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.

33.1         The Mayor noted that notification of 11 oral questions had been received and invited Councillor Geoffrey Theobald to put his question to Councillor J. Kitcat.

 

Council Tax

33.2         Councillor G. Theobald asked, “At the recent Conservative Party Conference the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced that for the third year in a row the Government will be offering Councils significant extra money to help them freeze Council Tax. Will the Leader of the Council join with the Conservative Group today in committing to accepting that Government money and to delivering residents of Brighton and Hove a Council Tax freeze? Can I ask him, yes or no? ”

 

33.3         Councillor J. Kitcat replied, “I think what needs to considered is that, you will recall that there were was this offer which is only worth 1% of one off money which means in future years the Council Tax base will be worth permanently less and you’ll note that colleagues in your party like the Leader of Surrey have been highly critical of the way in which Mr Pickles has handled the affair. You may also note that in the last 6 weeks, various Government announcements have been rapidly depleting the Council’s budget position so that the budget position now stands at a £25,000,000 gap for the financial year ahead of us which is some £10-12,000,000 worse than was originally anticipated. So I think what Pickle’s gives with one hand, he takes away with more than one hand doesn’t he? So we are going to look at the detail, we are actually awaiting proper formal announcements of all of these from the Ministers because so far what we’ve had is comments in the Mail on Sunday and so on.  I don’t think that’s proper for Ministers, I think they should make statements in the Houses of Parliament and I note the Conservative Party made such a commitment before they were elected to power and I was sorry to see them renege on that.”

 

33.4         Councillor G. Theobald asked the following supplementary question, “As recorded in the minutes of the Policy and Resources Committee, meeting of the 12July, you stated that for every 1% increase in Council Tax the Council would have to pay an extra £1,000,000 to Council Tax Benefit recipients under the new system starting next April. Is this still correct? And do you agree that if you increase Council Tax by, for example, 2% you will firstly be increasing the burden on our residents, secondly turning down £1,200,000 from the Government that would go into the local economy and thirdly paying out an extra £2,000,000 in Council Tax Benefit according to what you stated at the Policy and Resources Committee?”

 

33.5         Councillor J. Kitcat replied, “That is not correct and I’m pretty sure that’s not what I said, what I would have said is that for every 1% increase in Council Tax, it may be that there was an error in the minutes that I didn’t spot, it’s possible, we can have a look at the Webcast but lets talk about the facts on the ground Councillor, the facts on the ground are simply this; based on the best information we have at the moment each 1% increase in Council Tax is worth about £1.2 million however about £200,000 of that would need to be paid out in Council Tax Support because, of course, your Government have localised Council Tax Benefit with a cut worth about 18% and our mainstreaming in to the grants so in future, regardless of the demand from those in our city, we will get no extra funding.  So that is where we stand but of course the bill hasn’t passed through Parliament yet so we don’t actually know what the position is, perhaps you could speak to your Government and ask them to give us some certainty in these matters.”

 

Neighbourhood Councils

33.6         Councillor Mitchell asked, “Could the Leader of the Council please confirm that the 2 Neighbourhood Council Pilots are exactly on track and are being implemented exactly as planned?”

 

33.7         Councillor Duncan replied, “I’m afraid much of what I’m going to say is in the addendum in front of you because it is the same information as is provided in answer to your written question from Councillor Simson but in short the answer is it is on track, there are 2 pilots as I’m surprised you don’t already know. One is in the Whitehawk and Bristol estate areas of the East Brighton Ward of which I believe you are a Councillor, the other is the whole Hollingdean and Stanmer Ward and they’re both on track.   But in short the Whitehawk and Bristol Estate are coming together to have one neighbourhood Councillor, got a meeting later this month which is the first meeting of that neighbourhood Council.  In Hollingdean and Stanmer, a steering group is in the process of being developed to bring various groups in the ward together that is made up of representatives of a range of groups all of which have responded very positively and wanted to be involved.  We’re also in the process of establishing a cross party working group which I hope you are aware of and members of your group will fully participate in.”

 

33.8         Councillor Mitchell asked the following supplementary question, “Have any additional staff been recruited for the implementation of these pilots as was mentioned at the cabinet meeting where the decision was taken to implement them?”

 

33.9         Councillor Duncan replied, “I will provide a written response. Remember these Neighbour Council Pilots were launched not 3 weeks ago at an event on the 26 September at the City Centre event, which was about bringing communities together and community engagement.”

 

Free Schools and Academies Policy

33.10    Councillor Wealls asked, “Does Councillor Shanks agree with the Labour by-election leaflet from the East Brighton by-election which stated ‘the Green run Council want to double the size of St Marks’ School and have your children taught in drafty portacabins?’  Is that what the Green Party wants or does she agree with me that this is disgraceful scaremongering which brings the whole of politics into disrepute?”

