Agenda item - Chairs Communications

The Chair gave the following communications:

We’re holding this committee during a period of national mourning and today we join with people around the nation and the world in noting with sadness, the death of Her Majesty The Queen.

Queen Elizabeth II was our country’s longest reigning monarch and has shown remarkable dedication as the head of state over many decades.

The Queen succeeded to the throne before most of were born and that’s true for many residents in the city.

The Queen has given a life of dedication and public service.  As we know, she worked right up to her final days with the appointment of a new Prime Minister.

This is a historic moment in our nation’s history as we remember the passing of The Queen and witness the start of the new reign of King Charles III.

As elected politicians we recognise many people will be saddened by the news and wish to pay their respects.

For that reason, I ask the committee and assembled officers and members of the public to join me in a minute’s silence.”

I am happy to take any comments from members of the committee either in remembrance of the Queen or any questions about procedures, during this period of mourning.

The loss of Her Majesty may bring up feelings of personal grief and mourning: grief for those who have had a significant impact on our lives, whether we knew them personally or not.  I wish both the Queen’s family and everyone who loved her my sympathies at this time.  If you are experiencing complicated feelings of grief and need support, Cruse, the bereavement charity have a free helpline as well as some helpful advice on their website. 

Since the last TECC we’ve had Trans Pride, which was incredibly well attended with 1000s of attendees. A great day.

Likewise, I did the Pride march last month with Green Party colleagues, and attended the park afterwards.  Another wonderful day.

During the summer I attended the LGBT+ Housing Summit run by the Switchboard.  A really insightful day, and we have a presentation today by the Switchboard which will highlight some of that discussion.

I present the PSVWG paper to P&R last month, and I’m glad to say that it was agreed. .  Again, I thank the members for their excellent work over the past year on this important work. 

I attended the South Coast Jewish Seminar in Hove a few weeks back.  A really important and interesting learning day, and I thank the organisers, including Fiona SHARPE for it.

I also attended the launch of the third party reporting centres on 7th September. This is a pilot that has been set up to encourage and support  those communities who may not feel comfortable reporting hate incidents to statutory agencies - to have a place where they can report and receive support if they have been subject to a hate incident or crime. They will be jointly run by the Racial Harassment Forum, Possibility People and the Rainbow Hub.

Community safety – somegood news - BHCC in conjunction with East and West Sussex County Councils and the Office of the Sussex Police and Crime Commissioner, have successfully bid for nearly £1.5 m of safer streets four money from the Home Office for work across Sussex to address violence against women and girls, ASB and neighbourhood crime. The money will be used in the City, amongst other things, to increase police patrols, extend the taxi marshals deployed in the city centre on a Friday and Saturday night and continue the delivery of positive relationship lessons in our schools.