Agenda item - Oral questions from Councillors

32.1      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 Barnett to put her question to Councillor Jarrett.

 

(a)  Standards in Care Homes

 

32.2      Councillor Barnett asked; “According to the figures released by AGE Concern and AGE UK, There is a sharp increase in number of cases of abuse of elderly people reported by the councils in England in the last couple of years. Reports from the press are of horrific abuse in Care Homes and people’s own homes. Will the Lead Member of Adult Social Care & Health tell me what steps this council is taking to prevent these crimes happening in Brighton & Hove?”

 

32.3      Councillor Jarrett replied; “We take adult safe guarding and care standards very seriously.  We have a team within Adult Care and Health who monitor quality and standards in the private residential Care Homes that we use. We are in regular contact with the Care Quality Commission and receive reports from the CQC when they have made any inspection.  In addition we have plans to carry out some regular interviews with residents in order to assure ourselves that the standards are as good as they can be. 

 

We also offer training to Care Homes from our training team in order to train them to standard of care we consider to be acceptable.  In many cases it is not necessarily the owner/manager of the care home at fault but sometimes and individual or group of individuals within the Care Home who do not have the right ethos/approach to the work.  Part of the problem is increased reporting but it may also be the trend of attitudes to elderly people. We remain vigilant.”

 

32.4      Councillor Barnett asked the following supplementary question; “Would Councillor Jarrett agree with me that one way to improve standards of care would be to enable the authorities to carry out spot-checks on homes rather than have to give a week’s notice during which time all manner of failures would be covered up.”

 

32.5      Councillor Jarrett replied; “I would have to agree the powers to have spot-checks would be very re-assuring but we don’t as a council have those powers. The Care Quality Commission has those powers and Healthwatch have a right to enter and view.  We will co-operate with CQC so if an unannounced inspection was felt to be necessary we would pass that information to the CQC who do have those powers.”

 

(b)  Traffic Management & Roadworks

 

32.6      Councillor Marsh asked; “Would Councillor Davey agree that the large number of road works and traffic management schemes that are in the city are difficult to keep up with and difficult for everybody to know what’s going on. I’m particularly referring to October 3^rd when there were some major works at the junction of the avenue of the Lewes road which added to the situation at the gyratory works.  The bus company didn’t know what was going on and the whole of the area ground to a halt because someone failed to communicate.  Would Councillor. Davey agree that communication is vital if everyone is to know what is going on and how to manage their day?”

 

32.7      Councillor Davey replied; “Of course communication is important and there is an excellent relationship between the transport highways management team and the bus companies.  In this instance it obviously fell down and I apologise for that and apologise to the bus company.  To be clear we were talking about road re-construction which it’s impossible to make without some disruption although we try and keep that to a minimum.”

 

32.8      Councillor Marsh asked the following supplementary question; “Please could you give urgent consideration to restoring the excellent weekly Streetworks bulletin email which used to be sent to all councillors and partners team like the bus companies and so on so we were all alerted to what was going on when, we could inform residents, we could keep everyone up to date because we do know that these road works are challenging but it’s about being informed and communicated with. It was an excellent street works bulletin and I cannot believe that it costs huge resources to email us all.  Please restore it.”

 

32.9      Councillor Davey replied; “Soon we will have start of the road works permit scheme which means we will have more resources and that will hopefully allow better communication throughout the city and better management of road works and this should improve things.  It would have been nice to have had that scheme earlier and if the previous administration had started the work we would have been there already but we will be there very soon.”

 

(c)  The Future of the Sea Life Centre

 

32.10   Councillor Duncan asked; “Would the Chair of the Economic Development Culture Committee outline the arrangements under which the aquarium building in Queens Park Ward in Brighton is leased by the multi-national corporation Merlin entertainment for use as the Brighton Sea Life Centre?”

 

32.11   Councillor Bowden replied; “This is a complicated arrangement. The Sealife Centre is operated by Merlin Entertainments who are underlessees of the Brighton Seafront Regeneration company.  BSR have a 70 year lease terminating in 2085. So with the Sealife Centre the lease is not with the Council which keeps it at arm’s length and is very complicated.”

 

32.12   Councillor Duncan asked the following supplementary question; “Presumably this arm’s length arrangement is something the council has some influence over and my question should be taken in that context.  Does the Chair feel the evidence of cruelty outlined by the Captive Animals Preservation Society in its Sealives report in Sealife Centres around the world, constitutes sufficient grounds for terminating the lease early allowing the conversion of the Sealife Centre into a facility more in keeping with the UN advisory reserve such as a sustainability centre or gallery as many have advocated in the past.”

