Agenda item - Oral questions from Councillors

A list of Councillors who have indicated their desire to ask an oral question at the meeting along with the subject matters has been listed in the agenda papers.

60.1         The Mayor noted that notification of 7 oral questions had been received and invited Councillor Geoffrey Theobald to put his question to Councillor J. Kitcat.

King Alfred

60.2         Councillor G. Theobald asked, “I think we can all agree that something needs to be done with the King Alfred. As I’m sure Councillor Bowden is aware, there are now at least 5 developers in the City and beyond who have expressed an interest in providing new sporting and other leisure facilities on the King Alfred site. I’ve now met most of these people as I’m sure that you have too, Councillor Bowden and the on thing that they have all said to me is that they would like the Council to set out a timetable as soon as possible for when a preferred business plan will be chosen in order to give them the level of service they require to plan properly for their bid.

Indeed they have gone further and said that if the Council doesn’t give them that timetable then they may well walk away. Given at long last the cross party working group, on the  King Alfred, has already had it’s first meeting without a timetable being set, will Councillor please give me, and more importantly  those developers, a pledge to set that timetable at the next meeting of the Working Group in January?”

60.3         Councillor Bowden replied, “As you rightly said the cross party working group met on the 27^th November for the first time, it’s not any cross party, we also have an external person in the guise of Tony Mernagh so we’ll have some very commercial sense brought to bear on our deliberations.  The first meeting was to set up parameters, I’m very pleased that Councillor Wealls was part of that deliberation and we’re looking at a very long list of ideas that we would like to see come to the next committee where I do hope, indeed, that we will start setting out a timetable for our deliberations to be concluded and to go out to the market to tell them what we are hoping to see in this site which has to comply and conform with what we are hoping will be accepted within the City Plan.

There is a long wish list; what we can actually deliver, as you say there are a lot of people lining up some more interesting than others, I’m not going to see all those people yet because I don’t want to start entering detailed conversations although I know that officers are having some of those conversations and they are shaping some of the thinking so the next meeting that we have, I think, I look to Councillor Wealls as I think it’s in January, we will have a progress report, no one will be kept waiting around. We will not have a repeat of the Black Rock debacle where we had ten disappointing wasted years so we will move as quickly as possible to a situation where we hope we will have a preferred partner to work with.”

60.4         Councillor G. Theobald asked the following supplementary question, “I do appreciate a response where the Chair refers to lots of ideas and wish lists and such like but what I’m really after is a timetable because these developers and others are going to get fed up and going to go away and the local MP, Mike Weatherly, has been making exactly the same point.   I really think, for instance, September/October 2013 ought to be the Policy and Resources Committee that we aim at where we actually select the final bidder. That’s my challenge to you and your administration. September or October 2013 Policy and Resources Committee; actually seeing the schemes and approving one of the developers so that we can then move on.”

60.5         Councillor Bowden replied, “Well we all remember what happened with Black Rock before and we’re not going to have the same issue happening in King Alfred this time. If we can move faster than September I guarantee we will, so we’re not going to muck about, we all want to see cranes going up and action because we cannot put it off any longer. We are going to have discussions with Sport England and there may be more money from their Iconic Fund and I’ve got a scheduled meeting with them coming up possibly before Christmas.

At the first meeting of the working group; the members present, all expressed views of what they would like to see in the new site. Officers are going away to see how feasible some of those are, we’ll come back, assess that and from the next meeting I hope we will be much clearer on the parameters of what we will be asking of developers.  All the other schemes that have come forward at the moment are promising all sorts of ideas; multiplex cinemas, art centres and more.  Once we have in our minds exactly what we want on a cross-party basis then we will invite serious discussions but if we can move faster then we certainly will.”

Funding for Policing and Community Safety

60.6         Councillor Mitchell asked, “The newly elected Police and Crime Commissioner for Sussex has recently announced that the overall policing budget for the county will stay the same for the forthcoming year but cuts to this budget are expected the year after. Could Councillor Kitcat please outline what discussions he has had with the Commissioner in relation to the future funding of the policing and community safety needs of the city and how he will ensure that the Commissioner particularly gains an appreciation of the preventative and support work currently being undertaken here and the importance of that work being continued in the face of further cut backs?”

60.7         Councillor J. Kitcat replied, “I have had a number of informal conversations with the Police Commissioner already since her election and I have a more formal meeting with her on Tuesday but before the election itself even took place I worked with officers and colleagues to prepare a very extensive briefing pack for the candidates and whoever the successful candidate would be to make them as aware as possible to the unique and important work that our partnership on community safety, drugs prevention and so on, does in this city and the importance of protecting that and the informal insurances we’ve had so far are that the budget from the PCC will be protected until the 2013/14 financial year and that carry-overs that we have negotiated will be protected as well.  Obviously like Council space, there is a level of uncertainty about what their future budget positions are but I’m committed to fighting for this City and getting as much budget as possible to provide those essential services to our communities.”

