Agenda item - Oral questions from Councillors

33.1      The Mayor noted that eleven oral questions had been received and that 30 minutes were set aside for the duration of the item.  He also noted that Councillor Hyde had decided to withdraw her question.

 

33.2      The Mayor then invited Councillor Wealls to put his question to the Chair of the Children, Young People & Skills Committee.

 

33.3      Councillor Wealls asked the following question, “Please can Councillor Chapman assure the council of the administration’s unwavering support for the establishment of the University of Brighton Academies trust free school in the city?”

 

33.4      Councillor Chapman replied, “This administration does absolutely support the University of Brighton’s application. As we know, and as we have been discussing on the cross party working group that Councillor Wealls has been sitting on for the past year, that the new school is needed in the city and we are working hard with the University of Brighton and with officers to try and secure the site for the new school as soon as possible.”

 

33.5      Councillor Wealls asked the following supplementary question, “Given the need for additional secondary school places in the city, which this school is designed to meet, please can you specifically rule out bulge classes or additional forms of entry at any of the city’s existing maintained schools?”

 

33.6      Councillor Chapman replied, “What we will continue to do is work with our family schools across the city to ensure that every child in the city has a place as we are obliged to do. What I will say is that secondary school admissions has been an issue that has rumbled on in this area for years under successive administrations of all colours and we are not going to keep passing the buck we are going to get the basics right. We are going to continue to move towards opening a new school and securing new places for the city’s pupils for generations to come.”

 

33.7      Councillor Mac Cafferty asked, “You’ll now be aware from the very eloquent deputation from my resident of the quantity of antisocial behaviour that has been happening, and if I can be honest I thought it was a rather disappointing response to the deputation. I’ve had dozens of emails and phone calls from worried residents to be fair, Council and Police officers once engaged have worked on solving the problems but obviously current policies and approaches aren’t working. Would Councillor Daniel agree with many of my residents that as antisocial behaviour is now slipping out of control in the city centre that we urgently need the reinstatement of Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) on our streets at the earliest point, and will she join our calls to the Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) that we need PCSOs reinstated as soon as possible?”

 

33.8      Councillor Daniel replied, “In brief, especially in regards to PCSOs of course we would support you in your calls for reinstatement of PCSOs. I attend, for this council along with Councillor Wares, the Police and Crime Panel which is scrutinising the PCC, and I have asked her on a number of occasions including the last meeting what measures of success she is going to use around this new model and she has not given me an answer and she has repeatedly not given an answer on what measures of success she’s going to use around this new model. My confidence in this new model is therefore very low. This, coupled with the fact that it is so difficult to get through on the 101 number and the PCC’s response on the length of time that people wait and in my case I waited 45 minutes, got cut off and then waited a further 45 minutes and got cut off again and never got through which is not now unusual. The PPC’s response was that she felt that she might remove any targets around response time because they lead to perverse incentives to give poor customer service which I find absolutely incredible, and how the people of Sussex can have confidence in a model of change which has no measures, a model of change which depends on people phoning a number which they can’t get through to, a model of change where PCSOs whose role was around preventing low level crime and low level antisocial behaviour on the basis that they have to go to more harmful, higher risk issues. I don’t think that’s efficiency because all you’re doing is storing up problems and storing up higher cost issues along the way.”

 

33.9      Councillor Mac Cafferty asked the following supplementary question, “Would Councillor Daniel and possiblly Councillor O’Quinn as the Lead in licensing agree to meet with myself, Councillor Sykes and residents as soon as possible to outline how they will help our area enforce, and revisit as necessary current alcohol licensing arrangements which have done so much to grow antisocial behaviour?”

 

33.10   Councillor Daniel replied, “Of course we will meet with you, thank you for raising this Councillor.”

 

33.11   Councillor Janio asked, “According to our world renowned and highly respected local newspaper The Argus, Councillor Mitchell ‘the parks boss’ has expressed her sadness at the decline in our city’s green spaces. Mr Mayor I agree with her so, can Councillor Mitchell please confirm tonight as ‘the parks boss’ and without droning on about Tory cuts which is frankly getting a bit dull and dreary that she will stop her officer’s merry jaunts around the city as they are upsetting the users of our parks and open spaces with their talks about proposed cuts before the consultation has completed and the budget published? Also will she agree to abandon the proposed increase in charges for sports and leisure facilities such as those which have been reported to several councillors from the bowling clubs?”

 

33.12   Councillor Mitchell replied, “I do fully appreciate Councillor Janio’s sensitivity around the issue of the £600,000 that are to be taken from the City Parks budget over the next three years. It’s a shame that that sensitivity isn’t actually been translated into perhaps making firmer representations to his government as to what their measures actually mean ‘on the ground’. Councillor Janio seems to be suggesting that we curtail the consultation with people. So far we have received nearly 3000 responses to this consultation on the parks and open spaces across this city that are dearly loved and valued by residents and I would hope that Councillor Janio would appreciate that. In terms of stopping officers from going around the parks and open spaces; no, we want to attract as many views as possible.”

