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 (copy attached).

41.1         The Mayor noted that notification of 10 oral questions had been received and that 30 minutes were set aside for the duration of the item.  She then invited Councillor C. Theobald to put her question to Councillor Mitchell.

 

(a)             Litter Clearance A27/A23

 

41.2         Councillor C. Theobald asked, “At the Council meeting last March I asked the then Chairman on the Environment, Transport & Sustainability Committee - Councillor West - what the councillor was doing to tackle the scourge of litter along the verges of the A23 and A27 in the city. The response I received was less than helpful. By contrast in July this year Mid-Sussex Serco collected half a ton of litter from the side of the A23 as a part of a new pilot scheme working in partnership with highway maintenance company Balfore Beatty. Does this council have a similar agreement to enable litter picking from the verges of the A27 and A23 in our area and if not why not?

 

41.3         Councillor Mitchell replied,  “Thank you Councillor Theobald for the question. Brighton and Hove City Council is responsible for the litter clearing along sections of the A27 and A23 and as those roads have a speed limit in excess of 50mph there is a requirement to provide a safe working zone for the staff carrying out the litter picking.  As there is no hard shoulder the inside lane has to be closed while this work is being carried out. This traffic management must be provided by a competent contactor who is authorised to work on these roads by highways England. This work is scheduled twice a year and was last carried out at the end of April this year and is due to be completed again next month. The work has to be carried out overnight and is planned to take two nights. City Clean is talking to highways England contractors to see if they can coordinate future litter picks with any other works such as grass cutting and tunnel closures so that costs can be controlled.”

 

41.4         Councillor C. Theobald asked the following supplementary question, “I find this response rather disappointing given the disgusting state of the roadsides on the highway visible at the gateway into our city.  Will Councillor Mitchel please give me a commitment that she will ask officers to negotiate a similar joint arrangement here, if Mid-Sussex can do it then I mean why can’t we do the same thing I mean it just seems like we aren’t doing the same as other authorities”

 

41.5         Councillor Mitchell replied, “I’m not 100% familiar with how Mid-Sussex does things but I must say it does sound remarkably similar to the contractual arrangements that we have with both highways England and their approved contractors”

 

 

 

 

(b)         Hove Library

 

41.6         Councillor Mac Cafferty asked, “The closure of Hove library has been proposed again by the Labour party 12 years after it last proposed the closure using sadly some of the same specious arguments. Hove library is part of the identity of Hove; it’s loved by the residents of my ward and through-out the city. As one user has written ‘Hove library is a pivotal part of our local community and an invaluable resource’. As a testament to the love that people have for a library nearly 3000 people have now signed the petition to save Hove library and stop the completely inappropriate move of Hove library to the museum. Are the Government’s completely unjust cuts providing a convenient cover for Labour to finally close Hove library which has been in their sites for 12 years?”

 

41.7         Councillor Morgan replied, “Any changes to Hove library will form part of the library service review and needs analysis that is coming to the economic development and culture committee in November. Not for decision but to open consultation. Both opposition groups have been briefed on this on the financial reasons behind the proposed changes, on the opportunities to provide a better service closer to the users of Hove library and the fact that this is that what is proposed is a move not a closure. Madam Mayor, none of this prevented the Greens from pre-empting the publication of proposals and running a stall outside the library claiming that the service is being cut and Hove library being closed, not moved. This is wrong and it is damaging to the thorough and detailed work being done by officers to re-provide the service. Many of those who signed the petition last week- having been made aware of the facts- have now withdrawn their support. What will be consulted on is a new library combined with a museum and café with seven day a week access as part of a new community hub and cultural centre. One that costs less to run than the current building and one which will be sustainable for the future. Madam Mayor we will put people and services before building and I hope colleagues from across the council will do the same too.”

 

41.8         Councillor Mac Cafferty asked the following supplementary question, “It’s interesting to look at other Councils being run by the Labour party for example Labour run London borough of Lambeth where there has been a series of library closures in the last few weeks including a library opened by Andrew Carnegie the same man who set up Hove library for the advancement of working people. My supplementary question is the following; would the Leader of the council agree that the historic and ongoing private finance initiative payments on Jubilee library being paid up to 2028 agreed when Labour last ran the council have hamstrung our ability to pay for library facilities today?”

