Agenda item - Chairs Communications

3.1       The Chair provided the following communications:

“I am pleased to report that the Brighton & Hove Living Wage Campaign reached an important milestone of signing-up 400 employers to the campaign.  I’m delighted that Brighton & Hove Chamber of Commerce, probably the only private sector led Living Wage Campaign in the country, has been so successful in achieving this milestone which has led to over 3,000 salaries in the city being increased as a result.  People need to be able to afford to live in the city, and businesses, charities and public sector organisations need staff, so the Brighton & Hove Living Wage is essential in making the city affordable, ensuring our economy works, and tackling the inequalities that hold too many people back.  Brighton & Hove City Council has funded the campaign since it started and is working with the Chamber to get even more businesses to sign up to the campaign and help to create more sustainable jobs.

This year’s Brighton Festival and Brighton Fringe have drawn to a close.  Brighton Festival was directed by David Shrigley; the first time a Brighton resident has taken the Guest Director role and enabling him to be involved in more of the programme.  This programme had more opportunities than ever for people to get involved, including 12,500 taking part in David Shrigley’s life drawing class installation, Life Model II at Fabrica, 200 residents joining Over 60’s dance company Three Score Dance to create The Nelken Line promenade on the seafront, and 150 budding performers in the overnight choral sleepover The Arms of Sleep.  There were many free events, which coincided with the good weather, to produce good audiences for outdoor events.  Your Place had its second year in Hangleton and East Brighton.  A large number of commissions, together with an extensive programme of international work across a variety of sites, were also featured.

The Brighton Fringe, this year partly funded by crowd-funding, featured over 200 free events, as part of its varied programme.  Building on its partnership with the Netherlands in 2017, the 2018 festival was a partnership with the Finnish Embassy and the Fringe is looking to increase its international relationships for the future.  The Fringe recognised 23 acts through sponsored awards, giving them a boost for the future and ran capacity-building activity for artists including supported the city’s Arts & Creative Industries Commission with professional development for artists out of the mainstream.

Consultation is under way concerning the Royal Pavilion Gardens.   Over 1,000 people have taken part in the consultation to date of whom almost 90% responding are Brighton & Hove residents, and over 80% are regular users of the garden.  To date the majority of respondents feel that the proposed new perimeter arrangements are sympathetic to its history, which is a key concern of Historic England.  With marginally more respondents against shutting the garden at night than in favour.  In terms of focus for action, the top four priorities are improving Infrastructure for rubbish collection & recycling, lighting, lawns and hardstanding around the café and the Prince’s Place entrance.  Hearteningly, over 100 people have already expressed an interest in volunteering to help with garden projects.

At Brighton Museum & Art Gallery, Artist Rooms Gilbert & George is currently on show at Brighton Museum & Art Gallery until 2 September.  Alongside this the Be Bold programme a series of collaborative exhibitions and events, programmed with Brighton & Hove’s LGBTQ communities continues.  On June 30 Queer Looks, a display of outfits and oral histories from LGBTQ individuals from Sussex from the 1950s to present day opens.  Local LGBTQ communities have informed the content of the display which is a collaborative project with the Centre for Fashion Curation at the London College of Fashion. Work continues on the restoration of the Saloon in the Royal Pavilion and will be complete and reopened to the public in September.

As part of a partnership with the TV and screen sector, the Council led the drafting and submission of the city’s bid to become a Creative Hub under Channel 4’s “4 All the UK” process.  Channel 4 is looking to create three new hubs, based initially on commissioning of programmes, one of which will be a second national HQ with a high specification studio, and then later to create three News hubs.  This process is to create a more evenly-distributed public TV sector across the country and, in particular, to move jobs out of London to stimulate creative economies in other cities.  Brighton & Hove has successfully been shortlisted as a possible Creative Hub which would attract an initial 40 jobs, increased local programme commissioning and opening up careers in the industry through potential partnership approaches to skills.  Our competition includes the cities which have bid to be the HQ (and will still be considered for the Creative Hubs) and smaller cities who are just competing for the Hubs – 13 cities in total.  The next stage of the competition will be a site visit from the Channel 4 senior team, which will take place before the end of July, and the outcome will be known on 1^st October.  Key criteria for the scheme include availability of state-of-the-art facilities ready in time for the proposed move in 2019, connectivity (physical and digital), proximity to a well-developed screen sector, and quality of life.  Further factors include the environment, diversity and educational strengths.

