Agenda item - Chairs Communications

3.1 The Chair gave the following communications:

Please note that item 14 has been withdrawn from the Agenda and deferred to a different meeting, and the Pool Passage Space Protection Order report has been added as item 9A..

Before we start the meeting, Councillors were deeply saddened to hear of the passing of Ann NORMAN, former Councillor and Mayor.  Ann was well liked by councillors across the political divide and popular with residents.  She was a really caring and kind person, who was a shining example of what it means to be an elected councillor.  Our thoughts are with her husband Ken, and her family and friends. Another former Mayor, Pat Hawkes has also passed away recently. Could we all take a minute to remember Ann and Pat, please.

Welcome to the meeting everyone, today is Sussex Day and we are flying the Sussex flag outside of Hove Town Hall.

Tourism

I was pleased to attend the DEG and to hear from partners about how they have been performing. Although in general we are still missing out on as many international visitors as pre-pandemic, the level of domestic tourism is strong and footfall into Brighton has bounced back to levels last seen in 2019, as you will have seen if you have been out and about in the city centre over the last few weekends. The main concerns remain about how the cost of living crisis may affect people and we’ll have to closely monitor this going forward but it seems when people go out they still spend money, it’s just perhaps that they do this less frequently than before.

From the Councils side, we will continue working on the 4 priorities agreed in the tourism recovery plan last year which are (1) Promote the city locally, regionally and nationally, (2) Build back consumer confidence and awareness, (3) Enhance the look and feel of the city, and (4) Extend the season to make the city an ‘all year round’ destination. However, also alongside the DEG, we want to begin to tentatively look forward more long term and this is why we will be beginning review the management plan which was passed in 2018 and runs until 2023.

On the first point in the recovery plan, the promotion of B&H internationally, partnering with the Brighton Centre and the Hilton Brighton Metropole, from 31 May – 2 June VisitBrighton exhibited at IMEX Frankfurt, Europe’s leading meeting, incentive, conference and exhibition (MICE) trade show which welcomes over 5000 international decision makers. After a live events hiatus of two years, buyers were delighted to ‘talk shop’ with Brighton, discovering more about our enviable conference facilities. They were encouraged to attend the European Meetings and Events Conference, which we’re delighted to be hosting at the Hilton Brighton Metropole in March 2023, to get first-hand experience of Brighton. The team generated enquiries which have the potential to generate over £5m of economic benefit for the City from international associations, corporate buyers and conference agencies; now the hard work starts to convert them to firm business!

VisitBrighton will also be in London at the Meetings Show at the end of month trying to tempt people to bring their business down here and this sits alongside the work they do year round to ensure we have a strong list of bookings and pipeline of future opportunities and general campaign work including the Never Normal Brighton and Never Normal Sussex campaigns. In previous years there has been an annual update highlighting the activity of VisitBrighton, and we’ll be bringing this back later in the year so members and public can better understand the important work that they do so look forward to that. Finally, they have a new website which I’d recommend you check out.

Sports

Over the last month the main issue has been to deal with the national chlorine shortage that has been caused by the main factory producing this closing down early for planned updates and due to unavailability of getting chlorine from other sources. Freedom Leisure as our leisure facility managers have been stockpiling chlorine so that we can keep our pools open for as long as possible and have been working on installing new equipment at the Prince Regent which will enable that site to make its own chlorine. All are pools are still open; but we’ve had to close the paddling pools in the city and this situation is constantly being assessed- if there is to be any closures of the pools, we’ll let everyone know in due course.

However, there is another issue with our sports facilities which is the cost of energy which is really hitting the sector badly given the amount of energy that these facilities take up. The trade association representing the leisure sector, UK Active, alongside Swim England, the Local Government Association and others have lobbied the government for urgent talks and an emergency support package to help out, and we’ll wait to see if any support is forthcoming, but we’re working closely with FL on this locally and will keep on top of the situation as best as we can.

The wider issue with the state of facilities remains and the work on the investment plan continues though. We will be arranging visit to other modern facilities to see how they work and with additional staff resource in place for this plan, the work on this will be able to take place more quickly over the coming months.

Events

The late spring is always a very lively time of the year over and over the last month we have had a successful Fringe and festival despite the numerous challenges, so thank you to both for their work in the city and I know you’ll agree that Brighton wouldn’t be the same without them. Throughout the summer there is a lot more to look forward to including Women’s Euros throughout July, the return of Paddle round the Pier on 3rd July, Trans Pride and Pride weekend at start of August and more.

Culture

The events feed on nicely to my final update on the cultural side of things.

The ABCD Cultural Recovery programme has come to an end of an intense period of activity, with 10 projects delivering in person and online, employing over 100 artists and creative freelancers, with 1000’s of people enjoying events like Third Thursdays, which ended on 21st April with one of the largest audiences yet (and hopefully we were able to come to one of the 5 evenings) and the Tarner Community Glow Festival. There has also been further artwork commissioned in the city and the final piece of wall art – by Lee Eelus on the wall of Gresham Blake – is now complete, after a Covid interruption, so if you haven’t walked along the Enliven art trail yet, now is the time to do it, and details can be found on the Culture in Our City website. You may have also attended the Igniter events or been on one of the Alternative Tour of Brighton and Hove, developed by South East Dance Network, or participated in one of the other activities. Earlier this week there was an Open Space session for people to reflect on the work so and look forward so I’m sure more will come out of this.