 

41.9         Councillor Morgan replied, “It’s good that Councillor Mac Cafferty recognises our award winning Jubilee Library which has won prizes over the last decade since it has opened and I pay tribute to the library service that runs it. Madam Mayor it’s astonishing that the green group are campaigning to save an environmentally inefficient 19^th century building. Rather than back a sustainable modern library service for the 21^st century. It’s a building that will cost nearly three quarters of a million pounds to run over the next four years money that could otherwise be invested in services for residents, that’s what I want to do. Along with other issues that they have put on the agenda this proves to me that there is no bandwagon they won’t climb on, no issue too sensitive, no opportunity too desperate that they won’t take in order to score party political points against this Labour administration. In case they haven’t noticed we are in a funding crisis, our house is on fire. They spent four years ignoring the smoke now they should stop looking for fuel to pour on the flames and help fetch some water alongside anyone who has a real and sensible intent to keep our city services going.”

 

(c)          Dog Fouling

 

41.10       Councillor Janio asked, “I’m sure that all of us here today have received complaints about the increase in dog fouling across our city and public parks. Indeed it is now becoming so serious that sports and social events are often threatened with cancelation. Madam Mayor, some members may find the subject of dog poo amusing but for many residents it’s far from a joke. Madam Mayor my question to the Chairman of the Environment, Transport and Sustainability Committee is; can she please let me know how many prosecutions for dog fouling within Brighton and Hove there have been over the last year?”

 

41.11      Councillor Mitchell replied, “The Council’s animal welfare team is a proactive one in relation to the very real nuisance of dog fouling. Figures for 2014 show 220 fouling complaint investigations and warnings from 448 individual patrols of known problem areas these include Kemp Town, Hangleton, Waterhall, Ladies Mile Nature Reserve and Woodingdean, however dog control offence are difficult to prove and enforce and reliance on animal welfare officers alone will never be enough. We have to continue working with communities. For 2015 in relation to your question there has been one prosecution resulting in a £1400 fine and one PCN £80. The new enforcement services agreed through ETS committee will included enforcement in relation to waste disposal, fly tipping, littering, fly posting and graffiti and subject to the success of this work it can be extended and I hope that it will to address issues of dog fouling. Finally officers are always pleased to help communities address this problem by supplying materials and warning notices. Recently a residence’s group in the round hill area are trialling pavement stencils encouraging people to pick up after their pets and idea imported from the Shetland isles.”

 

41.12      Councillor Janio asked the following supplementary question, “So what you’re trying to say is a very, very long way of saying hundreds and hundreds of complaints and one prosecution. This shocking situation can’t continue but I do have hope. In several European cities implementation of DNA profiling and subsequent testing of fouling has reduced incidents by over 80% in just a few months. It’s also, Madam Mayor, reduced numbers of abandoned dogs and has even identified animals responsible for vicious attacks. Madam Mayor, I have a simple request today, no politics in this. Will the Chairman of the ETS Committee meet with both myself and the organisation that has achieved these remarkable results with both an open mind and a view to introducing similar measures across Brighton and Hove?” 

 

41.13      Councillor Mitchell replied, “I will certainly be interested in hearing more about it.”

 

(d)         Budget Development

 

41.14      Councillor Sykes asked, “I wrote to members of the Budget Review Group in August explaining our proposals for public engagement and budget development in this critical time and this follows on from a proposal at July Policy & Resources. I got a hold of a response from Councillor Norman which was rejection- fair enough- but no response from Councillor Hamilton and I wonder if Councillor Hamilton could tell me what he understands by working together on budget development?”

 

41.15      Councillor Hamilton replied, “I must admit I don’t remember this email and if I have ignored it then I would never do that on purpose and I apologise for it. In regards to the consultation I think we know what’s happened about the consultation certainly I’m not sure whether Councillor Sykes is just referring to the CTR consultation or whether he’s referring to the consultation on the council tax itself so maybe he can clarify that. With regards to the first one the consultation on the first one where there was in fact a request for spending more money. We have in fact consulted everybody who is in receipt of CTR and there were paper copies available as well, it finished earlier this week and I’m very disappointed that in fact the response rate was about 2% and that was despite the Independent contacting people asking people to hurry up and get your replies in because they are needed.