60.8         Councillor Mitchell noted the response and stated, “I’m sure our 2 members from this authority on the Police and Crime panel will do all they can to put forward and make the case for the policing and community needs of this city to be adequately funded. I would actually hope that there is a way that this Council can also place some part in holding Commissioner to account and therefore I look forward to seeing how this role will be developed and how the wishes of this Council can be adequately represented as part of that process.”

Coach Parking

60.9         Councillor Cox asked, “What are the Administration’s plans for improving coach parking in Brighton and Hove?”

60.10    Councillor Davey replied, “As I’m sure you’re aware, this is not an easy problem to solve otherwise I’m sure it would have been solved by the previous Conservative Administration or by the Labour Administration that preceded it. The main problem is the lack of availability of a suitable location for a coach park here. Space in the City is of a premium.  I suggested at the last Transport Committee Meeting that we identify funding for a proper study to be commissioned that will look at the current situation, seeing what can be learned from elsewhere and be tasked with identifying possible solutions.   So if we get capital funding to be agreed at Full Council and the subsequent agreement by Policy & Resources, that study could start in the next financial year.  I would propose that all parties will have input into the brief for that study and will be given the opportunity to input into it.”

60.11    Councillor Cox asked the following supplementary question, “Could Councillor Davey clarify what’s happened to the £100,000 that was set aside for a temporary coach park and whether a full equality impact assessment was done on the decision to not have a temporary coach park; the impact, in particular, on the disabled, the young and the elderly who are predominantly coach users?”

60.12    Councillor Davey replied, “There was no concrete decision, or certainly business case to build a coach park and as I know you’re only to aware the £100,000 was used by your party to part fund the freeze in Council tax at Budget Council in February this year so basically the answer to the question of what happened to the £100,000 is that you spent it.”

Free Parking for the Christmas Period

60.13    Councillor Robins asked, “Will Councillor Davey reconsider his opposition to allow free parking in Brighton and Hove in the run up to Christmas and give a boost to the local traders in the same way that other Sussex towns are doing?”

60.14    Councillor Davey replied, “Parking charges encourage a high turnover of vehicles in our car parks on street. This in turn reduces queues to enter our car parks and helps reduce congestion which is good for shops and good for business. At the same time the Council has invested £4m in our car parks dramatically improving the parking experience for the city’s drivers.  Far from supporting local traders, offering free parking would mean that less parking was available for those wishing to use local shops. As parking spaces would be taken up by long term parkers, the end result would be that there would be fewer spaces available for shoppers and more drivers trying to use them. In an excellent report which I could commend to Councillor Robins from the RAC it said that, “there is evidence that such free parking does not provide additional parking resources for shoppers.” Should you wish to check it; out it is called ‘Space and Perspectives on Parking Policy’ and it came out in July this year.

            Another recent report carried out for London boroughs in October this year concluded that there is no such thing as free parking. I quote, “all of the research reviewed including that sponsored by the Industry Association such as the British Parking Association highlights that somebody has to pay for development and maintenance for parking spaces as well as the management of any enforcement regime to ensure that efficient use, where parking is the responsibility of Local Authorities, it is the local tax payers who pick up the cost of provision if revenue is not sufficient to cover costs.”  If we were to offer free parking in the run up to Christmas that would cause a significant budget pressure and that would be in the region of £30-40,000 a day should you wish to extend that for a week, it would not be probably over £100,000 there and should you wish to extend that for a month you’d be looking at £500,000.

            As most of the street parking is shared with residents it would make it much more difficult for residents for residents to find spaces near their homes particularly in the City Centre and it would of course also add to both congestion and air pollution. You must remember that money will have to be found from somewhere and particularly as the income is used to pay the loans, agreed by all parties in this chamber, to refurbish the Council Car Parks.”

60.15    Councillor Robins noted the response and stated “I’ll take that as a no then shall I?”

Intelligent Commissioning

60.16    Councillor Janio asked, “Would the Leader of the Council please confirm that with over 500 Council employees holding the title of Manager, that the new Chief Executive’s terms of reference include reducing the management overheads that currently devour a disproportionate amount of the Council Budget and thus enable essential front line service, not just to be maintained, but in increased during the current budget discussions?”

60.17    Councillor J. Kitcat replied, “I always find it a bit difficult to take these kinds of questions from a Conservative Councillor when it’s their Government imposing utterly disproportionate cuts on the Council Budget.  It’s a bit rich Councillor Janio when Mr Pickles and his fellow Ministers match the level of cuts that they’re imposing on Local Government, perhaps we can have another conversation, but when your own Conservative Chairman of the LGA points out that it’s 28% reduction for Local Government that have been delivered so far and much more to come sadly and only 8% for Whitehall. There’s a bit of a disconnect there and that’s not right.

