Agenda item - Oral questions from Councillors

19.1         The Mayor noted that notification of 9 oral questions had been received and that 30 minutes was set aside for the duration of the item.  He then invited Councillor Janio to put his question to Councillor Bowden.

 

(a)  Sports Facilities – Rugby Clubs

 

19.2         Councillor Janio asked:

 

              “With the Rugby World Cup due to take place in just over a year’s time and as we know there are matches taking place at the AMEX Community Stadium here at Brighton and Hove, will Councillor West ensure that the Council does everything it possibly can to take advantage of this unique opportunity by supporting local rugby clubs and rugby played in schools in the run up to the World Cup and beyond?”

 

19.3         Councillor Bowden replied:

 

“The answer is yes and your supplementary is?”

 

19.4         Councillor Janio asked the following supplementary question:

 

              “Hove Rugby Club who play on pitches at the Hove Recreation Ground have recently been told by the Rugby Football Union that the 2 pitches on the Southern end of Hove Rec are not fit for purpose following the site survey they had carried out. The estimate cost of the remedial works runs to over £180,000 which the RFU has suggested they may be able to meet at least in part if the Council agrees to various conditions.

 

              The club are extremely concerned and I share their concern that the loss of one or both of these pitches will lead them to financial disaster and force them to close. For that to happen in World Cup year would do serious damage to the City’s reputation as a top sporting venue. Given that it was the Council that forced Hove Rugby Club to move to Hove Rec from Hove Park in the first place, will Councillor Bowden agree to meet with them and officers to discuss how this can be best taken forward?”

 

19.5         Councillor Bowden replied:

 

              “Equally brief, yes.”

 

(b)  Open Market

 

19.6         Councillor Meadows asked:

 

              “My residents are very pleased to see the open market is open of sorts but my question is when will the open market in the London Road be fully operational?”

 

19.7         Councillor Davey replied:

 

              “Following years of terminal decline I’m delighted to announce the official opening of the market will be this coming Saturday between 1and 5pm so I hope as many councillors as possible will be able to be there to hear the opening speeches from the members of the CIC, some of the traders, the Lord Lieutenant and of course Councillor Jason Kitcat to welcome this great new achievement for London Road.

 

              So we’re going to see a new market with 45 permanent new stalls, around 30 temporary stalls, 12 workshop units and significantly, 85 affordable homes. These are changes which have been a very long time coming but they are contributing to an exciting new future for London which is going through a massive reversal of what I think is 30 years of decline, it really is very vibrant and the local market is a big part of that.”

 

19.8         Councillor Meadows asked the following supplementary question:

 

              “I do use London Road quite a lot, well I did until my bank closed down there and I have found that the open market and residents have commented on this as it is the most local town centre to them, is that there are not many traders in the open market and it has a rather ghostly feel as you walk through.

 

              It is not a crowded bustling market as you would expect, so my question Mr Mayor is how affordable are the stalls for stall holders so that we can make sure that this market is the bustling market that everyone hopes to see?”

 

19.9         Councillor Davey replied:

 

              “The markets are very affordable and the only reason that it is not full at this moment is that we’ve only recent taken completion of it from the developers and that took place about 3 or 4 weeks ago and since then 40 of the 45 stalls have been taken and traders are now working on fitting out their units and I’m sure most of them will be ready to open on Saturday but many more still to come.

 

              The 30 or so temporary stalls, I think are available for £20 a day so I think it is very affordable and we will see it being fully populated over the next few months and I’m very confident about that.”

 

(c)  Travellers

 

19.10      Councillor Summers asked:

 

              While in view of the increasing difficulties and challenges we’re having with the traveller incursions and have had recently, in particular, certainly in my ward and the public outcry as a result of that, I’m sure you’ve seen a lot of the reporting on it. I am really quite surprised and disappointed that an email I sent to all Councillors and MPs in the city yielded zero response with a suggestion of a way forward, zero response from anyone, apart from, to your credit, Councillor Bowden. And to an MP, I’ll leave you to guess who that might have been. So apart from those two, you did zero response, not even an acknowledgement and it was a request or suggestion I put out that had the backing of a lot of residents too. I wonder why perhaps from your own point of view, you didn’t feel able to even respond to that.”

 

19.11      Councillor J. Kitcat replied:

 

              “Well because it was an email sent to all Councillors, we working as a group agreed who would respond on our behalf, and you received that approach and response on our collective behalf. I get copied into a lot of emails and if I personally respond to all of them, I would never get away from the PC.  In terms of the wider issues you’ve raised, yes it has been an issue of concern but I would like to take this opportunity to thank the officers of the Council and the police, who I think work incredibly hard, every hour of every day to deal with what is a very challenging situation in the warmer months of the year and I’m very pleased that the secretary of state has withdrawn the threat of calling in the planning commission and now we are progressing towards developing the permanent site, which is long overdue.