 

41.16      With regards to the consultation that’s going to take place with regard to council tax it is rather more people so although it won’t be in fact this time be a genuine cross section we are intending to do this online this year so that anybody in the city who wants to respond can do so and there will in fact still be paper copies but before we do that as Councillor Sykes said there has been no consultation with the Budget Review Group about this yet and I have been promised by Finance Officers they will be contacting everybody who’s a member of BRG  asking them how they think the consultation on council tax should proceed before any final decision on that is made.

 

41.17      So I apologise if I didn’t respond to something there as Councillor Sykes knows I always said we should be trying to work together, we have a massive problem to face in front and I think it’s important that we deal with it together and if I did miss an email then I apologise but never the less I hope I’ve put it right and if Councillor Sykes wants to come back and ask me something more detailed now I will be pleased to do my best to answer.    

 

41.18      Councillor Sykes asked the following supplementary question, “I mean when I said working together on the budget I meant political parties and how Councillor Hamilton understands that. There are two left of centre parties in this chamber, they form a majority of councillors and will Councillor Hamilton work with the Greens on budget communication and engagement that challenges the ideology of austerity?

 

41.19      Councillor Hamilton replied, “I think we’re always -with the Budget Review Group that is- a cross-party organisation, we’re always happy to consider any suggestions that are put forward that are going to help us in trying to meet our deadline. With regards to what I’ve just said I’m told that an email has been sent about consultations for the budget so I’m very pleased to report that. With regard to the budget papers as I’m sure you are aware the Chairs of the committees have met their team members and have actually tried to draw up a four-year plan for their own departments and those are going to ELT next week on Wednesday I believe and on Friday the pink papers will be sent out for the six discussion groups which are taking place in the following ten or eleven days, so by this time next week hopefully the documents for the budget will be ready.  As I say, there are six panels who deal with each committee at a time two members from each party so that is I think working together and they will be taking place very, very soon and obviously people who are there will see what’s going on and start to make their suggestions and so on and then by the end of November we hope we will then be starting to go out to consultation on the basis of whatever the comeback is from the Members of the Budget Review Group deciding how they think the consolation should take place but as I said with regards to CTR we sent out about 1600 copies and we got about a 2% response and that’s a tremendous about of money for a very small input.  Therefore we think online may well be the answer but it’s up to Councillor Sykes and the Councillors from the Conservative Group as well to decide how they would like the budget consultation in regards to the residents carried out.” 

 

(e)          Housing Assets

 

41.20      Councillor Mears asked, “I do appreciate that the closure of Oxford street housing office in November 2014 was under the previous Administration, but nearly a year following on from the email Members received regarding the immediate closure of Oxford street as a matter of urgency I have been asking for reports at committee to understand why a housing asset paid for by tenants had been allowed to fall into such a state of disrepair that the only option was immediate closure. After two interim Heads of Housing we now have a permanent director in place. I understand a report is now being written for Housing Committee with regards to Oxford Street. Can the Chair of Housing confirm that this report will be on the agenda for the next Housing meeting?”

 

41.21      Councillor Meadows replied, “The council as a landlord is obliged to review all its stock to ensure it is fit for purpose now and in the future. In order to continue to make best use of housing investment and assets we have an asset management strategy and a regular stock review process. We are finalising a comprehensive housing revenue account asset management strategy to cover the period 2016-2020. The asset management will support our overall housing strategy agreed at full council earlier this year in March. This asset management strategy will also help us ensure we have the right mix of homes and other assets in the future by setting out stock viability criteria and identifying if further detailed work with communities is needed. Our outline asset management strategy priorities are investing in homes and neighbourhoods, supporting new housing supply and ensuring financial viability however there are challenges to meeting these priorities which include the age, nature and ongoing investment requirement of our housing revenue stock, the long term demographic trends and changing customer expectations, the implications of the government’s summer budget and the housing and planning bill. Residents will help shape this asset management strategy and it is currently planned to bring that strategy to a future housing and new homes committee. Oxford will form part of that and it will be coming to the next Housing and New Homes Committee for consideration.”