 

33.11    Councillor Shanks replied, “I do often agree with Councillor Wealls and on this occasion I of course agree with him, I was appalled to see that leaflet when I had sat in the meeting and categorically said that we will not be building portacabins and members who are here now had also heard me say that in the meeting. Obviously we are going to be hopefully expanding St Marks’ School but it will not get to the size that was mentioned in that leaflet either obviously until the children go through because we’ll be expanding one form entry at a time.”

 

33.12    Councillor Wealls asked the following supplementary question, “Given that the Labour spokesperson was part of the group of us who agreed these proposals, and the Labour Councillors who sit on the Children and Young People’s Committee sought assurances which they received, that there would be no portacabins, and voted for the paper at that meeting. When we speak about item 38 on the agenda tonight how do you expect the Labour Group to vote on those proposals and do you agree with me that the Labour Party should write to the head teacher at St Marks’ School apologising because he had to write to the parents of children of that school explaining that there was nothing in of truth and substance in that leaflet?”

 

33.13    Councillor Shanks replied, “When I move the motion about schools I will be calling for all party support because we have had really good cross party working on this, it’s been very good, it’s been well supported, people have had all those discussion and then we’ve also had the Children’s Committee which also supported the recommendations of the schools organisational club, this will then go out for consultation.   I think it was appalling that one of the senior officers in the end wrote to the Argus about this because he was appalled at what was happening. Obviously it’s good to have a decent political debate about schooling in our country and we often engage in that across the chamber but we might need to make sure of our facts and I think it is a disservice to the parents and I think it would be a good idea if the new Councillor for East Brighton talks to St Marks’ about what the plans actually are and I can obviously brief her on those now that she’s a member of the Council.”

 

Services for Young People

33.14    Councillor Marsh asked, “I was very pleased to hear earlier, the partnership awards that we won, where we had worked with Council services and the voluntary sector so I wonder, would Councillor Shanks agree with me that we have some excellent voluntary organisations working and providing services for young people in this city who are especially disadvantaged and vulnerable?”

 

33.15    Councillor Shanks replied, “Yes thank you for the mention of the Partnership Agreement, that’s been a really good piece of work across the city where local voluntary organisations have come together and produced a bid for our commissioned voluntary sector youth services worth £400,000 over three years and I’m really pleased that they won that bid they worked really hard and they’ll be working very closely with our in house services to improve the services that we can offer particularly to those disadvantaged young people.”

 

33.16    Councillor Marsh asked the following supplementary question, “It’s very sad because one of those excellent projects in my own ward, Safe and Sorted, has been forced to close because of lack of funding. You and I, Councillor Shanks, were interviewed on radio Sussex and because we couldn’t hear each other and we couldn’t hear what was happening, I didn’t hear the young person, who used Safe and Sorted Project, who asked, “why did this Green Administration decide to make funding available for a skateboard park in the Level when it couldn’t actually find funding for the Safe and Sorted Projects supporting vulnerable, challenged young people in my ward? I didn’t hear the answer to the question; I hope that Councillor Shanks can give me that answer now. ”

 

33.17    Councillor Shanks replied, “I understand the funding for the Level is a separate issue on section 106 but I also didn’t hear that young person, we did have a reasonable polite interview about that. As Councillor Marsh knows, Safe and Sorted was started by the YMCA and they got lottery funding for that which was a 3 year, I know you know this but maybe the other people don’t, it was a 3 year lottery funding bid and last year we agreed to extend that because they could not secure any more funding, we kept it going for another year for a further £40,000 and then a further £20,000 last year.  Unfortunately due to the fact that we haven’t had extra money that was never part of the Council services, we haven’t been able to continue funding for that. However the Director of Care and Support at the YMCA, who run this project, they remain committed to the young person of Moulsecoomb and they hope that this is temporary measure and they’re intending to ‘work with us’, this is from a letter that has been sent to us, “whilst we work with Brighton and Hove City Council and Impact Initiatives on consolidating advice provision for young people across the city.” We’re very concerned about the ability for young people to receive information and advice and there is a group working on this to look at how we continue to provide this on a commission basis and there’s currently a group meeting on this and the membership of the group is Sussex Central YMCA, Impact Initiatives, Youth Access and the commissioners from our services; Children Services, Housing and Equalities and Communities.

