m interested to know what value the Green Administration will put on a life because lives are in danger waiting in these dark streets, travelling down these roads, having to cross main road going to school and having at least a 10 minute walk to get into school now.”

 

29.20    Councillor Davey replied;

 

“This Council puts a great deal of value on road safety and one of the things we are doing is introducing 20 mile per hour speed limits across the city to make the streets safer than they are at the moment.  Many children across the city are having to walk to school, many children do not have buses direct to their school and I wish they did but the reality is that has never been the case and it isn’t the case at the moment. If you have specific concerns please submit them to the road safety team and I’m sure they’ll have a look at them.”

 

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

 

29.22    Mr. Tilley asked the following question;

 

“It is requested that the Brighton and Hove public are allowed to take photos (silent, non flash) and video recordings on mobile devices during public Council meetings.”

 

29.23    Councillor J. Kitcat replied;

 

“I personally would very much support that and I have put that case in the last review of the constitution but I could not find cross party support for that position. The current position is that the constitution requires the agreement of the Chair at each meeting whether that can be allowed. I would hope that there would be a default in favour in the future and I hope that other Members would support it the next time we review our constitution.”

 

29.24    The Mayor thanked Mr. Tilley for attending the meeting and putting r his question and invited Ms. Simson to come forward and address the council.

 

29.25    Ms. Simson asked the following question;

 

“St Josephs Primary School in Hollingdean is situated on a busy main bus route and every day parents, carers and their children take their lives in their hands when trying to cross outside the school. The school has contacted the Council on many occasions asking for a crossing to be situated outside the school and only last week was told the earliest this could happen was 2015.  For the safety of everyone at the school are you prepared to do to make it safe to cross either with a proper crossing or at very least a school crossing patrol?”

 

29.26    Councillor Davey replied;

 

“Council officers carried out an assessment last year and didn’t find that it particularly merited the installation of a formal crossing.  I’m told that this month, they’ve looked at it again and at the possibility of a school crossing officer and other access improvements for pedestrians in the area.  I think the message is work with the School Travel Team to improve things in the area.”  

 

29.27    Ms. Simson asked the following supplementary question;

 

“We did have someone come last week following this campaign to look again about what can be done but we haven’t had any answers and our parents want to be reassured that this matter will be taken seriously and dealt with as soon as possible and we just want to know how soon there will be a satisfactory outcome for our children?”

 

29.28    Councillor Davey replied;

 

“I’ve got a long response which I won’t read but I will get to you in writing but the School Travel Officers will be in touch see what can be done as soon as possible.”

 

29.29    The Mayor thanked Ms. Simson for attending the meeting and putting her questions and invited Mr. Pamely to come forward and address the council.

 

29.30    Mr. Pamely asked the following question,

 

“The curtailment of the 52 bus route and the changes to its timetable has seriously jeopardised our safety.  Please give in detail your analysis of the risks factors and the dangers posed when allowing the changes to the running of the 52 bus.  What considerations were there about linking with other bus service times (as these are not working), the locations for changing buses for children as young as 11 years of age in extended journey times, the geographical nature of Ovingdean, (its hills and exposed unlit downland road), and, the demographic make-up of the Ovingdean area?”

 

29.31    Councillor Davey replied,

 

“The budget savings as a result of Central Government cuts form quite difficult decisions across a whole range of Council services. This is the same for all Local Authorities many of whom have drastically cut funding for supported bus routes or in some cases are in the process of stopping them altogether.

 

It’s also worth remembering that the very minimal reduction in this Council’s budget was supported by all political parties in this room at Budget Council in February of this year. The shortened 52 service timetable has been synchronised to link up with the 47 at the Marina to allow passengers to change there for its service to the hospital and the city centre and there are also links along the seafront.

 

Public Transport and the Children and Young People teams are providing detailed information to parents concerning school journeys and information, as always, has also been provided to schools. With regard to risk, the services connect at the Marina so there’s a perfectly straight forward change there. With regards to Health and Safety, there is an operator’s Code of Conduct which sets out what is expected of the operators and I’ll get that provided in the written response. Also there’s going to be a review of School Transport taking place over these next few months so you can input any specific safety concerns into that.”

 

29.32    Mr. Pamely asked the following supplementary question,

 

“Don’t you think that by continuing what you have currently running is in fact failing to protect the citizens of Ovingdean and Woodingdean?”

 

29.33    Councillor Davey replied,

 

“No I don’t, this Council is providing £110,000 a year to fund a bus service from Woodingdean/Ovingdean down to the Marina.”

 

29.34    The Mayor thanked Mr. Pamely for attending the meeting and putting his questions and noted that this concluded the public questions for the meeting.