 

41.22      Councillor Mears asked the following supplementary question, “Given three options, one to invest and keep the offices open until 2023 can the Chair of Housing confirm that these two reports will be at the next Housing meeting and also the cost the Oxford street while empty, the cost of moving staff, impact on other offices, business rates, security, basic maintenance cost and cost of independent surveys and facilities design reports so that Members at Housing Committee can have a proper informed debate?”

 

41.23      Councillor Meadows replied, “Yes, I can confirm that all that information can be made available at the next Housing and New Homes Committee.”

     

(f)           Children’s Centres

 

41.24      Councillor Phillips asked, “Does Councillor Bewick recognise that it is now almost universally accepted that what happens in childhood right from conception onwards to the age of two but also for under-fives can have a significant and lasting impact on someone’s chances of success in adulthood? Children growing up in home environments where they’re exposed to risk factors are more likely to demonstrate poor outcomes in adulthood such as propensity to commit crime, to abuse drugs or alcohol or to borrow and remain unemployed. In particular children who grow up in poverty are much more likely to experience these risk factors. So becoming impoverished adults and continuing the cycle. Does Cllr Bewick therefore agree that children’s centres are a proven method of prevention because amongst other things they use targeted evidence based effective early intervention programs?”

 

41.25      Councillor Bewick replied, “Can I thank Councillor Phillips for her question and yes can I associate myself with her remarks about early intervention? Madam Mayor with your permission however I’d like to take this opportunity to update all Members on where we are currently with the important review of children’s centres. For several months now a review board including parents chaired by the Director of Children’s Services has been looking at the options of how we deal with a funding shortfall in the children’s service of £846,000. That’s about 35% of the total budget for children’s centres. Now I’d like to believe that no one comes into public service to cut the number of children’s centres but I do think it’s time to level with the public that the decisions taken last year to save the children’s centre were simply kicking the can down the road. It is this Administration that now has to pick up the pieces and deal with the challenge.

 

41.26      There are currently 12 statutory children’s centres across the city they do fantastic work serving a population of nearly 15,000 children. An on behalf of us all I think it’s important we recognise the hard work of staff and support workers in our children’s centres they do a great job to improve outcomes for young children and reduce inequality in our city but the huge hole in the budget is real and we need imaginative solutions to ensure the most vulnerable children in our city do not lose out. In a short while a statutory consultation will open up to the community and I can inform Members that this consultation is likely to propose the closure or re-designation of five centres with seven remaining open as designated centres. This includes centres staying open in Moulsecoomb, Whitehawk, Hangleton, Hollingdean, the Tarner Children’s Centre and Portslade.

 

41.27      I want to assure Members however this is a genuine consultation. As I’ve said else where I welcome ideas from families, from communities including our trade unions about how we address the budget shortfall and at the same time protect the most vulnerable children in our city. Madam Mayor a full report is due to my committee on the 16^th of November of which Councillor Phillips is a member.”

 

41.28      Councillor Phillips asked the following supplementary question, “How can Councillor Bewick justify short sighted proposals to cut the funding for children’s centres given the increasing service costs this will cause in the future?  This is damaging for parents, families, children and our communities both in poverty and those who are not in poverty.  How can this be cost effective in the long-term?”

 

41.29      Councillor Bewick replied, “I think we need to remember the local elections five months ago. The residents of this city, 30,000 more of them voted for this party than the Green party because they wanted Labour to come in and sort the mess out of the incompetent Green administration who were playing politics literally with children’s lives this time last year. From a failed referendum and as a result £690,000 of a pig and a poke budget was passed in order to get through the elections. We’re now having to pick up the mess. I think Councillor Phillips needs to recognise instead of joining the placard wielding protest which is what her party is in existence to achieve she sits down with parents and their children and she comes up with solutions so that we can meet the needs of our children in this city.”

