Agenda item - Oral questions from Councillors

125.1      The Mayor noted that 17 oral questions had been received and that 30 minutes were set aside for the duration of the item. The Mayor then called on Councillor Platts to put her question to Councillor Osborne.

 

125.2      Councillor Platts asked the following question the developers of the Brighton Gas Works Site are proposing to build 6 to 7 hundred homes and state that this development will contribute to the local housing need of 13200 homes. However, they have so far been unable, or are unwilling to say how many of these will be affordable. What will the Leader of the Council do to ensure that any future development of the site can include 40% of the housing that is genuinely affordable to local people?

 

125.3      Councillor Osborne replied, I know it is a particular question to the Leader of the Council, what I can say is that we have targets that we will try to meet and it depends on the particularly planning application once it comes in, and that planning application hasn’t come in as of yet. We are waiting for that to come in in the summer and once it is in we will be able to assess that and do our best to try and push the developer into giving as much affordable housing as is possible. If it is a particular question to the Leader of the Council, and what he is going to do, I am sure that he can give a written response to you afterwards.

 

125.4      Councillor Platts asked the following supplementary question, Local residents are very concerned that current for the gas works site will be overdeveloped and marketed to line the pockets of overseas investors and property speculators who will leave properties empty for much of the year creating a monolithic and soulless environment. How does the Leader of the Council think that the proposed development will benefit the local community?

 

125.5      Councillor Osborne replied, Again, as this is a specific question to the Leader of the Council, I am sure you can get a response. But it is National Planning Policy Framework which the Council has to abide by as well as the Local Plan and  so it depends exactly what happens with that application once it is brought in and that can be scrutinised and whoever is actually coming in to i.e. the inhabitants and how the developer fills that application as per the Housing Strategy but it is the National Planning Policy Framework that we have to stick by.

 

125.6      Councillor Bell asked the following question, Given the shear level of frustration and anger which we have seen tonight and I am sure all of us have had in our emails, upset by parents and pupils alike over the issue of the misplaced 62. Given the long period over which councillors of all parties have worked together on this subject in good faith, what more should have been done? What could still be done to keep parents appraised of the likely situation they find themselves in and fast can we deal with the appeals?

 

 

125.7      Councillor Clare replied, on appeals it is an independent process which we don’t have much say on I am afraid, but I am sure that the independent appeals process will be dealt with very promptly. In terms of what can be done at this stage I have seen a letter which I can forward to you that the Brighton & Hove Inclusion Service have sent or are going to send to affected families outlining the support that they can give them and making sure that they put that right support in place now. As I have also said officers will organise a meeting with affected families over the coming weeks to discuss with them so that will be in place. We have looked at how officers dealing with school admissions queries can respond in a consistent way as well and I will ask them to make sure they are doing that, and, of course, if any families do have any things that they can specifically say that wasn’t on their original application that would mean that they would fit into one of the priority categories when we do the re-allocation we can do that. The admissions booklet did highlight the risk of catchment areas in multiple places and parents were asked to confirm that they had read that when they applied but I think right now we need to look to the future so as your colleagues have said, we have agreed on the cross party working groups that we will look at catchments in the future and there will be a paper coming to June’s CYP Committee on how we consult that in a clear, transparent and effective way and I look forward to being able to share that with colleagues.

 

125.8      Councillor Bell asked the following supplementary question can Councillor Clare explain why we have 15 children from Brighton & Hove being schooled outside the city in Peacehaven & Seahaven Academy but we have 45 East Sussex residents who are sending their children to schools in Brighton & Hove who come from Peacehaven, Newhaven and Seaford? At least in the spirit of community the children can wave at each other as they pass each other on the buses. How has this been allowed to happen, bearing in mind the misplaced 62?

 

125.9      Councillor Clare replied, we work with East Sussex across the border to provide places and look at the parental choice that people have put in place so I don’t know on this specific example. I do know that students in East Sussex have been offered places within our schools, that is something that we do every year. I  think perhaps schools may have been under subscribed and had places, but I am happy to look into it as I can see it is a ward issue for you with officers and get you a written response as I am not clear on the detail on that.