 

              We are one of the few places without permanent traveller provision in our area and it will certainly help with the situation and I’m also pleased that with the partnership working with the police has enabled us to move forward with a number of options like being able to do partial section 62’s of groups and also looking at a more regional way of working with colleague local authorities and I’m assured that in our conversations with the Police and Crime Commissioner that Sussex police are being consistent across both east and west Sussex and Brighton and Hove and how they deal with requests for sections 61s and 62s. So I acknowledge your concerns but I would also recognise the huge amount of work that goes into addressing this problem, which will only be fully ameliorated with proper provision for transit and permanent sites, not only just in the Brighton and Hove area, but across the South East.”

 

19.12      Councillor Summers asked the following supplementary question:

 

              “I recognise as Leader of the Council, you’re inundated Jason, but it is rather a pressing issue, so I think it would have warranted a response from you. I acknowledge we have a permanent site in the making but that will be in a good 18 months down the line. In the meantime, residents and businesses are very fearful of what’s to lie ahead between now and then and they don’t get the impression that the politicians here are really talking to each together and doing much about it. I absolutely acknowledge the work of officers, absolutely I do, but the impression to the public is that they’ve been abandoned.

 

              So I would ask you and actually the leaders of the groups here, and the MPs again, would you be prepared to join in some sort of discussion or meeting to really tackle all the possible things we could do in the interim. I believe from good authority, that the Argus is looking to table a meeting of this sort and so I ask you and the leaders of the groups, would you be willing to meet together, with them and the police, to see a way forward over the next 18 months?“

 

19.13      Councillor J. Kitcat replied:

 

              “So I think first of all, I don’t accept some of your characterisations about the situation and in fact, if you look at the total numbers of unauthorised encampments, we’ve had higher numbers four or five years ago, so I think we need to put this into context. We also know the average time taken to evict an unauthorised encampment had dropped from 26 days to 14 days; I’m just putting it into context.  I’m very happy to meet and I have met with the police, both Nev Kemp and the Police and Crime Commissioner, I’m happy to meet with other parties and we have discussed it at leaders group. I’m happy to do that again.

 

              I don’t think it’s fair to say that the residents have been abandoned, I think it’s completely unfair to say that and I think that would suggest that there hasn’t been excellent work by the police, by council officers and the private landowners that have been involved.  I think what we have seen is because of the increased offenses and the speed of eviction, we have seen some unauthorised encampments on more sensitive sites and we’ll see a waste at the bottom If we don’t step back to look again at the strategy, not just city wide but regionally, and I’m pleased that there have been conversations in the past between the lead members on that, between West Sussex, East Sussex and Brighton and Hove and I am seeking to bring this to the next meeting with the South East Seven leaders, which the leaders of the seven principle authorities.

 

              So I do think there are significant things being done there, but you have to recognise that in the South East something like more than 10% of the traveller provision is in Brighton and Hove already, so we have a challenge to work regionally on this. I’m pleased that Chichester are moving forward with adding provision and I hope that we continue to encourage other areas to do that. If there is a meeting to be had, I would welcome those conversations but there are no easy answers on this matter and we have to recognise that some of the development we did in the city many, many years ago, actually pushed traveller communities out of their previous places, such as the Market Gardens in the Carden area and we need to provide the permanent provision to help the locally connected families, so they can school their children and so on. And we also need to help residents understand, limits of the powers the police operate under, and the Council. So I think there has been excellent work done and we need to keep communicating that to everyone and I would urge all members of this council to be supportive in communicating the good work Council and police officers do this, and that when they can they do use their legal powers, if not they have to go to court and wait the machinations of the court system for a rights of eviction and it is not a simple matter of just banning people. It is not something as simple as that, and I think we should seek to support our officers in that work.”

 

(d)  Licensing

 

19.14      Councillor Simson stated:

 

              “In actual fact, it’s been conceded, because it was actually in relation to a political statement by Councillor Duncan that was made following a recent licensing panel decision.  I had read in the press recently that Councillor Duncan is no longer a member of the Green Group, although I don’t think it’s been made official, but I do see him sitting away from the Green Group today, so I assume that is the case.  So I think it would be unfair to ask the Chair of the Licensing Committee to actually comment on anything that he has said and wish to withdraw my question.”