We are delighted to say that we have been successful with an application to Coast to Capital LEP for funding from their Regional Projects Business Case Development fund to support the Space to Grow strand.  The funding will support a working group and significant research and evidence gathering to help articulate the need and build the case for support for creative space in the city, very important issue for the city going forward.

In addition, to the main update on the cultural recovery plan, I wanted to mention that the formal launch of the public arts strategy took place in May at University of Brighton Centre for Contemporary Arts, which myself Cllr MacCafferty and Cllr Deane were at. This has already been through the committee process and now in place so looking forward to the impact this will have on the city and influence in future art.

Finally, I just wanted to mention about the new exhibition of the RPMT which connects sport, heritage and culture called Goal Power exhibition. This will open to the public this Saturday and is part of the cities celebrations of hosting the Women’s Euros. The exhibition will highlight women who have dedicated their lives to the ‘beautiful game’, sharing in their stories of resistance, perseverance, but above all a love for football that means they have trailblazed the way for women and girls today. From the feminist players of 1894 and the war worker footballers of the First World War to those who defied the Football Association to play and those who have changed the Football Association from within, it’s a great exhibition to go along to if you get the chance.

Planning

Few announcements about projects and related planning matters:

The Kingsway to the Sea project had two drop in events at the King Alfred ballroom and was happy to see lots of residents at the one on Friday. The consultation closed last week, with officers compiling responses.

There is another live consultation running until the 21st June on the proposed West Saltdean area neighbourhood area and forum. Please get your comments in before that deadline. This will then be coming back to committee later this year.

Finally, we’ve heard back from the government on the A4D against conversion of class E to residential and unfortunately the government have pushed back on this. We still believe that it is vitally important to protect our local parades and city centre so will work to refine this and resubmit and committee will get the chance to look at this again later in the year. 

On 10th April Cllrs Steph, Martin, Amanda Grimshaw, Leo, Dee and others attended the annual IFTAR dinner event, with the theme this year of “Rekindling Community Spirit” after a 2-year Covid break.  It was a beautiful event where we got a chance to eat together after sundown; to network, to promote community spirit, social cohesion, mutual understanding, and solidarity.

On 12th May Steph attended the Inclusive Cities project in Oxford, where she met with council officers from all the UK cities involved in the work. One of the themes was exploring the link between migration and climate change, and what more we can be doing as a City of Sanctuary.

We attended IDAHBOIT (international day against homophobia, biphobia and transphobia) on May 17th, with the theme: “Our Bodies, Our Lives, Our Rights”.  Founded in 2004, this important day aims to raise awareness of violence and discrimination against lesbian, gay, bi, trans and queer (LGBTQ+) people to drive positive change, and is now celebrated in more than 130 countries around the world.

IDAHOBIT reminds us that there is still a long way to go until all LGBTQ+ people are free and safe from harm. This year’s theme reflects community calls for claiming our rights to live our sexualities and to express our gender(s) freely, but also demanding to be free from physical violence, from conversion so-called “therapies”, to forced sterilisation of Trans and Intersex people.

We attended the BIPC launch on 18th May.  The BIPC, in partnership with the British Library, is located within Jubilee library.  It serves as a key resource for anyone wanting to start or to grow their business in the city.

We attended Cllr ROBINS’ last event as MAYOR at the unveiling of a blue plaque to the Hilton Sisters on 26th May in Riley Road.   Violet and Daisy Hilton were the once world-famous conjoined twins who were born in Brighton, and who went on to become international entertainers during the 1920s and 30s.

The month of May also saw us complete a tour of the building works at the Corn Exchange, which is hoping to open later in the year, and which will be very exciting indeed. It will be a stunning city centrepiece for the arts, concerts and for events.

And lastly, several councillors did a tour of the gardens and woodlands at Stanmer, on fortunately, a beautiful sunny day.  It’s a stunning place with much to see, and well worth a visit.

Upcoming:

•         The university is hosting an LGBTQ Housing summit in the city in July that both of us are attending.

•         Trans Pride is on Saturday 16th July, where Steph & her partner are volunteering.

•         And the city is gearing-up for a truly spectacular Pride on 6th August, after a 2-year gap.  The theme for this year is “Love, Protest and Unity”.

•         And on 11th July we will remember the 8,372 Bosnian Muslims who were murdered for their identity in Srebrenica, as well as the tens of thousands of others on Srebrenica Memorial Day

Some info regarding our Libraries:

•         Refugee Week starts on 20th June.  It is a UK-wide festival celebrating the contributions, creativity and resilience of refugees and people seeking sanctuary. The theme for 2022 is Healing.

•         Brighton & Hove Libraries programme of cultural events, topical discussions and information sharing will celebrate and raise awareness of Refugee Week.  Libraries have worked with guest programmers Luqman Onikosi and Sara Alsherif whose contributions have been important in reflecting those seeking sanctuary and have shaped this year’s offer.

•         Stock collections for all ages will be highlighted throughout the  library and in online displays. Information about Refugee Week and events happening across the city will be available to pick up from the Jubilee Library foyer on 20-24th June.  And on Sunday 26th June members of the Ukrainian community will be at Jubilee Library to share information about Ukraine and answer questions.

•         And lastly, Councillors are looking forward to the much-awaiting second tour of our libraries on 7th July, this time focussing on the eastern part of the city. Cllrs if you’ve not booked already, then please contact Sally McMahon or Kate Rouse to book your place.