 

33.13   Councillor Janio asked the following supplementary question, “Councillor Mitchell is also quoted in the Argus as saying that “it saddens her that many of our residents can still remember city parks staff and gardeners, a time when there was more funding available and a real sense of pride in the city’s parks and are now having to witness this decline”. It’s also good to learn that she thinks it’s the Argus that “has taken an interest in the future of parks and open spaces”. Well I can tell you Mr Mayor I wish she’d taken more of an interest in the parks and open spaces because the Conservatives do and we take it very seriously and we are not going to let this matter rest here. So finally will Councillor Mitchell please confirm tonight that the money saved from other areas of the environment budget, some which are detailed tonight in other written answers, will be used to maintain spending on our parks and open spaces and that any proposed increase in charging for sports and leisure facilities will now be scrapped pending cross-party discussions?”

 

33.14   Councillor Mitchell replied, “What this council administration is doing is to follow through on some of the ‘advice’ that we have been receiving from the Conservative group over the years about doing things differently, making services pay for themselves and not only the Conservative group but George Osborne who wanted all council to become financially self-sustaining by 2020. That has not been changed by the present Prime Minister, that is the agenda from this dreadful government which we are working to and this is why, where we can, we are seeking to put services on a more self-sustaining footing. Hence the talks with the bowls clubs and other sports organisations and if fact that it is painful for you Councillor Janio again direct your attention to Westminster.”

 

33.15   Councillor Page asked, “We have 20 mile per hour ones but not right across the city. The Times newspaper reported a couple of weeks ago that 51 councils now have a blanket 20mph speed limit in urban areas, with others considering it and in Scotland it is 95% of transport authorities who favour 20mph as a default speed limit in built up areas. Given that we have higher than average collisions at work on the road rates and the reductions in our killed and seriously injured statistics appear to have stalled, can we consider 20mph as a default urban speed limit across the city and what concrete measures are planned to protect vulnerable road users?”

 

33.16   Councillor Mitchell replied, “Thank you for your question Councillor Page and actually I share your disappointment that the 20mph limits are not being adhered to and of course it was your Green administration prior to the current administration that implemented the 20mph limits in that particular way, not a blanket approach, but road by road following consultation with residents and they were very careful to do that and we are where we are. I’m not sure if a default 20mph limit would be adhered to any more than the 20mph limits are being adhered to now. What we are doing is to incrementally work through, with the very limited budgets that we have, a whole series of road safety measures, not least the safer route to school measure where we are working with schools. Where we have also managed to attract sustainable transport funding to bring about behaviour change, which does include safer urban driving practices in particular, and so we are focusing on the road safety budget being prioritised towards those areas where we know there are the highest number of the killed and seriously injured incidents that are happening.”

 

33.17   Councillor Page asked the following supplementary question, “What can we do to get more enforcement of 20mph limits from the Police given that we know our statistics are not improving and I wonder if we have very little ambition or expectation that we are really going to make the roads safer for vulnerable road users?”

 

33.18   Councillor Mitchell replied, “In addition to my previous comments about focusing our road safety budget on those areas where we know that we have already have problems with accident statistics. I think that we can continue with the Sussex Safer Road Partnership to undertake education campaigns the ‘Share the Road’ campaign for example, the work that is done especially around Christmas when the mornings and evenings are darker –‘be seen, be safe’- that type of campaign. We won’t let up on making our roads safer as for the specifics in relation to enforcement that you were talking about that is the responsibility of the Sussex Police and there were some rather mixed messages around when the 20mph limits were introduced as to whether the Police were going to be prepared to enforce that limit or not and I think that is still a grey area.”

 

33.19   Councillor Simson asked, “Could Councillor Mitchell tell me if and when the toilets under Hove Town Hall car park will be reopened bearing in mind they were closed on the understanding that visitors could use those in this building before it was redeveloped and as that option is no longer available it means visitors have to walk a long way to the next nearest convenience?” 

 

33.20   Councillor Mitchell replied, “It is my understanding that those toilets were part of the savings that were made in the previous year’s budget and therefore will not be reopened.”

 

33.21   Councillor Simson asked the following supplementary question, “I’m quite upset to hear that as the next nearest convenience is very far away from this building. Can Councillor Mitchell see that the council’s website is updated as it still shows both the toilets both at Hove Town Hall and under the car park. Although it’s a strange thing because in order to find these you have to enter your address to find the nearest toilet and I’m not sure why you would be looking for a toilet near to where you live. Can I just ask that the website is updated and I would urge that there is some kind of provision for people who visit this building?”