 

(g)         University Technical Colleges

 

41.30      Councillor Taylor asked, “Since 2010 fifty university technical colleges have either or have been approved nationwide offering an expected 30,000 young people the chance to choose a technical pathway. These schools are demand led with the school, university and employers co-operating to develop a technical specialism alongside traditional academic subjects. I believe that the chair of the children’s committee shares this sentiment of co-operation between employers and education providers in order to plug Brighton’s skills gap. Therefore does the Chair of the Children’s committee agree with me that not only would a UTC in Brighton and Hove be beneficial to potential students but would also compliment his skills agenda?”

 

41.31      Councillor Bewick replied, “I agree we should look not only at a potential UTC for the city but importantly at a new vision around 14-19 and indeed beyond vocational and technical training we need to make the city a world class centre of vocational and technical training.”

 

(h)         Fairness Commission

 

41.32      Councillor Littman asked, “My initial question is very straight forward. I’d like to reiterate my support for the Administration’s decision to set up a Fairness Commission. To what extent is the Administration committed to implementing the Commission’s recommendations?”

 

41.33      Councillor Daniel replied, “Thank you very much for your support and yes you have been incredibly hard working in terms of supporting the Fairness Commission so thank you for that. The Fairness Commission really provides a plank for further policy work in inequalities in the city and rising inequalities. We clearly brief the fairness commission in papers to our committee around making sure that they are practical policies and in the first two meetings of the Fairness Commission they’ve had presentations which give them a scale of the budget crisis that we face as well as the scale of inequalities. So I’m confident that the commissioners will digest that information and come back with practical realistic solutions that we can work on. Not only as a city council but as a wider city partnership with our statutory partners and the community.”

 

41.34      Councillor Littman asked the following supplementary question, “I am very reassured by that and I agree that the commissioners we have are an excellent group of people and I have every hope that they will come up with recommendations that will help the situation but on a very specific point; last year the Labour party voted with the Conservative party to increase the council tax burden on the city’s poorest households over three times as much as the city’s other households. At that time the now Leader of the Council described this as the responsible option. My question is if the Fairness Commission disagrees that this is responsible and recognises for what it is which is utterly unfair can we be assured that the Council’s Administration will undo it?”

 

41.35      Councillor Daniel replied, “I don’t really think it’s fair to pre-empt any recommendations from a politically neutral Commission. However, one of the underpinning themes throughout every area that they will look out as well for reform what I hope they will come up with are practical ways we can address the cost of poverty because there is a penalty for being poor: where it comes to utilities, where it comes to bus travel, where it comes to all sorts of things. I think those are the areas that I’d expect to see some practical suggestions in certainly areas that we’re already working on behind the scenes to try and address. We can’t throw our hands in the air and not set a budget because the people in poverty are relying on us to do the right thing.”  

 

(i)               NHS Pressures

 

41.36      Councillor Page asked, “I hope that this is a cross party agreement that there are lots of pressures on our NHS at the moment, the hospital, doctors up in arms, nurses saying they want to leave the profession, trusts in deficit. I will put my question together so it’s one question. In these circumstances looking particularly at doctors surgeries we’ve had a series of concerns not least one surgery being immediately closed -an unprecedented situation- and there is a lot of concern in this city and I hope this isn’t jumping on one of those bandwagons that the Councillor Morgan talked about. When the Health and Wellbeing Board on Tuesday received a report from NHS England about GP’s surgeries why did the health and wellbeing board simply pass the buck to overview and scrutiny and not do its job and interrogate the lady from NHS England who was at the Health and Wellbeing Board?” 

 

41.37      Councillor Yates replied, “Because we don’t steal jobs from other people. We have an Overview and Scrutiny Committee and an overview and scrutiny process as I made very clear. Councillor Page was there at the meeting; in fact he could have asked the question at that meeting instead of taking our time up here. It would have been very easy for us to have interrogated NHS England but we don’t interrogate people who are partners and statutory members of our own boards. I think we treat people with a little bit more respect than that in the same way that I wouldn’t ever dream to interrogate somebody coming from the Clinical Commissioning Group because they also are partners and members of the board.