Visit Brighton has hosted 25 journalists since Jan 2018 to date which so far resulted in coverage in The Telegraph, The Independent, The Metro and Waitrose Magazine, and has engaged with 60k followers on Twitter, 24k friends on Facebook and 11.5k followers on Instagram.  The Brighton Centre has received and processed 31 conference enquiries, and confirmed 12 conferences for the city that will generate over £1.3m in economic benefit.

Luna Beach Cinema located a Screen on the Beach adjacent to Madeira Drive opened to the public on 14th June, with the opening ceremony of the World Cup, live from Russia.  The 10m screen is the highest definition outdoor screen in the country will play host to 40 football matches this summer, with tennis live from Wimbledon and the British Grand Prix, as well as 32 films including this year's Oscar winners alongside a range of titles designed to appeal to a family audience.  The event employs up to 85 people, the majority of which come from Brighton & Hove and the surrounding area.  As well as  the benefit for local providers of accommodation and event facilities such as toilets, power and fencing , all the on-site concessions are being run by local businesses, with two food providers and a brand new beach bar being operated and managed locally.   Luna Beach Cinema are welcoming up to 4000 people a day on the site to enjoy a fantastic summer of big screen entertainment.

The Great Escape Festival for new music celebrated its thirteenth annual event in the city in May 2018. The four-day event sold more tickets than ever before during the biggest festival and conference to date with a record number of 61 venues and 18 networking events. The festival attracted 4500 delegates from 52 nationalities with 450 artists giving over 700 performances that generated 16500 attendances. The Great Escape also successfully launched the new Beach site which saw attendances of 1500 festival goers consistently throughout the weekend. The festival generated extensive national media coverage including live broadcasts on BBC Radio, together with print coverage in  the Times, Telegraph, Independent and Guardian. The festival has developed significantly over the years to now be one of the leading music festivals in the country.

I was really pleased to attend the launch of the Hove Plinth in April. This project has been a great success, and I have had further meetings with the Hove Civic Society to discuss the possible sculpture trail.

I attended the launch of the new Choir With No Name Brighton. Choir with No Name has branches already in other cities, and is launching here in partnership with Brighton Housing Trust. The Choir with No Name offers marginalised members of the opportunity to come together and be part of a really positive activity. The launch was a very moving event. Nancy and I have also met with the chair of the Blue Plaque Committee and Jean Calder to discuss commemorative plaques to celebrate Brighton's links with the women’s suffrage movement and I am pleased to  confirm that the Blue Plaque Committee has supported a proposal for an informative plaque to be placed at the North Street Quadrant where one of the first branches of the Women’s Social and Political Union  had their Head Quarters, and separate plaques to be placed on the Brighton homes of three prominent women campaigners Clementina Black, Minnie Turner and Elizabeth Robins.

I have also had a meeting with Brighton and Hove Area Cricket Hub, who represent local cricket teams working in partnership with the County Cricket Club, to support and develop grass roots cricket in the city.

I’m pleased to report that on 18 June Policy, Resources & Growth Committee gave the go-ahead for the council to enter into a land deal that will help realise our City Deal outputs for New England House. The land deal involves the council issuing a new lease to Legal & General on the Longley Industrial Estate, subject to Legal & General receiving planning permission for its development proposal.

The deal should net the council a substantial premium, that will be combined with our existing City Deal grant of £4.9 million to help pay for refurbishment and extension works to New England House. The combination of the two developments will secure key outputs of the City Deal.  It will help provide over 7,000 square metres of employment floorspace across the two sites, as well as over 200 units of much-needed housing.  We look forward to monitoring the progress of both these projects.

The Greater Brighton Economic Board has commissioned Adur and Worthing Councils’ Communications Team to lead on all communications and promotional activity of the Board from the start of June,  marking a step change in the level of communications support to be provided to the Board.  This is because there is a great deal of positive news to report, such as securing funding for large infrastructure schemes to increase residential housing and employment space in the Greater Brighton region, but that there is not enough  awareness of the Board and its activities. This new and enhanced contract presents an opportunity to raise the profile of the Board and its Investment Programme and this will be done through the establishment of new social media platforms, a new focus on the website and the sharing of news stories. The Greater Brighton Comms team will also work closely with the Board Chairman to agree a media plan of events and visits to ensure a positive, front foot story telling position.  Many of the projects and areas of work that this committee covers are assisted by funding that the Economic Board has helped to secure, so I look forward to working with the new Greater Brighton Communications Team to promote the impact that the Board is having across the whole of the city region”.