 

(e)  Pot Holes – Coombe Road

 

19.15      Councillor Marsh asked:

 

              “My subject is pot holes, we have a theme here as you can see, which Councillor Meadows started by giving you a petition.  I believe there has been some government money given to councils locally, so that they can repair pot holes and other road surface issues within the area, and I wonder if Councillor West can confirm, and I understand that Brighton & Hove are receiving roughly quarter million, could Councillor West confirm that I’ve got the sums right and that the money is coming or indeed the money is in our coffers and ready to be used?”

 

19.16      Councillor Davey replied:

 

              “Yes, the city council did successful apply for just over £500,000 of government pot hole and flood damage funding, which will be used when needed across the city in identified locations.”

 

19.17      Councillor Marsh asked the following supplementary question:

 

              “I heard the figure of £500,000 which is excellent, I don’t know how that is divided between floods and pot holes but my question is very simple. Councillor Meadows has already presented the petition from over 100 residents in Coombe Road, where the road surface is in an atrocious state. So I would like Councillor Davey to confirm to me when Coombe Road will be properly, thoroughly resurfaced, not patched and not bits and bobs, but properly and thoroughly resurfaced.  So that pedestrians and cyclists, and bus users, and people with buggies and people with Zimmer frames and cars, lorries and delivery vehicles can access that road and use it safely without the risk of incidents either or in road traffic conditions or to your person as you bump up and down the very, very poor surface.”

 

19.18      Councillor Davey replied:

 

              “I’m afraid I’m not party to when exactly, but there are 1000 kilometres of pavement and 624 kilometres of roads and cycle ways in the city, so I don’t know how much of that Coombe Road that counts. But quite a lot because I’m sure it’s quite a long road and I’m not sure that actually the money available would even cover that work on Coombe Road, you would be surprised how much it costs to resurface roads, particularly to the standard you mentioned.  We will be using this money to rebuild road surfaces when possible and implement long standing repairs. I will have to ask officers to get back to you with the latest reports for Coombe Road because it will be inspected on a regular basis so I will ask officers to let you know what the result of that latest inspection was.”

 

(f)   Autistic Spectrum Condition

 

19.19      Councillor Wealls asked:

 

              “I’ve actually changed my question just on the bases of a heart rending question I got from a resident this week who has a 15 year old son with Asperger’s syndrome, who is incredibly isolated, has no useful services they can attend and has no way of making friends without that service. So my question is, has an assessment been done on the needs of autistic spectrum condition young people with respect to youth work and in particular, social activities, such as youth clubs? That was one of the recommendations in the scrutiny report, if so what is happening and if not, when?”

 

19.20      Councillor Shanks replied:

 

              “Yes, I think it’s very important actually, in terms of young people particularly isolated young people. I used to do some work like this myself, a long time ago, but I do think it’s very important and as you say, it’s coming to the Health and Wellbeing Board on 29^th July. We’re looking at all the recommendations; the problem is with these questions, if you asked specific ones beforehand, we would be able to give you specific answer. I think you have the papers for the Health and Wellbeing Board; we obviously are reviewing what we’re doing in that way and whether we can find resources to do it. We’re having a big review of all the special educational needs, services we provide to make sure were doing the right thing and having the right impact on young people and there are a lot of voluntary organisations who work with young people in this way. So we are reviewing that, we are concerned. We’ve had a very good scrutiny report, a lot of what was reported to scrutiny, we already obviously knew about because parents talk to our services as well but it is ongoing work, so thank you for your support for it.”

 

(g)  Universal Credit & Housing

 

19.21      Councillor Wilson asked:

 

              “Regulations currently state that help with housing costs for those living in exempt accommodation, will sit outside universal credit and is instead paid through housing benefit and is excluded from the benefit cap. Concerns that the definition of exempt accommodation in use excluded high numbers of supported housing services, placing them at significant risk, led to an additional category of specified accommodation been included in updated housing benefit and universal credit guidance earlier this year.

 

              However it now falls to the local authorities to identify all exempt and specified accommodation before the deadline of October 2014. Can you confirm where we are in terms of identifying supported accommodation in Brighton and Hove which meets the criteria? Who’s involved in making this decision and the process being used?”

 

19.22      Councillor Sykes replied:

 

              “I believe you are referring to the housing benefit universal credit regulations 2014, which came in obviously earlier this year, and these amend previous housing benefit regs 2006 and the universal credit regs 2013 to ensure that more tenants in supported housing are protected from unintended consequences of welfare reform and basically they expand the definition of supported exempt accommodation, it’s now called specified accommodation and this falls under four classes. The exempt accommodation was previously identified in situations where carers are provided by a landlord or on their behalf and then you’ve also got manage properties where care isn’t provided by a landlord or on their behalf and then thirdly, social sector refuges from domestic violence or other violence, fourthly, hostels for higher needs individuals including local authority hostels.