 

32.13   Councillor Bowden replied; “I agree with you it would be great to have an art gallery. That is something we had in our manifesto.  However, we don’t have a direct relationship with the Sealife Centre and I seem to recall when you were chairing the licencing committee, there was a report which tried to insert an elected member onto their ethical committee to see how they were dealing with their captive animals and that was with a democratic vote defeated unfortunately and then a 6 year licence was then granted to the sea life centre which was in May last year so we are where we are with the Sealife Centre. 

 

We have no direct relationship with BSR and we don’t have the rights to go in there. If we wanted to try and compulsory purchase we would have to make a very strong business case and I suspect having been through Saltdean Lido experience it would cost us ‘squillions’ to do it.  So I’m afraid I can’t offer any immediate hope.”

 

(d)  Travellers

 

32.14   Note the question from Councillor Summers had been withdrawn.

 

(e)  Flash Flooding

 

32.15   Councillor K. Norman asked; “In the past few years and again very recently we’ve seen a lot of flash flooding in various points across the city. In most cases they occur where there are dips in the landscape and at the bottom of hills.

 

I attended one of those flash floods not long ago and discovered that if the drains had been regularly cleared then the flood would almost certainly not have happened. I did manage to contact the correct council officer and within ten minutes I managed to get a drain cleaning machine onsite and the water disappeared instantly.

 

            My question is when are we going to receive a proper and regular drain cleaning service to reduce flash flooding to an absolute minimum?”

 

32.16   Councillor West replied; “We have had a number of incidents and I believe we had a flash flood in July that impacted our residents and business and even our own council offices.  That was regarded as a one in one hundred year event.  These are coming far too frequently and we have to re-evaluate what frequency we can expect these things to happen.

 

The city is recognised as being in the top ten at risk of surface water flooding in the country.  These instances are examples of what is happening. We also had the ground water flooding problems earlier in this year that impacted Portslade and Patcham and Members of those wards will be aware of what happened there.  We have 20,000 gullies, they are cleaned on a regular basis and on a 12- 18 month schedule depending on the historic understanding of how quickly they fill up and need to be cleaned. I would agree with you, I don’t think in a lot of cases it seems to be adequate because some of the gullies are probably waiting too long to be cleaned and then we have a flood and they are quite clearly already blocked up and not doing the job.

 

I am extremely worried about the strain on our resources.  We re-assessed the current cleansing contract a couple of years ago to try and make it more intelligent so that we weren’t cleaning some gullies that needed less attention.  Nevertheless we are still having these problems and when we have a flood we have a different cleaning contractor that responds to these emergencies, and the flood manager brings that contractor in at a huge expense and I’m very worried about any impact on changing cleaning regimes generally within the city.

 

One of the problems we face is the amount of debris and leaves thatactually block the drains up in the first place because this time of year is when we get rain and flooding.  We also have leafing and we have to maintain enough capacity to keep that clear.  I am very concerned and am also glad to say that we have made progress with the regional committee which allocates government funding and we have a number of projects in the pipeline to be funded thanks to our hard work gaining that funding.”

 

32.17   Councillor K. Norman asked the following supplementary question; “I am sorry he has taken so much time with this question.  The incident I was referring to was where the shops are and that has been flooded 3 times over about 6 years despite me asking for the drains to be cleared. Once we got a drain cleaner up, it went.  I’ve reported many blocked drains in my ward and I’ve had responses from Council officers but they are always ¾ blocked or totally blocked but not requiring further attention as they are not a serious flooding issue.  If we had all the drains running free it would be a good move.  My supplementary question is when are we going to see a more frequent drain cleaning program which would substantially reduce the frequency of flash floods and would therefore reduce the flood risk to many properties, business and home owners. I hope you can give me a shorter answer.”

 

32.18   Councillor West replied; “I do hope that both the Labour and Conservative Groups will be supporting requests for higher Council Tax increase.  Without the money we know what we face with both the current government and the prospective labour government maintaining a schedule of cuts to our funding which is just not possible to accept and if you think that we’re going to be able to magic up more money under these circumstances to clean drains without your support in raising council tax you’ve got another thing coming.”

 

(f)   Stoneham Park Café and Public Lavatories

 

32.19   Councillor Pissaridou asked; “Cllr West should know what I’m going to ask from all the emails and background I have given him and he will have done his research and will have seen why we want it funding.  I’m just going to read from the Stoneham Park management plan 2009/14 and it sets out, “Public Toilets are situated in the park café.  The toilets sustain high levels of park use however it is not sustainable for the council to build self-standing public toilets at every open space. 