 

125.10   Councillor Wilkinson asked the following question, at the ETS Committee on Tuesday 29 September 2020 Labour called for a pause on the further urgency transport measures across the city to allow for meaningful consultation, so that local residents can have their say and influence the next round of changes. We said that we need to consult with all our residents, businesses and stakeholders on the current temporary transport changes as well as the potential future changes to roads, such as The Old Shoreham road. I am pleased that this pause occurred, and that consultation took place and concluded on1 4 March this year. Can you please update me, and the city, on the progress being made to collate the findings of the consultation and will you agree to present these at the earliest opportunity?

 

125.11   Councillor Lloyd replied As you know, we approved the Consultation Plan for the Active Travel Fund schemes at a Special Meeting of the Environment, Transport and Sustainability (ETS) Committee in December. Following this, a consultation took place from 1 February 2021 to 14 March 2021 (6 weeks), the consultation covered four of the active travel schemes including the two temporary schemes on Old Shoreham Road and the Seafront. This consultation has now closed, and the results are quite extraordinary there are over 5,000 responses and they are still being collated so we don’t have any results yet. The results will be presented to the ETS committee on 22 June 2021 and we will decide then how to proceed based on that.

 

125.12   Councillor Wilkinson asked the following supplementary question, it is absolutely right that our residents are re-assured that their voices have been listened to in this consultation, that meaningful consultation has occurred they need to know this. Therefore it is with concern I read in the press today that Brighton & Hove City Council has written to the Government to say it was an unintentional oversight to not include dates used in a claim that The Old Shoreham Road cycle lane has seen an increase in use. The Council said, “we were made aware as we said in our original bid that we hadn’t included certain clarifications, date, duration and location of counts, were quoting for The Old Shoreham Rd”. I must add that the press reports quote the Council “it is therefore entirely appropriate to go back to the Department of Transport with these clarifications which we have now done”. Do you agree that some residents in our city have concerns as to how data has been presented on this matter and that confidence in the recent consultation may be seen by some to be undermined by these events. And can you give further assurances that such oversights will not occur going forwards?

 

125.13   Councillor Lloyd replied, I think it is very disappointing because there has been absolutely no manipulation of data and the data is accurate. The Council has collected temporary cycle lane data from traffic schemes for a long time. It is not collected centrally or in the same way as permanent count data. The Dept For Transport also carries out traffic counts nationally, and these are published on their web site. For The Old Shoreham Road the DFT has carried out temporary seven day traffic counts, on Wellington Avenue in 2016 and the Council also carried out a seven day traffic count at the same place in July 2020.

 

125.14   Councillor Nemeth asked the following question, when consulting on emotive subjects, the mark of a successful consultation is a high response rate, and a clear outcome and Councillor Peltzer Dunn and I found this out when we carried out the City’s most comprehensive ever parking survey in our own Ward. The response rate was over 50% and the answers were clear, comment boxes were full. Given that there are a staggering 24 questions just on the Old Shoreham Road cycle section of the Council’s ‘Changes to Travel and Transport in the City Questionnaire, and not a single question that will give data on whether people actually want the lane, I am expecting an abysmally poor response rate and an unclear outcome. So, bearing in mind the response rates of over 50% are achievable what sort of eligible respondents replying will you be able to market success on this one?

 

125.15   Councillor Lloyd replied, I would say 5000 people responding is a very good response rate and I think it is one of the most successful response rates we have had from a consultation. I would also need to remind everyone that consultation is not a referendum. If we are given £2.6m to put down optic cable of course there would be consultation about it, but the question shouldn’t be should be have fibre optic cable or not, it should be an absolute given that children have safe cycle routes to school and it is amazing that we are having to debate it, and even defend it. I think the consultation has been extremely wide-spread and I will need to re-iterate, we were never consulted on Traffic to ?? City, 75 million extra miles driven since 2010 in the city. We have consulted on the active traffic schemes and we will be reporting those to the June ETS Committee.

 

125.16   Councillor Nemeth asked the following supplementary question, sounds like the response rate is going to be in the low single figures but my supplementary, and it might have been pre-empted is – Was not asking people if they actually wanted the changes, as proposed by the Conservative group an oversight or was it deliberate.

