Agenda item - Written questions from members of the public.

A list of public questions received by the due date of the 21^st March will be circulated separately as part of an addendum at the meeting.

99.1               The Mayor reported that five written questions had been received from members of the public and invited Ms. Ferguson to come forward and address the council.

99.2               Ms. Ferguson thanked the Mayor and asked the following question; “We appreciate that the Transport Committee has a mandate to ensure traffic moves in a safe manner at 7 Dials and that a public consultation exercise was undertaken in relation to the new proposals.  However, the tree campaign highlights other aspects of life in the city, such as the need to maintain the character of the area, health and well-being, and sustainability of the environment.

               Given the strength of feeling to retain the Elm Tree, will the council agree to a multi-disciplinary approach to review the proposed plan, consult further with residents and secure an alternative plan that will save the Elm Tree and achieve improved traffic control?”

99.3               Councillor J. Kitcat, Leader of the Council replied; “The Council’s cross party Transport Committee unanimously agreed the plans on the 15^th January 2013 to make the Seven Dials Roundabout safer for everyone including motorists, pedestrians and cyclists. This followed the extensive public consultation exercise where the majority of those who responded indicated they were in favour of the proposals. The detailed plans included the intentions to remove the tree on the corner of Vernon Terrace and to do that would provide a wider pavement area for disabled users.  The Council also proposed to plant ten new mature trees in the area and this was supported by all parties on the Council as well as the Council’s arboriculturalist and that was mentioned at the committee meeting where the decision was taken.

However I recognise, very much, that since the Committee decision was taken and the work was about to begin, there was a very clear local and community concern about the future of the tree therefore the officers implementing the Committee’s decision have suspended any works that could affect the tree until a conclusion could be come to and later on, on the agenda in this meeting we will be discussing a petition from the campaign and I will be proposing an amendment to the recommendation so we’ll seek to bring it back to the Transport Committee where I’m hopeful a compromise position could be found that could save the tree whilst retaining the safety improvements.”

99.4               Ms. Ferguson asked the following supplementary question; “One of the problems with the Seven Dials process was that the main Transport Committee report did not mention that a tree was meant to be felled. The news was buried in an appendix and nowhere in the report was it stated that the tree was an Elm.

   Will the Council ensure that all future reports to the Transport Committee and its successor should specifically state if a tree is to be felled or substantially cut back? And if the tree is an Elm or other noteworthy species; the report should adequately describe the species.”

99.5               Councillor Kitcat replied; “The report including its appendices did very specifically point out that the tree was going to be felled and it indicated that on the diagram and further more that was projected on to a large screen and verbally referred to by officers at the committee.  I accept it didn’t specify the species of the tree but it did clearly indicate that in writing and in all the other forms of presentation that a tree was to be felled and I believe that the committee made a fair and correct decision at that time. There are over 17,000 trees on the City Council’s highways alone, that’s beyond the trees that we have in our parks and gardens, so there are a very significant number of trees and I think officers always have to take a balance on how they present things to make it as appreciable and understandable for everyone involved but I think in this case the report was very clear about the future of the tree should a decision be taken.  However we fully understand the concerns of the community which is why we are going to be recommending it goes back to the Transport Committee and I hope that recommendation will get support from the Council later on.”

99.6               The Mayor thanked Ms. Ferguson her questions and invited Mr. Furness to come forward and address the council.

99.7               Mr. Furness thanked the Mayor and asked the following question, “Regarding the proposed felling of the elm tree at the Seven Dials, could you please tell us, Councillor West, whether;

1)           The Arboriculture Department under the watchful eye of Di Morgan were consulted; and

2)           Whether this department had made you aware that the elm in question is a Wheatley Elm – the rarest form of elm in the world?”

99.8               Councillor West, Chair of the Environmental & Sustainability Committee replied;“For the first part my answer is that the arboriculture department was consulted on the proposal to remove the elm tree at Seven Dials and were asked to provide up to ten new trees in the immediate vicinity of Seven Dials. They agreed providing ten trees in place of the single elm tree would result in a significant improvement to the area.  On the second point, I have been made aware that an arboriculturalist has confirmed that this is indeed a Wheatley Elm.”

