Agenda item - Deputations from members of the public.

A list of deputations received by the due date of the 14^th July 2011 will be circulated separately as part of an addendum at the meeting.

6.1             The Mayor reported that one deputation had been received from members of the public and invited Mr. Morris as the spokesperson for the deputation to come forward and address the council.

6.2             Mr. Morris thanked the Mayor and stated that, “The Level is in the Valley Gardens Conservation Area. The northern section is an in conic community resource that must be preserved from development, as a place for congregating, recreation, holding community events, festivals and fairs.  This northern part is the only remaining open green space as laid out from 1791 as a formal ground and later gifted to the townspeople of Brighton in 1822.

            In the southern section, there are a few remaining features from Bertie Maclaren’s 1927design of the children’s playground. At that time the railings were removed as part of Maclaren’s “valley vistas” scheme and the northern section remains free to this day of any obstruction.  Whereas the southern section is an area for designated activities, the north, separated by the hedging and planting of the Rose Walk, is a free space for a wide variety of users. It’s an open space that is unimpeded by buildings, which will be lost if this awkward chunk is taken out of it for the skate park. It’s a green space for many who see it as their back garden and where there’s opportunity for peace and relaxation in a busy and highly polluted area.

The engagement of relevant community groups is listed as one of the five Heritage Lottery Fund requirements when submitting a bid. The two groups named by the council in their bid are Friends of The Level and The Triangle Community Group and we both fully support the other aspects of the bid. Full consultation with these groups is essential to the success of the HLF bid, together with an ongoing contribution to ensure that The Level is a popular and well-maintained open space in the very heart of the City.

But we have been devalued and dismissed constantly. Getting hold of information from the council officers has been more difficult than juggling with jelly. In August last year we were incorrectly told that the final bid had to be submitted by end of February 2011, otherwise the money would be lost. Constantly we were fobbed off with “that matter will be dealt with at a later stage”. Questions such as the needs of dog walkers, lighting of the Skate Park, health and safety, fencing were never answered or addressed. And they are still being fudged. In a draft report, which we saw only fifteen days ago, the plan of the skate park shows no lighting, five pages on it’s briefly mentioned in the text and four pages later there’s a photograph of the type of lighting to be used. The Health and Safety report just released, after months of us asking endless questions, has more fudging, with misleading out-of-scale illustrations.

We are all merely custodians of our heritage to pass on to future generations. But you, as councillors, carry the even further burden of being the protectors of our heritage too. We don’t want to see any more of the disastrous past planning decisions that have scarred our City. And this needs to be looked at as a planning issue – remember The Level is in a conservation area.

No amount of planting and trees will plaster over this gaping wound on an old friend. The skate park will not be able to hide, as if in shame, behind the proposed raised banks that are to be added to its perimeter. Yes raised banks in the middle of an open green space that is called The Level.  We totally oppose any building on the northern end of The Level and believe that this will set a dangerous precedent. It could be said that it’s a brave Green councillor who will authorise this concreting over of part of an open green space. But it would be more courageous for all parties to join together and reject this lamentable proposal before it’s too late.”

6.3             Councillor West thanked Mr. Morris for attending the meeting the putting forward the deputation.  He replied, “The level is an important park in the heart of our city and located in an area where many people do not have private gardens yet out of all out major parks it is in the worse condition due to the lack of investment over many decades.  It suffers form anti social behaviour, buildings are in poor condition, lighting and seating is poor and the playgrounds need improving as do plantings and key historical features.  It cannot be maintained to an acceptable standard without external funding.  Over 50% of people consulted feel unsafe or very unsafe and avoid the level and certain groups of people for example the elderly or the disabled and their carers feel excluded from the level, they feel they cannot access it and that it doesn’t have anything for them.  This is not acceptable.  For many years residents have rightly been calling for something to be done to improve the park, initial consultations carried out in 2009 in which most respondents stated they would prefer the skatepark to be moved out of the southern area.

            Councillors and local residents groups felt that the consultation could have been more extensive and called for further consultation engagement to ensure all options were properly considered.  Councillors, including myself, worked with officers and residents to ensure this happened, this is why the submission date for the bid was delayed.  Extensive consultation and engagement has now been carried out, 75 meetings have been held along with numerous meetings attended by officers with the Friends of the Level and Park Crescent and Triangle.  Meetings have also been held with schools, residents and minority groups.  Under represented groups were asked why they don’t use the level and what they would like to see done to the park to make it more welcoming.  An access audit was carried out with the Federation of Disabled People to ensure the park is accessible and to engage the wider community has been mentioned earlier.  Numerous well advertised public exhibitions were held including 4 public design workshops, 28000 households who live within 15 minutes walk were sent a newsletter about the proposals this was followed with a consultation document in March to the same 28000 households, they were given the opportunity to come to exhibitions, respond by post, online and now 11% of people (3300 people) responded, I frankly do not know what more you would want us to ask people.  The council was open and has presented both options of having the skatepark in the north of having it in the south in a fair and balanced way so that residents could decide between the two.  The consultation ran the same time as the campaign, you were involved against moving the skatepark and all the signatories of the petition that you were presenting have the chance to respond to the consultation.  This was a very robust, transparent and thorough process and I have every respect for our officers who have worked tirelessly over two years to bring this about.  The Brighton Society has recognised this and it is evident from their supportive letter in the Argus recently.  The option preferred resulted in an increase in the amount of build space and the location of the existing skatepark will be transformed to garden and the current underused gravel area will be grassed over.

            Officers have made it very clear, the Council does not have a preference as to where the skatepark goes the priority is to secure funding,  and to secure that as soon as practical, otherwise we will miss the boat with the lottery and we have consulted wildly and fairly.  To have overruled this consultation after all this work, all this involvement and I suspect that potential funders would have great concern had done so, to have done that would have been so much the wrong thing to do and I think it is truly unfair and untrue to say that the Friends of the Level and the Triangle Community Group have been devalued and dismissed.  There has been a high level of engagement with them and I’m sorry if you don’t agree with the outcome but there we have it.  The people of the city have spoken and they have had a great opportunity to speak and I hope people will just move on now and live with that and support this bid to its success so we can have a new park that everyone can be happy with.”

6.4             The Mayor thanked Mr. Morris for attending the meeting and speaking on behalf of the deputation.  She explained that the points had been noted and the deputation would be referred to the Cabinet Member for Environment & Sustainability for consideration.  The persons forming the deputation would be invited to attend the meeting and would be informed subsequently of any action to be taken or proposed in relation to the matter set out in the deputation.