 

125.17   Councillor Lloyd replied, there was no deliberate, what we did was provide consultation and we used the BFT Framework and we shared this with ETS Committee and it was signed off and therefore we were very happy with the consultation and the way it was formed and it was designed so that people could give constructive feedback about the projects i.e. it was not a question “Should we have safe cycling and walking infrastructure for children and everyone else?”  because that should be a given, it was about the actual ‘nitty gritty’ as to how those things should be delivered.

 

125.18   Councillor Fishleigh asked the following question, when will the bus services that are subsidised by the council be reviewed and can the ward councillors for Rottingdean Coastal be part of that process please?

 

125.19   Councillor Heley replied, current contracts are due to expire  in September this year and A report is due to be presented at June ETS on the continuation of these services and to also provide an update on the bus market recovery from Covid-19 and yes, longer-term, there is an opportunity to review the subsidised services and ward members will be invited to be involved in this process

 

125.20   Councillor Fishleigh asked the following supplementary question, the report that is going to ETS in June, will there then be an opportunity at that stage to review the routes out here or do I have to wait for the longer-term review? You mentioned 2 reviews so now I am a bit confused.

 

125.21   Councillor Heley replied, I think there will be so we can chat about that before.

         

125.22   Councillor Janio asked the following question, from the responses to my written questions it is clear that extensive engineering work is being considered for the Old Shoreham Road and it is going need a lot of extensive safety mitigation measures which is agreed to in the written answers. Additionally, it appears that no sustainability report has been produced and this is incredible for a Green administration, no air quality data has been measured and there are no real plans to put any in place. Will you agree with me that the Old Shoreham cycle lanes have been a disaster for both the residents and the road users an, that the Old Shoreham temporary cycle lanes should be removed immediately.

 

125.23   Councillor Heley replied, no, I do not believe we should tear up the Old Shoreham Road cycle lane, I do not believe any cycle lane should be torn up. The provide a safe route for children to get to school, and we know children are using the Old Shoreham Road cycle lane to get to school. Admittedly few have in recent months because the schools have been closed. The principal remains which is ‘for years traffic has dominated this city and many other cities around the UK and, as I mentioned earlier, traffic miles in the city have gone up by 75 million since 2010. The number of cars on our roads have nearly doubled since 1990 and the cars themselves have become enormous. All of that happened without any consultation whatsoever. I believe, and so do my group, the Green group of councillors, believe passionately in the rights of anyone to be able to travel safely without the car if they want to and the Old Shoreham Road represents the piece in the puzzle of how we deliver safe cycling and walking infrastructure throughout the city, tearing it up will not solve that problem, it is part 1 of what should be a much greater plan, and that plan will involve a completely integrated cycling network that can be used by wheelchair users so that mobility cyclists aged 12 should get to one side of the city to the other safely, which is completely impossible at the moment, and will be even more impossible if we pull out cycle lanes just a few months after we have put them in.

 

125.24   Councillor Janio asked the following supplementary question, will you agree with me that given we are in the middle of a pandemic, robust resident consultation on the Old Shoreham Road has simply not been possible? We cannot knock on doors, councillors cannot go and ask questions, it is a fiasco. Will you please change your opinion on the cycle lane, but more importantly will you join me either a morning or evening to see the chaos that is on the Old Shoreham Road, the fights that have taken out, the pollution, have you actually been there when it is busy?

 

125.25   Councillor Heley replied, there are several questions there. I haven’t seen any chaos I have been along the Old Shoreham Road a lot and I have seen quite a lot of families cycling up and down it. I do understand that a lot of drivers sit in traffic and don’t see many cyclists go past, that is an argument that is used all over this country. I also understand that a lot of cyclists use the Old Shoreham Road and don’t see the traffic chaos that you have talked about and I understand of course that there are two sides to this. I think it is wrong question saying the cycle lane causes traffic chaos, traffic chaos has been caused by the massive expediential rise in traffic in this country. We can’t give people the option of very cheap subsidised public transport because concessive conservative councils have made that impossible. The only option we can give them is safe active travel infrastructure.