99.9               Mr. Furness asked the following supplementary question,“It may surprise you to know that I fully back you on this Council’s bid to declare or to have declared a biosphere zone in the Greater Brighton area but I fail to see how the way that the Council is managing the environment, I fail to see how this gives us any grounds whatsoever. The Arboriculture Department, you say they were consulted; I would like to know if the Arboriculture Department are being allowed to do their job properly? Because I’m getting, calls from people over this city that trees are disappearing at a remarkable rate on a daily basis. It’s like a slash and burn policy and now I see that Friends of the Earth are saying that the elm tree should come down; with friends like that the Earth doesn’t need many enemies.”

99.10          Councillor West replied, “With regard to the biosphere I thank you for pointing that out and for your clear support for that initiative. There are different aspects of the Biosphere bid. Two key parts of it really are the social economic benefits of a Biosphere and the relationship of people and nature and we will have to look at many different aspects of life within the city and it is important as with the work we’re doing at Seven Dials, to improve the conditions for people to be able to get about properly and that is the entire purpose of that initiative and I think the work fits very well with the concept of the Biosphere because it’s promoting sustainable transport and meeting in the wider principles of what a Biosphere is.

   With regard to trees disappearing around the city, we do actually have an awful  lot of trees that become casualties every year, street trees have a very hard life and that they have to be cut down if they become diseased otherwise they will infect the rest of the population. It is obviously sad when they are lost but that is necessary to do. We have to keep the tree population healthy.

   I’ve got a few interesting statistics, the Leader of the Council mentioned the number of street trees we have which is considerable. I understand in the case of Elms there are actually 19,000 elm trees within the city of which 1400 are Wheatley elms like the one at Seven Dials. So it isn’t a lone-survivalist tree but I think we do need to get things in to perspective and the wider benefits of the scheme and in particular the intentions around that tree were well taken by the Transport Committee and we had to weigh up the benefits to the public, in particular, people with mobility disabilities and the sight impaired, but I understand that there is a petition debate today and we are going to be offering a recommendation to take another report to the Transport Committee to consider any potential options there are to save that particular tree.”

99.11          The Mayor thanked Mr. Furness for his questions and invited Ms. Paynter to come forward and address the council.

99.12          Ms. Paynter thanked the Mayor and asked the following question,“How many street trees has Brighton & Hove City Council planted in Brighton, Hove and Portslade in each of the financial years since the Green Party took over the Administration of the city and have any of them been Wheatley Elms?”

99.13          Councillor West, Chair of the Environment & Sustainability Committee replied, “Tree planting is carried out between December and March of each year and a number of street trees have been planted in the two financial years since the Green Party took over administration.  So between December 2011 and March 2012, 346 street trees were planted and in 2012/2013 the number is 213 trees planted. These are the figures for street trees however we have planted a considerable number of trees within parks and public open spaces. During this period we have planted 4 Wheatley Elms in Preston Park but Council no longer plants Wheatley Elms as street trees due to the long term problems caused by roots to the infrastructure of the highway.”

99.14          Ms. Paynter asked the following supplementary question, “You’ve given me an extremely small number of tree plantings for the time you’ve been here. Victorians and Edwardians planted a staggering number of street trees and park trees in a much smaller space than the city occupies at present. It’s a wonderful legacy, they got the ball rolling. This is an area in Hove where there were virtually no trees to begin with, according to Judy Middleton in the trees of Hove article on her ‘Hove, Portslade and Brighton in the past’ website there are today more elm trees in Brighton and Hove than in the rest of Britain altogether. That’s quite a legacy and that was all done in the past before there was any such thing as a Green Party or an environmental movement per say. I do wonder how tree conscious the Green Party are having morphed from environmental activism towards the embrace of quite pc hard left politics.  I’m wondering if the Green Party has any intention whatsoever of putting together a tree policy which involves preservation of mature trees?”