 

So it’s really going to be an across the board look at this, properly, to make sure that we’ve got a working group set up and they’ll be going to work together to secure additional resources and hopefully draw down charitable funding perhaps European funding. So the intention is that we are having this joint approach to take a strategic view of the city’s needs about information, advice and counselling because relying on lottery funding doesn’t always work, as we’ve seen, it often tends to run out and this joint model should reduce the reliance on lottery and short term funding pots and build us a proper coherent model. So I’m really please that we’re going to be able to go forward with that and I’d ask you to join with me in working towards achieving that aim.”

 

            Sustainable City

33.18    Councillor Janio asked, “I would be most grateful if the Chairman of the Environment and Sustainability Committee could share with us the latest plans that the Green Administration has with regards to achieving sustainable growth within Brighton and Hove?”

 

33.19    Councillor West replied, “On page 55 of your Agenda from Councillor Janio which says the subject matter is a sustainable city. What are we doing as a Green Administration? Well we are working incredibly hard to make the Council and the city more sustainable. As Councillor Janio is aware we have a priority of becoming the first One Planet council and City and this will not only underpin our contribution to tackling climate change and resource depletion but ensure the city adapts well with the changes ahead and economically, socially and environmentally thrives.

 

With many partners we’ve been drafting a One Planet Living and Sustainability Action Plan and our independent assessors, Bio Regional, are already impressed with what they see and with the practical deliverability of it. The first eco technology show in June was a roaring success, bringing together hundreds of local businesses from this fledgling and growing market. Thousands of local residents attended seeking out good ideas and making the lives and homes more sustainable and affordable.  We’ve agreed to, again, financially support this show and I acknowledge that the Conservatives on our committee supported that expenditure unlike, unfortunately, the Labour colleagues who were too short sighted to see the benefits. Next year the show will be bigger and better and it will be held in the Brighton Centre and there will be many more local links, it’s hoped that there will be work with local schools as well and that the melting pot of local ideas and local businesses will be strengthened further and this is a growth sector for the economy.

 

Where other areas are flat lining this sector is growing and we really need to be at the sharp end of this and this show is key to that. But more than that, at this year’s Eco Technology Show the Technology Strategy Board approached us and said, “would we like to bid to be a Future City Demonstrator” so we said, “yes please” and we put in our outline and we were awarded £50,000 to develop a feasibility study and bid and the prize if we win it amongst many other cities that are bidding is up to £24,000,000. This is a considerable thing; it’s a colossal opportunity for the city. Around this bid process there’s a lot of really good partners that have come together, it’s an extremely strong bid and really attractive idea of what we’re coming up with and even if we don’t win this particular pot of cash, we will have the legacy of a vision and the queue of people prepared to help us realise it anyway will not disperse easily.

 

I finally mention, as Councillor Janio will also know, that we have, as a council, decided to invest in automatic meter reading. Now this may be a bit of a dull affair for some members and I know that some members in Policy and Resources Committee struggled to realise and appreciate the benefit of it but we have to baseline in this Council what we are using in terms of water and energy in order that we can both realise where the best savings can be made and know that we’re making them but also to encourage to create the culture of every member of staff taking this matter seriously.  The great benefit of this will not only be the contributions that we can make to climate change reduction and reducing water usage, it is the financial savings that we will be able to realise as an organisation that will allow us to concentrate our funding on supplying services to residents.”

 

33.20    Councillor Janio asked the following supplementary question, “Councillor West will you not agree with me to put aside your political bias and fully engage with the most environmentally friendly and Conservative led Government to take this city in to the future?”

 

33.21    Councillor West replied, “No.”

 

Portslade Town Hall

33.22    Councillor Hamilton asked, “I was going to ask about Portslade Town Hall however due to an officer mistake it’s been rectified and now resolved so I change my question. I have here the hard charge tariff of Portslade Town Hall, it states that the main hall is suitable for 150 persons. If that number of people were at a function and there was a bowls match taking place at the same time there could 180 people on site on a road that has got not a bus route. It is proposed to close and sell the car park as part of the development site taking the number of parking places from 38 to 13. Do you think that this is an acceptable and sensible proposal?”

 

33.23    Councillor J. Kitcat replied, “With regard to future parking on the site, consultation in relation to the redevelopment on that area you referred to, Councillor Hamilton, will start in early 2013 there are a number of different options being looked at including change to the on street parking controls and the parking on the other side of Victoria Road which could be used more efficiently as currently most of it is being used by cars from the local car dealers.  We do recognise that the situation needs to be reviewed and regularised and so we certainly will consult on that in the New Year.”

 

33.24    Councillor Hamilton asked the following supplementary question, “When the sell off of the car park was agreed at cabinet on 17 March 2011 over 18 months ago Councillor Alford, the relevant Cabinet Member, stated that exploring the possibility of increasing parking in the area was a top priority. If it was a top priority can you tell me exactly what progress has been made in this matter?”