         

125.26   Councillor Henry asked the following question, what plans have been made to ensure rough sleepers coming to the city all the summer are helped into appropriate accommodation and services rather than tents on places like Hove Lawns and the Western Esplanade?

 

125.27   Councillor Gibson replied, the policy that we are operating is, and continues to be, and we hope to sustain it forever. Is that everyone anywhere it is legally possible. We have our outreach services and anyone who is rough sleeping, verified rough sleepers are being offered accommodation and will continue to be and we have been, under both Labour and Green administrations in our joint Housing & Homelessness Programme we have been conducting that policy and I am really pleased to say that it is having a great impact. The latest official figures for the number of rough sleepers in Brighton & Hove, and it is a bit behind because it was November 2020 had a rough sleeper count and estimate of 27 for the city which is the third largest reduction in the country outside of London. So great thanks to all the staff and people who worked really hard on that. For the first time in almost a decade we are out of the top ten highest numbers for rough sleeping. I think working together on our joint programme has helped that.

We shall continue with this approach, hopefully forever, so long as resources allow and at the moment resources are allowing.

 

125.28   Councillor Henry asked the following supplementary question, tents on the seafront are one part of something that needs to be solved in that area. I expect we are going to have a ‘Staycation’ boom and I want every tourist, visitor every family living in the city to come to the seafront and have a really positive experience and not to see vulnerable people in tents and also not to see litter, rubbish, recycling scattered all around the promenade and on the beach. Are preparations underway to get more rubbish, recycling, litter marshalls in place in time for a summer ‘staycation’ boom?

 

125.29   Councillor Gibson replied, I think we are all hoping we have a ‘Staycation’ boom. The concern in terms of tourism has sometimes been that there are too many tents in the city centre and there has been a recognition of that amongst council officers and work has been done in order to try and operate a streamline procedure which will  help to deal with tents more efficiently and this has been recognised. This approach is now being consulted on with partner agencies and the community, including the homeless people. It is important to recognised, particularly in the summer that a lot of tent dwellers are not homeless people but people coming down for a holiday. It is also important to recognise that our approach is, and will remain, a welfare first approach, so first of all we have to understand who is there, make contact and ensure that their safety and welfare is prioritised and that won’t change. I think you can probably look forward to some improvement on previous practise and more streamlined approach once it has been consulted on more widely, but reassured it will still be a welfare approach and also remind people that not every tent dweller is homeless, particularly under our ‘everyone in’ approach most homeless people have been housed in hotels and many have moved on into longer term sustainable accommodation which is a fantastic achievement.

 

125.30   Councillor Theobald asked the following question, it is very disappointing that this country is the dirtiest in Europe. It is disgusting how British people leave litter all over the place. I want to ask about the refuse recycling bins, because they are a big cause of litter being blown around because residents do not place rubbish and packaging securely inside the bins. This can be because they are full as they are not collected on time, as happens so often in Patcham and Hollingbury or because residents cannot be bothered to fold up their cardboard and place it inside the bins. Bins are also left on the pavement, which is a hazard. When the bins were first introduced it was made clear that rubbish and recycling would not be collected if left outside bins and there was a team following up the collection to clean up. Can we set up a task group to try and get our residents and visitors to keep Brighton & Hove tidy which would include looking at these issues, working with schools to change our culture to take this on and whether we can request Highways England to allow the council to install cameras on the bypass. The Council collects fines from those entering bus lanes charging for rubbish would make substantial sums for those not securing their loads or throwing litter out of car windows and would save on the cost of closing the road and clearing up.

 

125.31   Councillor Heley replied, I am happy to discuss what you envision a task force could be and that might be a very helpful way of bringing together all the work that is going on across voluntary groups as well as the council, so I would be interested to hear more.

 

125.32   Councillor Theobald asked the following supplementary question, I am pleased with that answer. Residents keep asking me when the A27 by-pass is going to be cleared of litter and I was told several months ago that this will be done very soon. Is there a date for this?