 

41.38      It’s not a council committee there to beat people over the head it’s actually a committee there to get people to engage and join to together to deliver the sorts of engagements and the sorts of partnership working that we need to deliver a safe and effective system for delivering health and wellbeing for everyone in the council. So the reason we didn’t do it is for exactly the reason that I made clear right at the start of that meeting because I fully intended that paper to go to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee where it may be slightly more appropriate for there to be greater scrutiny and greater questioning and more in depth questioning but where they will have the time and the ability and the skills and the opportunity to do so with the consideration of the entire population.

 

41.39      The Health and Wellbeing Board isn’t there to attack parts of the NHS that aren’t functioning but we are concerned about it and as I made very clear there we won’t allow the loss of valuable NHS services and the threat to individuals within this city to be caused by underfunding and restriction of funding and loss of training posts. I don’t consider that to be acceptable but I also don’t consider beating somebody up when you’ve invited them to your party to be acceptable.”

 

41.40      Councillor Page asked the following supplementary question, “I’m sorry if Councillor Yates has misunderstood Madam Mayor. Interrogation is not an aggressive term to me it’s part of the job of a policy committee. I think the Health and Wellbeing Board is a partnership where you have doctors there so why not try and find out more on behalf of all those people worrying about the doctor’s surgeries in the city?”

 

41.41      Councillor Yates replied, “That’s why at the previous meeting of the Health and Wellbeing Board when the issue around the loss of GP’s surgeries and primary care facilities across the city was raised that I made a specific request that we should get NHS England and the CCG to come together and produce a report; exactly what they did. That’s why I was in communications with NHS England and the CCG outlining very specifically the information that I expected to be in the report which actually is what they provided and once they’d done that in the spirit of co-operation coming together as equal partners at that point I hand that work over and ask the Overview and Scrutiny Committee to take that on as a serious piece of work. I consider the threat to primary care to be a threat to the health of individuals across this city. The NHS is in crisis and if we lose control of primary care it won’t just affect primary care it will affect mental health services, community health services and most importantly our acute hospital services. We must be most concerned especially at the moment about the safety of our acute hospital services.”

 

(j)           Re-use Depot

 

41.42      Councillor Druitt asked, “Brighton and Hove is incredibly lucky to have an award winning champion of waste and re-use, Cat Fletcher in the city. She’s one of those people that makes the city what it is and I’m very proud of this city because of that. The reuse centre diverted 250 tonnes of unwanted goods last year to families who really need those goods and got them for either nothing or a small contribution. We almost had the reuse centre in Preston barracks but that fell through. My question to Councillor Mitchell; what is the city council now doing to support Cat Fletcher and the reuse depot to find a sustainable future for the reuse depot before the time runs out which is very yeah in the next couple of weeks?”

 

41.43      Councillor Mitchell replied, “I am aware of this issue and that Cat Fletcher who campaigns so hard on waste and reuse issue has purchased eight shipping containers via crowd funding that she would use as a reuse centre but currently has no suitable site on which to put them. I understand she was hoping to put them on the Preston Barracks site but cathedral group who lease the site have concluded that they cannot be accommodated there. Since this situation came to light the council- only having been formally approached in July- officers have been trying to assist in finding an alternative location but this is not easy due to the size of the site required and the access requirements. This search is ongoing and if a suitable site is found then it would be subject to the usual planning permission. Unfortunately our Hollingdean depot would not be a suitable site due to the lack of room, the construction work on the new workshop and access requirements. However I do understand that Cat Fletcher is currently looking at private land where there may be an opportunity.”

 

41.44      Councillor Druitt asked the following supplementary question, “Thank you for your response Cllr Mitchell. I understand that Cat Fletcher does actually have an offer from the city council for unused council land however that’s subject to agreement on rent and permission and various other loopholes. I would ask that the City Council administration offer the reuse depot that site which she’s provisionally been offered with twelve months free rent, free rates and the support to take the proposal through the planning process. So my question is, is that possible?”

 

41.45      Councillor Mitchell replied, “I’m not aware of any offer that has been made. I think this would probably be for my colleagues in property services who maybe have been working with Cat Fletcher on this and therefore I will make some enquires, thank you.”