 

The toilets within the park are operated and cleaned by volunteers in the Talk Talk café.  All this arrangement is unique in the City.  Now the Talk Talk café folded back in 2012/13 after a long drawn-out demise.  Part of this was because of the funding because they could not afford to run the toilets, there were other reasons as well.  So when the lease was put out for tender again lots of people put in bids. The bid was awarded to a community group who wanted to continue to run the café as a community café.  I know this was supported by your Group in fact Councillor Deane came to see the Café.  At the moment it is not viable to run and look after the public toilets. Lara McClean who runs the café has told me that 400 litres of water are used daily by the people going into the toilets.  It’s 3 pence a flush.  What I am saying to you is – it’s not sustainable.  We cannot sustain it, and the park without the café as most people know deteriorates.

 

It becomes a haven for alcoholics, drug users and all other anti-social behaviour so it’s in our best interest to sustain this park and to maintain the public toilets  and you’re pushing against an open door because I know city parks have been discussing how the problems surrounding the café and what happens if it folds. So I ask you today to not make our café unique and put it back in with all the park toilets in the City and make it the responsibility of the management of Brighton & Hove City Council.”

 

32.20   Councillor West replied; “I’ve got a lot of detail here. The arrangement at the moment as you say is the café looks after the toilet.  They are not cleaned by Wettons so if we took them on again that would be an additional cost on the contract and money would have to be found. There is a problem of access to them through the café and I think a lot of people crowd the café waiting to get into the loos. We could open a different entrance that would cost money. We are going to look at the whole portfolio of public toilets.  That is something committee agreed to do and we are waiting for that report early in the New Year I believe, and all our toilets will be looked at together and how we fund the future of the facilities that we want.  But I’ll say it again – we’ve got a budget to face and these are areas that are under the microscope at the moment. So don’t ask me for more money, not unless you’re actually going to approve a higher increase in council tax, because I will not have the scope to deliver what you’re asking.”

 

32.21   Councillor Pissaridou asked the following supplementary question; “The one real safety aspect with the café at the moment, Lara has closed the external doors because she is worried that there are people using drugs and leaving paraphernalia and with so many young children around she is worried about who bears the responsibility.  Will she have to have insurance to cover any costs? Will she be responsible for the safety of the children in the toilets?”

 

32.22   Councillor West replied; “I think I will have to get some advice on the specific answer of liability and safety issues. I will come back to that.”

 

(g)  Changes to Housing Functions

 

32.23   Councillor Mears asked; “My question was to Councillor Randall who is not here today so I understand the leader of the Council will be answering the question so I hope he can answer it fully.  My question was to ask him to explain to this Chamber why he chose to bypass the members of the Housing Committee.  At the last meeting we had no report around any suggested move for supporting people. A question was asked on the previous minutes of the Housing meeting only to be told it was going to Policy & Resources. 

 

            To my surprise there was no report on supporting people on the agenda for 16^th October, just as under item 60, the agenda related to amendments to the scheme of delegation to officers and on 3.8.1, there was an item on hospitals and housing related support. In fact this move has already taken place before Housing Committee and Policy & Resources were consulted, while consultation with staff was still on-going.  Yet at no time were Housing Committee Members at the last meeting able to discuss this really serious issue, no report and we weren’t allowed to see any details. This Council is operating a Committee System not a Cabinet system so I’d ask the Leader of the Council to respond.”

 

32.24 Councillor J. Kitcat replied; “First of all the Head of Paid Service has a responsibility for changing Line Management arrangements and that is what the Chief Executive was able to do. What came to Policy & Resources Committee was the change in the delegations and particularly relating to the Housing Support Teams.  Some of those teams, as unanimously cross party agreed at Policy & Resources, have moved to be part of the Adult Social Care Directorate, but the delegations actually allow a greater joint working between the Executive Directors for Environment Development and Housing, Adult Social Care and Public Health. 

 

Supporting People is a grant that was abolished by the Government many years ago.  It doesn’t exist.  There was money that the council has used to provide services which was part of that grant scheme and we now fund ourselves out of the general fund.  Any changes to that budget would be part of the Budget Council process next year.”

 

32.25   Councillor Mears asked the following supplementary question; “I thank the Leader of the Council for his answer. I have to say to him, this not a transparent way of working.  It is not open.  We are in a committee system.  We are not in Cabinet and Homelessness does sit within the Housing Committee. I’m very aware of the regulations around Supporting People and administration, we continue to ring fence it when the ring fence was taken off by Government.  But if the hostels are so bad there are so many conflicting stories that unfortunately as a Member of the Housing Committee, we haven’t been able to look at the issues or debate them. 