 

125.33   Councillor Heley replied, I believe we have had a bit of a breakthrough recently in terms of litter on the A27 because the main issue is communicating with Highways England and its’ contractors for us to be able to access the areas as it is quite a dangerous thing to be doing. I believe that the new contractors have been quite co-operative with us which is really good news so we have been able to move on in the last few weeks and I am happy to get some more specific dates for the near future.

 

125.34   Councillor Nemeth proposed that an additional fifteen minutes be allowed so that further questions could be asked.

 

125.35   Councillor Simson formally seconded the motion.

 

125.36   The Mayor put the motion to the vote which was carried and he therefore invited Councillor Appich to put her question to Councillor Gibson.

 

125.37   Councillor Appich asked the following question, we had an interesting progress report from Housing Officers at committee last week, part of that report dealt with bringing shared homes back into use and we were informed that just 17 homes were brought back into use during quarter three or 82 during 2021 against a cumulative target of 120, this is undoubtedly due to Covid. There are though many private sector vacant properties which may or may not be let and I would like to know how many there are, if we know, how officers are made aware of those, where we can report them if we suspect that a property has been empty for a while and what action officers can take to encourage landlords to re-let them?

 

125.38   Councillor Gibson replied, it is the kind of detail that I would recommend be put in as a written question because I am not going to be able to supply  you with a lot of the exact details of the quality that you, rightly expect, so I will ask officers to supplement what I have to say.

 

The concern about the lower numbers of homes brought back in, which underpins your question I  will share, and we have in our joint Housing & Homeless Programme a really ambitious target of 161. We are not going to make this, and we know why as you have said because of Covid. We will, hopefully, be able to get back on track. I know from my own ward there is a property that has been empty for 15 years which is a tragedy and we do really need to concentrate our efforts. I will send you a more detailed response.

 

125.39   Councillor Appich asked the following supplementary question, many empty homes, including private and council owned as well as council leasehold properties are being let and have been let as holiday homes or Airbnb. I suspect the new Covid rules which appear to allow self-catering holiday accommodation may cause an explosion of property being used in this way. What actions are being taken to identify this and how can we dissuade the use of homes in this way?

 

125.40   Councillor Gibson replied, similarly, I think it is a written question. A big priority at the moment, given the resources that we have is to make progress on empty council homes. We have about 100 more voids than we usually have and those are homes that will be let to people in desperate housing need and while the pandemic is still on we are putting our energies into trying to reduce that number as quickly as possible. In the long run we need to address all the issues you have raised and we will get you a full and thorough answer and then you can come back to us on the detail.

 

125.41   Councillor Mears asked the following question the numbers in emergency accommodation during the pandemic has increased significantly from approximately 500 to 800 as per 17 March Housing Committee Report. What reassurances can you give that, due to the number, people are still able to access help and advice and services they need for their wellbeing and safety?

 

125.42   Councillor Gibson replied, you highlight a great increase which has been the right thing to do and has helped keep people off the streets and avoid evictions. We have a Welfare Officer team and it has been expanded slightly but I am concerned that it might not be sufficient to provide the support that is necessary. It is also much easier when there are placements in the city. We also have meetings between officers of B&HC and Lewes and Eastbourne on a regular basis to monitor the welfare concerns but nevertheless there are welfare concerns, there are regular meetings and it needs to be monitored and we are committed wherever possible to bring back people with the greatest welfare and needs into the city as soon as possible, in fact not to house them outside of the city, that was a policy that went through Housing Committee a few years back.

 

125.43   Councillor Mears asked the following supplementary question, as of 17 March Housing Committee meeting the council has accommodated over 300 people in emergency accommodation outside the city. The council has taken a range of accommodation in Crawley, Peacehaven, Newhaven and Eastbourne. With other towns along the coast now needing to free up their hotels for their tourist economy and the need to bring people back into the city what reassurances were given to Eastbourne Council when officers from Brighton & Hove attended their Scrutiny meeting yesterday to reassure them that we will be bringing people back into the city as quickly as possible to free up their hotels for their tourist economy?