99.15          Councillor West replied, “I would certainly need to check what exactly the existing tree policy is, I’m sure we have one, we have policies on just about everything in this Council. I don’t agree with you that we are not planting many trees; I did read out the numbers that we are planting. I think 2000 got planted in Stanmer Park in the last couple of years as well. We are certainly committed in that way and I think I can probably better respond to you after I have asked officers about specific policies. I would just like to re-iterate that the matter of this particular elm was dealt with by the cross party Transport Committee who considered, very well, and openly and were fully aware of the matter of the tree and the decision was made.”

99.16          The Mayor thanked Ms. Paynter for her questions and invited Mr. Kemble to come forward and address the council.

99.17          Mr. Kemble thanked the Mayor and asked the following question, “At a meeting of the Transport Committee on 15th January 2013 a number of representatives from the Taxi Forum were in the public audience.  During the debate on the 20mph speed limit across the City, Councillor Davey publicly stated that the taxi trade had been consulted. However there is no mention of this in the minutes of the meeting.  Would Councillor Davey now publicly state what consultation was carried out?”

99.18          Councillor West as Chair of Environment & Sustainability Committee replied on behalf of Councillor Davey who was absent from the meeting, “I appreciate that the Taxi trade are currently seeking an injunction on 20mph. The report that went to the Transport Committee that agreed the 20mph scheme does set out in detail the consultations that took place.   In particular of the case of the taxi trade, the concept of the 20mph scheme was set out in paragraph 3.5 of the report and that mentions the fact that there were discussions in 2010 at the Taxi Forum and there were also discussions at the Transport Partnership which the Taxi Forum are members of.Then specifically talking about the first phase of the 20mph scheme, meetings were held between officers  and representatives of the Taxi trade to discuss the detailed proposals of phase 1 area on the 26^th November, the 10^th December and the 9^th January. I think that it could be said that Taxi Trade was very aware of the proposals and there was certainly a great deal of contact and consultation with them.”

99.19          Mr. Kemble asked the following supplementary question, “In the Taxi Trade Forum minutes of the 6^th December when the 20mph limit was discussed, a response by a Council Officer, who I will not name, to the issue of lack of consultation within the trade is recorded as saying, “I realise that this had been an oversight and apologise to the Taxi profession not being properly consulted.” Perhaps you would like to explain that Councillor West?”

99.20          Councillor West replied, “I’m not in the position to comment on that, I’m sure that Councillor Davey would be in a better position than I.  I will respond in writing.”

99.21          The Mayor thanked Mr Kemble for his questions and invited Ms. Shepherd to come forward and address the council.

99.22          Ms. Shepherd thanked the Mayor and asked the following question, “As residents of Roedean we overlook the Marina and most of us visit regularly for shopping, eating, sailing and to enjoy the marina environment. In the light of the many points raised by expert witness, Professor John Watts one of the architects involved in the construction of the Marina, we are concerned as to the future safety for residents and visitors alike if the planned development should proceed. In particular we ask where the RNLI station will be relocated and when bearing in mind this provides a vital service not only to this Marina but other communities along the coast.”

99.23          Councillor Bowden replied, “The planning permission granted in 2006 relocated the lifeboat station or the boathouse on the West Quay, neither of the current undetermined applications for minor material and non material amendments to the 2006 approval change the location of these facilities to ensure the retention of this important facility, the Section 106 legal agreement relating  to the 2006 planning approval ensures that a temporary RNLI lifeboat station will be provided before a new one is built so that there is no break in service during the development.  The Council will seek similar requirements should the current application be approved.”

99.24          Ms. Shepherd asked the following supplementary question, “Bearing in mind that Brighton and Hove City Council’s City Plan aims, and I quote, ‘to protect and enhance areas of Marine character and the role for Marine related leisure, recreation and employment opportunities and secondly to balance uses with an emphasis towards boating, surfing, leisure and recreation.  How does the Council justify the loss of 80 berths in Brighton Marina which is part of the current development plan?”

99.25          Councillor Bowden replied, “The City Plan also sets out a housing need, so there is also another balance to take into account and I’m sure when this application re-emerges, if it does, then this City Plan will be take in to account what it says about housing as well as other leisure activities so watch this space.”

99.26          The Mayor thanked Ms. Shepherd for her questions and noted that this had concluded the item.