 

33.22   Councillor Mitchell replied, “There is a publicly accessible toilet in this building for the public to use and I will ensure that the website is updated.”

 

33.23   Councillor Sykes asked, “As councils around the country are developing budgets we are seeing stories in the news about cuts upon cuts upon cuts and a lot of strong positions from Labour councils on the impact on front line services but I have never seen our Labour Administration here quoted in any of these stories.

 

            What is Councillor Hamilton and his Administration doing on a national stage to fight for local services and a better settlement in the Autumn statement?”

 

33.24   Councillor Hamilton replied, “As you rightly say we are in a very difficult situation, we are continually making representations, certainly through the LGA and through contacts in our fellow Labour Administrations up and down the country. With regards to our budget development here we have got a situation next month we will have the usual cross-party meetings where we will look at the cuts coming along and make budget proposals and members can come along and decide what they think about those.

 

            Even if all the cuts that were proposed are implemented we still have to find further economies in the budget. After we’ve had those meetings which I’ve just referred to we will then of course have another budget review group meeting which of course you are welcome to come to and after that when we get to December we will have a better idea as to what the situation is but as you rightly say at the present time until we get the autumn statement which I believe is coming out in November we won’t know where we are. There are various rumours such as local authorities being given the option to increasing the care precept from 2% up to 3% or even 4%.

 

            We do make representation through the LGA, through other councils which are under Labour control; finding out what they are doing to meet the gap and obviously when we come through to the next budget review group meeting I feel we will be in a better position as that will be in after the autumn statement has come out.”

 

33.25   Councillor Sykes asked the following supplementary question, “I’m a little disappointed in that response and I’m sure I’m not alone in thinking that it would be great to see a much stronger campaigning position as positions not just as managers from this Labour Administration on the extent to which cuts are killing our services locally.

 

            Public consultation last year was constrained so we couldn’t have any public scrutiny or questionnaires. Councillor Hamilton said at the time that he would listen to that and he was alive to the possibilities of changing the consultation and so can I ask him what plans around the budget in a very difficult budget year he has?”

 

33.26   Councillor Hamilton replied, “First of all I have just heard that my colleague Councillor Morgan was this very day at the LGA with regard to looking at the budget situation that authorities are facing and representations were being made there.

 

            As you know we don’t usually start the consultation on the budget until a bit later on and in fact we will, at the next budget review group, be deciding on the format of the consultation. It might be useful therefore that if you have some ideas as to how it should be done if you can drop those into Nigel Manvell or James Hengeveld or David Kuenssberg now, then when we come to that next meeting we can use your ideas. I know you expressed some concern about the consultation last year and I have a certain amount of sympathy with that but I think that if we want to improve it and I must just say we don’t want ideas that are going to cost us £200,000 or some fantastic amount to do it. But if you would like to put in your ideas for this I would be pleased to receive them and indeed anyone else at all if you have ideas as to the best way of consulting on the budget then by all means let us have them.”

 

33.27   Councillor Mears asked, “Can the Chair of Housing confirm that she is totally committed to fully engaged consultation with tenants through Local Area Panels? For those of us that remember stock transfer listening to tenants is very important especially for any administration.”

 

33.28   Councillor Meadows replied, “As you know Housing conducts consultations with its customers in a number of different ways to help us develop policy or strategy and in our own tenancy agreements with our tenants it states that ‘we believe it is important that you are involved in housing management decisions that affect you and we will consult with you about any changes to our policy or practice that may substantially change the housing service which we provide to you, your home or your neighbourhood’.”

 

33.29   Councillor Mears asked the following supplementary question, “Can the Chair of Housing now confirm that with the residents’ involvement review she will ensure tenants wishes are upheld? They feel that this review has moved away from its original purpose onto satisfaction with housing services endorsed by an officer’s report on working together. Tenants have now seen the demise of Housing sub-committee replaced by tenant scrutiny panels which tenants feel has no real impact.

 

            Tenants feel their views are being ignored and they are not happy with the move to get rid of area panels nor are they happy as they feel they are being manipulated, proposed to and even lectured to. They would like to see the review taken to the Housing committee for Member’s input from all parties before any decisions are taken, will the Chair of Housing agree to this?”

 

33.30   Councillor Meadows replied, “As I said we have a statutory consultation service and the Housing Landlord service specifically requires us to consult on monitoring review and performance, consult with tenants if proposing to change their landlord or similar significant change and consult tenants once every three years on the best way of involving them in the governance and scrutiny of the Housing Management service and, as you know, that has prompted us to look at the tenant participation structure because, one of the things we have found is that a number of our tenants want to engage with us in different ways. Some of us want to do it online, some of us want to engage personally and some want to do it as tenant organisations and that’s great. What we want is for tenants to engage with us and that is part of this tenant participation structure.”

