Agenda item - Chairs Communications

The Chair gave the following communications:

Happy New Year and welcome back everyone. I hope you are well rested and ready for the new year. Unfortunately, it’s been a difficult start for many with rates of covid being higher than ever before and the visitor economy is one of the areas that has taken a hit with people either being off ill and choosing to stay away from others. The government have put together another support package after lobbying from campaign groups, local government, including ourselves and others, on behalf of the sector, however, the maximum of £6,000 per business is nowhere near enough to cover losses at what would ordinarily be one of their busiest times a year with Christmas parties and celebrations. We’ll continue to lobby government on making further support available.

One way we have tried to support those that missed out grants last year is by using some of the remaining funding leftover from last year in a targeted local grants scheme for the events and hospitality sector. The grant scheme is currently open for a limited timescale and will close on Monday 24th Jan at 5pm before distribution over the next few months.

The events sector is something that provides a huge impact to the local economy and makes the city a vibrant place to be. Later in the meeting we have the two annual reports on the events scheduled for the city, which I’m sure will generate some discussion, and there are two questions on one of the recent events, the Christmas festival, which I’ll be answering very soon. Just to make a brief initial comment though, we always try to balance out the impact of our events on residents lives and on the local environment and the benefits they bring to the city in terms of visitors and the local economy. The visitor economy is responsible for around 21,000 jobs in the city, and worth £886m, with events contributing greatly, and many creatives come to Brighton and Hove and make it their home due to this and important defend this.

Sports are always key events in the diary are including the half marathon and marathon, cycle rides and others but this year we are also very much looking forward to being one of the 9 host cities of the UEFA Women’s Euros. As part of this, we’ve been awarded £500k from the National Lottery Heritage Fund to celebrate the history of the women’s game, looking back at what is perhaps a hidden area of history. Events in the city will include Goal Power! Women and Football, a major exhibition celebrating the power of women’s football at Brighton Museum & Art Gallery from 18 June to 2 October. The exhibition will explore the power of women’s football and highlight the close link between football and feminism and share stories of those who have fought for equal rights through football from the suffragettes to women and girls today. Really fascinating and linking heritage with sport and hoping lots will use the opportunity and go along and learn something!

Culture - the main strategy that we are still working to is the ABCD Cultural recovery plan which was passed almost a year to day! A great amount of work has happened since it’s start and two quick updates to provide. Firstly, Third Thursday, a new arts, music and culture programme with monthly events, performances, film projections and new artwork commissions in the centre of Brighton, curated and produced by videoclub, in partnership with the Brilliant Brighton Business Improvement District, will be kicking off next Thursday. The first event has the theme of Escapism/Optimism, something extremely relevant at the moment, and I’m really looking forward to attending this. Also a series of online Igniter events will be happening, starting on 2nd Feb, featuring international, national and local speakers, that will provoke ideas, suggest new ways of working, and invite creative workers and organisations to re-energise collaborations. If you work in the sector within the Greater Brighton area, they are a great opportunity to get together with other people who have had similar experiences over the last 2 years and look forward to what hopefully will be a better year this year and beyond. It is free to attend! As with all work, to remind people, it’s the Culture in Our City that is the go to website for information on these programme and other work occurring, as well as the place to find support.

Councillor Steph Powell would like to extend thanks to all the officers who worked on the domestic abuse domestic violence agenda over the last year in such demanding times while showing great professionalism and dedication throughout the period. She’d also like to thank all the staff from the joint unit for their great work they have undertaken in the 6+ years that the units been operating.

Steph I also wanted to say that we attended the first community library tour in the Centre and the West of the city. We have a second tour centred towards the East of the city and councillors are invited along to come to that. We had a really great time on the first tour so hopefully more councillors will attend the second meeting because all of our community libraries are very important.

Steph has also met with Sussex Police to discuss equalities issues, especially around hate crime and drink spiking. One great thing to celebrate is that Helen Jones, the CEO of LGBT MindOut, has been awarded an MBE which is a recognition of her commitment to activism and progress over the years.

Holocaust Memorial Day is on the 27th of January and is the most poignant day of reflection to remember millions of Jewish, Romani, Disabled and LGBT+ persons, political prisoners and others who were murdered by the Nazi regime. There's going to be an online commemoration which is going to be held at the Latest TV and Councillor Powell as well as Council Grimshaw will be speaking at this.