 

33.25    Councillor J. Kitcat replied, “I obviously can’t speak for Councillor Alford but he did actually offer to hand over to me when I took over his portfolio but he never replied to my emails and calls so he never passed that message on but I’m happy to look at it now. ”

 

Travellers

33.26    Councillor Barnett asked, “The cost of eviction, rubbish collection and clear up from the unlawful Traveller encampments are born entirely by the residents and Council Tax payers of Brighton and Hove and Portslade without any financial contribution from the Travellers themselves, many of whom have permanent homes elsewhere in the UK and Ireland.  We are told that we have to accept this because of the so called human rights of the Travellers. Does the Leader of the Council think that this is morally acceptable and what about the human rights of the city’s permanent residents?”

 

33.27    Councillor West replied, “I was trying to prepare for Councillor Barnett’s question and I looked to see how many encampments have actually been in Hangleton and Knoll and since April there have been 6. 2 at Greenleas Park, both of these encampments left voluntarily after commencement of action to evict them. Then there was one on Benfield Valley Park on the cricket pitches there and this encampment was evicted by Sussex Police within one day following request from the Council that Police use their emergency power.   However this is quite important context, at Devil’s Dyke Road there have been two, that’s just inside your ward but is quite far up onto the Downs. The first of these was evicted after 33 days when the Council got a possession order and the second is there now having moved from 19 Acres. But I thought as the Councillor is the Ward Councillor that she would be interested to know these things. In each of those cases it’s clearly been a difficult matter because in cases where Travellers have come on to public paths it is a difficult matter, I accept that.

 

We are working very close with the Police and through our traveller strategy to ensure that we can try and minimise the impacts but there are Travellers coming here as they have done for many centuries, there’s nothing new in that at all and it’s certainly not something that’s happened very recently under the Green Administration, I’ve got some figures which show that in July of this year we actually had the lowest number of Travellers on the July count since 2007.   Do I think that they should contribute towards costs? If they were on a proper site, of course they would be contributing to costs through rent.”

 

33.28    Councillor Barnett asked the following supplementary question, “They were on a site when they left without paying and refused readmission. But my second question and I did mention it to the Leader of the Council; at a recent unlawful Traveller encampment at Wild Park the Police stationed a mobile CCTV van by the park for a whole week.  Does the Leader of the Council agree with me that it will have been much better use of Tax Payer’s money if the Police had simply used their powers of eviction to evict the travellers and use the CCTV van for its proper purpose i.e. protecting the ordinary members of the public from crime and anti-social behaviour.  May I please have a proper answer?”

 

33.29    Councillor J. Kitcat replied, “Everyone is an ordinary member of the public in the eyes of the Police, it’s an operational decision for the Police and that van was there for their own purposes in terms of preventing crime and disorder and protecting the public including those on the unauthorised, not unlawful encampment and it is up to the Police to make those operational decisions. It’s not a Council matter.”

 

Grass Cutting

33.30    Councillor Meadows asked, “My residents were asking when the long grass and weeds were going to be cut along the Lewes Road highway, as they are very concerned that young children couldn’t be seen by cars and they couldn’t see cars it was so tall.  However I should put more questions in to the Council Mr. Mayor because all of a sudden the Administration were galvanised and they cut it down the day before yesterday. So I’ve changed my question to, would this be an annual cut that residents could expect? Could they expect to see several cuts in that area or just when I put a question in to Council?”

 

33.31    Councillor West replied, “There are certain sites where we have left grass this year in order to see what biological interest is on those sites and they will get one late cut. That’s only about 20 sites around the city, I don’t know the one you’re talking about but cutting the grass generally around the city obviously has been a bit difficult because it’s rained more this summer than in the last 100 years and the grass has grown as if your were in Ireland and it’s been very difficult through that period of strong growth for City Parks to actually keep on top of that.  However they have now, as the growth has slowed down, caught up. Now I know members opposite will say, “well why don’t we (Green Administration) cut the grass more often, but I will remind the Labour Group that in 2011 we decided to amend the budget to actually remove the extra cut that the Conservatives had put in because we thought we can spend the money in other more appropriate ways.”

 

33.32    Councillor Meadows asked the following supplementary question, “Would you not agree with me that this Green Administration is better at cutting services than it is at cutting grass?”

 

33.33    Councillor West replied, “Obviously Councillor Meadows thinks the idea of cutting services highly whimsical that she asks a question like that. I think that’s actually rather disappointing. I don’t know which piece of grass you’re talking about; there are rather a lot in the city.”