 

              As you identified it falls to the local authority to identify specified accommodation, so there is not a double counting of housing benefit payments and housing costs under universal credit and that work is ongoing. I think the specified accommodation list has got to be with the DWP by November this year and in order to do that work, the councils work and the Benefit Services is working closely with Supporting People providers and they’re all working together with supported housing providers. I think basically the Benefits Service will put together the list, they will put that list passed supported people providers and they’ll work together with supported housing providers to make sure we’ve got full identification of specified accommodation properties.”

 

19.23      Councillor Wilson asked the following supplementary question:

 

              Is any of our supported housing provision in the city at risk as a result of the way we interpret and reply the definitions of exempt and specified accommodation? And if so, we will be able to offer any additional support to protect much valued services that fall outside the definitions?”

 

19.24      Councillor Sykes replied:

 

              That’s getting a little too technical for me there Councillor Wilson. I may have to ask for the help of the officers in getting you a written response to your supplementary.”

 

(h)  Autistic Spectrum Condition

 

19.25      Councillor Hyde asked:

 

              “When education, care and health plans are rolled out in September, families will need to transition from statements of special educational needs.  What support is being planned for families of children with autistic spectrum condition generally to inform them of the new plans and process around their own educational and health care plans development and help them transition?”

19.26      Councillor Shanks replied:

 

              “I know because I attended briefings on this, that there has been a lot of support given to people. It is quite an important change because it does mean we’re integrating the health needs and the education needs into one plan. So there is stirring committee for SEN. In terms of specifically around autism, I would need to check that. The review, in terms of my answer previously to Councillor Wealls, the review that’s happening with special educational needs is obviously encompassing a lot of this, in terms of how we work with young people with autism. But I do know that parents are getting a lot of support through AMAZE which we support as a council and through officers in terms of how these educational plans, the joint plans, will work. I’m confident that that work is being done.”

(i)    Unauthorised Traveller Encampments

 

19.27      Councillor Barnett asked:

 

              “Last year I was taken to the standards board and censored for suggesting an unauthorised traveller encampment should move to Queen’s Park. Last month the Leader of the Council suggested that travellers should be allowed to stay on Hangleton bottom, could Councillor West please tell me what the difference is between the Leader of the Council and myself?”

 

19.28      Councillor West replied:

 

              “We have a lack of provision for travellers in the City as Councillor Kitcat has outlined and within the South East generally. He was suggesting that we look for areas that may be less sensitive that may be able to accommodate travellers on a temporary basis and that was a very pragmatic answer to a position that we’ve been put in; in part by the Government and the petitioning of the Government by the Conservative Group to resist the development of a permanent site without proper provision which is nonsense when we have to put up with so much comment from them scaring people off who are rightly understandably and concerned about the impact on their communities but I don’t see what the Conservative Group are doing.

 

              To address the actual question, they’ve been so unsupportive over the years. The position that the City is in is that many of the traditional stopping places have become less accessible and that is why we’re seeing travellers increasingly on sensitive sites in our parks and that leads to a lot of evictions.

 

              We’ve also, unfortunately, had a reduction on the availability of pitches up the transit site because we’ve had problems with the drainage and we’re awaiting the development of the permanent site now that we’re able to get on with it thanks to Mr Pickles ‘pulling his finger out’. So yes we are looking at other places including Hangleton Bottom as potential temporary places that travellers might go especially in the interim while we are developing a permanent site.”

 

Councillor Barnett asked the following supplementary question:

 

              “What is the difference between the Leader of the Council and myself ending up in the standards board?”

 

Councillor West replied:

 

              “I would have been happy to answer the question originally if it had been directed at me. The difference is very straight forward. First of all it is not the role of the Council to direct a particular unauthorised encampment; which is what Councillor Barnett sought to do which fetters the legal position of the Council and secondly I did not direct any encampments, I started a long overdue debate about how we seek to manage unauthorised encampments in this city I was not directing anyone.

 

              Thirdly I’d like to point out that we had a Conservative Administration who won funding from Government to build a permanent site and were more than happy to build it when it was not in one of their wards; when it was in East Brighton Ward, ‘build, build, build’. As soon as it moved to being proposed in Patcham they did everything they could possible think of to stop it from happening including pleading to their mates in Government, so I think they should back off on this.”