 

33.31   Councillor Druitt asked, “South Street is a narrow one way street in the old town with double yellow lines one both sides of the road. Since April this year it has become something of a building site with scaffolding, skips, wheelie bins and vans blocking access to the street for residents, visitors and tradespeople almost every day. As the ward councillor I have raised this issue many times on behalf of the residents and traders over the last six months and I glad that a permit for authorised closure has been eventually been applied for. Can Councillor Mitchell tell us why six month of regular unauthorised closures have been tolerated and how much money has the council lost out on in this period?”

 

33.32   Councillor Mitchell replied, “I am sorry to hear that residents and presumably business have been inconvenienced in that way. I can’t answer your question in relation to why it has taken that length of time or the costs involved but I will ensure that you get a detailed response to both of those questions.”

 

33.33   Councillor Druitt asked the following supplementary question, “The wider issue of enforcement, whether in planning, transport or refuse is one that affects residents across the city and one where the council often seems paralysed. What would be your advice to residents who despite appeal to council officers and indeed ward councillors are still waiting for enforcement action to take place especially where paralysis occurs as a result of uncertainty as to which department is responsible?”

 

33.34   Councillor Mitchell replied, “In answering that question I would speak to every councillor here who is a ward councillor and who may be faced with those problems and that would be to get in contact with me and I will escalate it senior officers.”

 

33.35   Councillor Miller asked, “Does Councillor Hamilton believe the council is sweating all of our commercial assets as far as can be done to ensure that the budget gap is as small as it can be or does he think there is potential to sweat them further from the 1.1%-5% annual return we achieve from them in contrast to the 10% in the private sector in order to fill our budget gap going forward?”

 

33.36   Councillor Hamilton replied, “This council has large assets: our total portfolio is valued at £1.69bn but that includes the 11,000 plus council properties and that would obviously account for a very large amount of that. We’ve also got over 500 non-housing properties and we’ve got 10.5 acres of farm land.

 

            We don’t just do our own work we use Cluttons for all our urban portfolio and Savills for the agricultural land. Both of those firms are recognised as being well established and competent organisations and they do advise us on transactions we make and on various buildings we can sell. We are always selling properties, if you look through the Policy, Resources & Growth agendas you’ll know we sold a property in Little East Street, we sold one near St. Peters Church and at the moment we are in the process of selling King’s House and we have sold various other building that the council owned that were used for offices which are now redundant. A lot of properties which we own are often on reasonably long-term leases and again through Cluttons we go to those businesses when rent reviews come up and get the best returns that we can.

 

            If we are using professional outside people whose work it is to do this kind of thing then I think we are doing the right thing. The assets that we are actually dealing with on a day to day basis are £195 million and they bring in about £10 million a year which is just over 5% which I think is reasonable in this current situation. If you think there are other ideas we can use to improve that then please come forward with them.”

 

33.37   Councillor Miller asked the following supplementary question, “If Councillor Hamilton does agree with me that there is potential to sweat our assets further and help fill some of our budget gap then member oversight of our portfolio and such a shared aim which could greatly assist in the strategic vision of the city and regeneration in the central parts of the city could be done on a cross party basis and will he consider ways of doing this?”

 

33.38   Councillor Hamilton replied, “The first part of the question was do I think we are getting the best return we can? There may be ways of getting more and I do not claim to be a professional investor who could answer that particular question. That’s why I say put ideas in. Our investment strategy is in fact greatly advised by the firms which I have already reported to you, I think that was the second part of your question.

 

            You could have a cross party item on this but I think the way to approach that would be first of all to either put in a letter or ask for an item to go on the agenda at the Economic Development & Culture committee where then that could be discussed and they could decide whether that was the way forward.”

 

33.39   Councillor Cobb asked, “My question relates to the workshop at the Hollingdean Dustcart Depot. What problems have been encountered during the works and is there a budget overspend?”

 

33.40   Councillor Mitchell replied, “I am not aware of any problems during the works apart from perhaps usual construction issues, nor am I aware of any budget overspend. The new maintenance workshops are now completed and the move back for our vehicles from Conway Street is now underway. Several businesses are expressing great interest in using the new workshops that will generate income to the council to help us continue to improve services and to help us to protect jobs.”

 

33.41   Councillor Cobb asked the following supplementary question, “I must point out that new dustcart lifts were purchased in order to lift the dustcarts up to make working underneath all the easier. These had to be removed because the floors were not level and a portacabin is to be used by workshop staff as changing and coffee/ tea facilities. Can you confirm all of that please?”

 

33.42   Councillor Mitchell replied, “Thank you that information Councillor Cobb, as I said in my previous response, there were probably some construction issues that had to be overcome during the build. As for tea and coffee being served in a portacabin I will certainly take that issue up for you.”