 

Health & Safety on Public Transport

33.34    Councillor Mears asked, “With the decision, now taken by the Green Administration to cut the number 52 bus service, can Councillor Davey confirm that every step has been taken by the Council to ensure that the Big Lemon Bus operator is complying with all the regulations under the Public Service Vehicles Accessibility Regulation and also that the buses are capable of undertaking the contract?”

 

33.35    Councillor Davey replied, “If you have particular concerns please let us know and we’ll look into it but I have no reason to believe that there not adhering to the terms of their contract.”

 

33.36    Councillor Mears asked the following supplementary question, “If Councillor Davey reads the report it says officers will actually undertake this piece of work, so I’m sure you’ve read it. The other point is, since the start of this contract there has been a number of breakdowns on the number 52 bus, some broken down on the seafront, some broken down going through Woodingdean, so what action will be taken by officers to ensure that the bus operator complies with all the regulations?”

 

33.37    Councillor Davey replied, “I don’t monitor the performance of every bus in the city but if there are issues with this bus service I’ll ask the officers to get a report to you.”

 

Workplace Parking

33.38    Councillor Cobb asked, “The Brighton and Hove Green Party’s 2011 Local Election Manifesto contained a commitment to impose work placed parking charges on businesses in the city. Last month Bristol City Council abandoned its plans to introduce a work place parking levy following wide spread concern that it would be an extra tax on business and could seriously damage local traders.  Can I now take this opportunity to see if somebody on the other side will rule out the introduction of a work place parking charge in Brighton and Hove?”

 

33.39    Councillor Davey replied, “The possibility of introducing work place parking charges was in our manifesto and what we said was that we would monitor developments elsewhere to see how they progressed and take a view as to their relevance and practicality for the city. Nottingham City Council has subsequently introduced a scheme and is using the funds raised, to invest in improved public transport including I believe a tram system which I’m sure will be immensely popular as they are elsewhere.

 

But I’m also aware that subsequently National Government have since made it more onerous for Local Authorities to introduce such schemes and as a consequence other cities such as Bristol have decided not to go ahead but that kind of stipulation from National Government does seem a strange form of Localism to me.  Though the opposition remains the same, we will monitor progress of the Nottingham scheme and elsewhere but there are no immediate plans to progress such a scheme in the city as the Government have clearly made that almost impossible to do.”

 

33.40    Councillor Cobb asked the following supplementary question, “Just to confirm, you are not ruling out a tax on private car parks?”

 

33.41    Councillor Davey replied, “A tax on private car parks is a totally separate matter to work place parking charges, there are a lot of private car parks in the city which has got absolutely nothing to do with work place parking, and it’s a totally irrelevant follow up question.”

 

Cuts to Bus Subsidies

33.42    Councillor Simson asked, “Can you ensure all those residents from Woodingdean and Ovingdean that came here today and those that haven’t, because they couldn’t get a buts, those that have demonstrated outside, those who have presented deputations and those that have asked questions; can you ensure those that are disabled and find it difficult to change buses at the Marina, those who need to get to the Hospital for treatment especially the elderly, those people that now have to take 3 buses to school or take their lives in their hand crossing a main road, those that are having to re-buy a car they had sold in order to use public transport and those who simply need to get to work on time; can you assure them all, and there are many of them, that you have listened today and will identify the funding needed to reinstate to 52 bus service as it was before the cut? And give it the opportunity to develop and increase usage and eventually maybe even become financially viable in its own right?”

 

33.1         Councillor Davey replied, “As we know the financial approaches on this Council are increasing week by week because of cuts imposed by your Conservative led Central Government so if you really have the energy to put into this I think you better direct it at your MP who is part of that Government and ask him to do what he was elected for and work on behalf of the residents of Ovingdean and Woodingdean to fight these cuts.”

 

33.2         Councillor Simson asked the following supplementary question, “Are you actually prepared at all to even consider reviewing this?”

 

33.3         Councillor Davey replied, “As has also been said today the Transport Team and the Children and Young People Team are looking at school transport specifically and will be very pleased to hear the view of yourselves and to feed into that but also if you have got the several £100,000 necessary to run these services and others then please tell officers where that is.”

 

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

 

 

Motion to terminate the meeting:

 

33.5         In accordance with Procedural Rule 17, the Mayor noted that the meeting had been in session for over four hours and he was therefore required to move a closure motion to effectively terminate the meeting.

 

33.6         The Mayor moved the closure motion and put the matter to the vote which was carried and therefore the Mayor noted each of the remaining items would need to be taken and voted on or withdrawn by the mover before the meeting was concluded. He noted that the remaining items were No’s 38, 42 and 43.