 

If they were so bad, mental health services would commission bed spaces with 24/7 care within our own hostels. Our partners in the voluntary sector also need proper consultation with contracts that are up for renewal. I have seen 3 emails that were sent to members of the voluntary sector giving 3 different reasons why this section of housing is being moved and now following on from Policy & Resources it has been put under 3 directorates and that is going back to the 1980s when Housing and other departments were all combined. So to answer Councillor: Jarrett when he said it is simpler system, actually no, this will be far more complicated.

 

So I am going to ask the Leader of the Council where he would look at this again and agree to not go any further until it is properly discussed at Housing Committee.  I do understand that there is a grievance from staff because they have been very shabbily treated.  You don’t make decisions before you’ve finished consulting with staff.  They work in these services and they have a right to be consulted.

 

If this is not taken seriously Councillor Kitcat I am considering seeking a judicial review.”

 

32.26   Councillor J. Kitcat  replied; “I think first of all you keep reminding us that we are in a Committee system and then you’re asking me to act as an executive and to stop a decision.  The P&R committee of which your group has 3 members unanimously voted for that, so it would be inappropriate in a committee system to disobey what that committee agreed.  I’d also like to point out that you’re confusing the budget with the officer delegations and line management.  The budget will be decided by the Budget Council in February and the concerns that you’re raising about how that budget will be changed and how that will be consulted are matters through the budget process.”

 

 

(h)  Planning Policy

 

32.27   Councillor Meadows asked; “My residents are concerned that the Article 4 directive is not robust enough to handle all the houses in multiple occupation and they are seeing more and more landlords being given permission to turn a family home into an HMO.  This is despite a very successful scrutiny into studentification which shows that many HMOs can change a character of an area.  How can we ensure this useful tool in curbing HMOs is used more robustly than at present?”

 

32.28   Councillor Mac Cafferty replied; “I believe and as I’ve previously stated at meetings, we too share the concern that you have raised this evening. I note from the figures that we hold that the largest percentage of households with fulltime students in them are indeed in your ward so I think it is right that you raise the question.  Just to go back a little bit as would be your understanding, new HMOs bought into effect after April 2013 within the 5 wards are covered by the article for a required consent. Before that they were able to avail a permitted development right and what I would say to you and what we have said to previous council meetings is that an awful lot of this is relied on the intelligence that the communities have been able to bring to us.  That has been quite effective and there have been a whole series of investigations that residents have flagged up with us.  Obviously within that process; reported unauthorised HMOs will be investigated and all the new applications have to be judged against the criteria not only within the Article 4 but within the emerging City Plan as well. I agree that this continues to be an issue of concern and I’m more than happy to meet you and the other ward councillors including Councillor. Randall and appropriate officers from Planning and Housing because I understand it is a big issue.”

 

32.29   Councillor Meadows asked the following supplementary question; “We would be pleased to take you up on your offer.  This Council does not seem to have all the correct data and information they need to refuse an application so I was surprised to find that when planning permission for a student hall of residence is applied for at the end of the street which has already got too many HMOs, that the Article 4 Directive is not used to develop planning permission for that.  Why isn’t that considered a useful tool then in those circumstances?”

 

32.30   Councillor Mac Cafferty replied; “I share your concern; obviously each individual case I’m more than take up with you outside of this meeting.  I would agree with you that does indicate that there is some inconsistency in the application of the policy, but I’m more than happy to carry on the discussion with yourself, councillor Farrow and councillor Marsh.”

 

 

 

(i)    Mutuals

 

32.31   Councillor Wealls asked; “On 9^th May the Conservatives bought a Notice of Motion to request that Staff Led Mutuals are piloted in consultation with an agreement with the staff.  That was subsequently watered down to an amended motion to evaluate staff lead in operations including issues such as understanding success factors, engaging staff, securing assets and establishing criteria for commissioning to support them.  I just wanted to see generally whether the administration has any heart to press on with this as an initiative with this and whether there has been any progress at all?”

 

32.32   Councillor J. Kitcat replied; “As you know, we have rehearsed it a few times, we have a bit of a budget crisis on our hands;  £100m coming out over the next 4 years regardless of outcome of next General Election. It is the case that we are looking at looking with open eyes at all options for all parts of the Council while we try and figure out the best way forward, and I’m sure we will have a debate come February about what we think is best. But certainly Mutuals could be part of those options for the way we move forward.  It does have to depend of staff wishing to do that and can’t be something that is imposed top-down. I look forward to your participation and support while we try and work towards a way of delivering Council Services in a reduced budget envelope while meeting citizen expectation and trying to re-new the relationship with the citizens so it isn’t just about us and them but we’re doing things together.”

 

32.33   The Mayor noted that the item had concluded.