 

125.44   Councillor Gibson replied, I have mentioned that it is not the desire, or policy to place people outside of the city in the first place, but there has been a huge increase of numbers and it has happened. We were able to report to the committee quite significant progress and that the numbers have been reduced in the last few weeks to the same number that they had increased to in September that was 131 from around about 200 a few weeks ago in terms of Eastbourne. The aim is to reduce further to the kind of levels that historically have always been the case in places like Eastbourne and Lewes. In a perfect world it would go to zero but to be realistic it is not a perfect world and we are expecting people to be made homeless from the end to the ban on evictions. That is the gaol and we are committed to meeting further with the councils at Member level and to keep the regular contact between officers to that end.

 

125.45   Councillor O’Quinn asked the following question, last year on 31 March the golf course at Waterhall was closed down for good and lockdown began on 23 March. There have been more and more walkers up at Waterhall since then and an increasingly larger number of them walk on the old golf course. I have been most days to Waterhall since March and there have been golfers there as well, even during the very cold spell we had in February, thus I was surprised at the decision to remove the litter bins on the golf course as there are so many more people there due to the Covid pandemic. I understand that Cityclean might have issues with having to deal with the bins and empty them that were previously dealt with by the golf club employees. There is endless dog mess (doggy poo bags) and other litter on the old golf course. Please could you inform us as to what you intend to do to resolve this unsatisfactory situation on one of our most beautiful areas of the Southdowns?

 

125.46   Councillor Heley replied, as you know, following decisions to re-wild Waterhall changes are being made to manage the site as an open downland space rather than as a golf course. This includes aligning bin provision to other downland areas. This means some litter bins are being removed, or have been removed, except for a some which are close to the club house where they are easy to access for emptying. As per other downland areas, the expectation is that people manage their waste responsibly and take it home with them.

 

I have  heard your concerns and I am happy to speak to Cityclean about getting some more dog bins specifically if that is the main issue.

 

125.47   Councillor O’Quinn asked the following supplementary question, could there be more notices up on the golf course about littering, dog mess

 

125.48   Councillor Heley replied, it sounds that we definitely need to discuss that. Some people would not want that because it might ruin the landscape so we would have to strike a balance, but I am happy to take that away.

 

125.49   Councillor Bagaeen asked the following question, if the pandemic has taught us anything it is that our Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic communities have been deeply affected by it. I am therefore deeply concerned that the council has left out those same BAME communities from the Climate Action work. Why is he council not actively reaching out to the BAME Community?

 

125.50   Councillor Mac Cafferty replied, it is fair to say that the Carbon Neutral Plan that was agreed by the ETS Committee and P&R Committee last week was seen very much as a first step and in any case alongside key parts of the Corporate Programme in any given year we want to do much more community participation. You are right in terms of the graphic and disturbing way in which BAME communities, not just hear, but across the country have been dramatically affected by the pandemic and, of course, we have to step up to the mark on what we are trying to do.

 

In relation to some of the work on this we have ratified exactly what is happening to BAME communities and that is why, for example, for the meeting of the TECC Committee there is a report coming on all the different strands of work that we are doing on the across the city. I think we need to acknowledge that the key part of the Climate Assembly was to come up with independent sourcing and to ensure a particular focus on BAME engagement and that is what has happened, but the work continues.

 

125.51   Councillor Bagaeen asked the following supplementary question, thinking about access to Green Grants, or grants to lower the energy use for these communities, why is the council not offering direct support to BAME communities to help mitigate the impact of climate change on their lives and livelihoods?

 

125.52   Councillor Mac Cafferty replied, I don’t know who got what from the £100k of community grants that we have given out. I believe that they were awarded, if not at the last ETS Committee then the one prior to that. But that was specifically about trying to reach out to the different community groups as they represent different communities in the city. I know also that the City Council has been proactively supporting and reaching out to all sorts of organisations in the city, the BICP that my counterpart Cllr Powell has been doing excellent work as well and with everything in terms of the engagement with the community with the Community Advisory Group which met in the last few weeks as well. I am more than happy to continue the work and it is really important, for reasons that you rightly outline.

 

125.53   The Mayor stated that the additional fifteen minutes had expired, and he then adjourned the meeting for a refreshment break for twenty-five minutes.

 

125.54   The meeting was adjourned at 18.50 and reconvened at 19.15pm.