            In terms of your question Councillor, what I’d say to you is first of all I reject this whole simplistic notion of front line versus back office. You can’t have a front line without the back office; the two go together so let’s have a sensible mature discussion about services.  How they’re funded and how they work because all levels of officers are key to delivering but of course we need to be efficient which is why since  we took control of this Council we’ve delivered ever greater under spends earlier and the VFM has been exceeding targets so we have been finding savings, we have had to reduce the head count, unfortunately, but there have  been no compulsory redundancies so I think, given the appalling circumstances of Government, we’re doing incredibly well and I’m delighted that our new Chief Exec is on board and is going to take us further on that.”

60.18    Councillor Janio asked the following supplementary question, “Would he like me to sit one afternoon with him and explain the bureaucracy of this Council?”

60.19    Councillor J. Kitcat replied, “I noted that Councillor Cox appreciated my answer earlier on about the division between Councillors and Officers and it’s sad that Councillor Janio didn’t quite get that which is the point that we set the goals and the Policies of this Council and we don’t meddle in the management grades. That is an officer matter and I’m not going to discuss it further.”

Paring on Grass Verges and Pavements in North Portslade

60.20    Councillor Gilbey asked the following question, “Since the construction of PACA’s new Sixth Form Site began on Chalkey Road on the sports centre car park site, despite an alternative car park being made nearby on the PACA site, vehicles belonging to sports centre users are currently parking on the wide grass verges on Chalkey Road; not only damaging the verges but causing a danger to the pedestrians with vehicles skidding out of control.  I am pleased that this area is to be looked at as a pilot but what interim measures are to be taken and when?”

60.21    Councillor Davey replied, “I’m pleased you and your Ward have agreed for this to be a pilot for the testing out of new powers to restrict parking on grass verges.  I know that you’ve met with officers already and I think that enforcement action is taken by Council parking attendants where waiting restrictions apply and officers are investigating other options to protect the foot way such as improved signing, subject to identifying resources.  So I think it’s actually something that you’ve been involved in a lot more than I have and you’ve been meeting with officers about this.  I think there’s probably very little that can be done and it’s probably going on for some time and these new powers can be agreed at Transport Committee in January and subject to that, we’ll try to get those in as soon as possible.”

60.22    Councillor Gilbey asked the following supplementary question, “I understand that if the pilot is approved the scheme wouldn’t be implemented until next summer.  The building is actually going on until September 2013 so would you consider taking funding for these pilots from the well funded Local Transport Plan Budget so that they can be implemented more quickly?”

60.23    Councillor Davey replied, “We’ll do everything possible, subject to the agreement at Transport Committee and hopefully maybe discuss it at Transport Committee to bring these through as quickly as possible.”

Allocation Policy for New Build

60.24    Councillor Mears asked the following question, “Housing Committee has overall responsibility for the Council’s housing functions which includes allocations to new build and refurbish properties.  Following on from the Housing Committee Meeting where confirmation was given that the Council now has only one Housing Allocation Policy that started under our administration, can the Lead Member of Housing confirm when the review of the Allocation Policy will take place?”

60.25    Councillor Wakefield replied, “All Council Housing properties, whether new build or otherwise are allocated as Councillor Mears has said, per the Allocation Policy which, as Councillor Mears has said, is the same Allocation Policy at present that the Conservative Administration put into place. The Allocations Policy will be looked at, I don’t have a firm date as to when at the moment.”

60.26    Councillor Mears asked the following supplementary question, “As we’ve already received consultation papers from Central Government around the Allocation Policy, these papers came out in June, I think it’s about time that we actually had a date set for Housing Committee to discuss this Allocation Policy, bearing in mind it is the Housing Committee that has the housing function under the Housing Act to ensure that all properties are appropriately allocated and to ensure that if they are disabled units; they are actually allocated to the required standards of the people that most need them. I would like reassurance from the Member of Housing that she will bring this paper to the Housing Committee with a firm date so the Housing Committee can actually discuss it in detail.”

60.27    Councillor Wakefield replied, “Certainly it will come to Housing Committee that is the correct place for it to come.  I don’t have a date at the moment, I will re-iterate that, but it will be coming.  Just to reassure everybody that units that are adapted for people with needs are given to people with needs and we will be continuing a fair and open Allocations Policy as per the one your Administration had put in place.  There will be at some point, it isn’t timetabled yet, a need to review the policy and obviously the right place for that to be discussed will be at Housing Committee.”

60.28    The Mayor noted that this concluded the questions from Members.