Agenda item - Oral questions from Councillors

54.1         The Mayor noted that 10 oral questions had been received, however she had been informed that Councillor Knight wished to withdraw her question listed as 54(2) in the agenda.  She also noted that 30 minutes were set aside for the duration of the item.

 

54.2         The Mayor invited Councillor Janio to put his question to Councillor Moonan.

 

(a)  Street Sleepers Initiative

 

54.3         Councillor Janio asked the following question, “With over £10 million being spent every year on prevention of homelessness and street sleeping in our city can Councillor Moonan finally confirm that strategies she has been using to solve the problem have failed?”

 

54.4         Councillor Moonan replied, “The strategy that we are working to with our partners, we are one of over ten partners who have signed up for the strategy, is working but it's a very challenging problem. We have a national housing crisis, we have an increasing level of vulnerability of people within the city, very vulnerable tenancies, we have welfare benefits that are impacting people which are making more and more people become homeless. We have actually prevented a significant number of people becoming homeless through our ‘trailblazer initiative’. We have just opened a community night shelter for the winter which will remove up to 30 people off the streets and I could go on at length over a number of initiatives. We successfully supported 1200 people last year off the streets. I think that's a measure of success but yes demand is incredibly high, but we will continue to work ceaselessly to address this problem.”

 

54.5         Councillor Janio asked the following supplementary question, “I think evidence is to the contrary, in no way can you say the policy is working. With even more money heading our way from the Conservative Government in the budget in the form of the new homelessness reduction task force, if the problem of street sleeping hasn't been solved by this time next year will she seriously consider her position as Lead Member for rough sleeping?”

 

54.6         Councillor Moonan replied, “I think it is testament to this Labour administration that we've appointed the first Lead Councillor for rough sleeping. It is something that we identified in our manifesto. As an administration we consider our position every day, we work ceaselessly as hard as we can to solve the problems of the city. I will continue to work as hard as I can to as I said earlier to address the problem and I invite Councillors across the chamber to support that work and work with me.”

 

 

 

 

(b)  A259

 

54.7         Councillor Hyde asked the following question, “At a recent meeting of the Environment, Transport and Sustainability Committee it was agreed that the petition which had been presented to Brighton and Hove Council requesting urgent improvements to the A259.  It was agreed that Brighton and Hove Council in conjunction with Lewes District Council and East Sussex County Council would meet to discuss and find solutions to the monumental traffic congestion problems on the A259. Has Councillor Mitchell set a date for this essential meeting and if not why not or does she intend to kick the problem into the long grass?”

 

54.8         Councillor Mitchell replied, “Dates for this meeting are being circulated at the moment the lead authority is East Sussex County Council not myself but I would like to see the meeting set up as soon as possible. It is of course going to also include representatives from the South Downs National Park, both of the MPs, representative for both of the LEPs including the leaders of Lewes District Council, East Sussex County Council and Brighton & Hove City Council.”

 

54.9         Councillor Hyde asked the following supplementary question, “I'm pleased to hear that you seem to know what's going on regarding this petition. Would you please confirm that Rottingdean Coastal Ward Councillors and local residents are consulted as they possess the local knowledge which is essential in finding a solution?”

 

54.10      Councillor Mitchell replied, “I can give you that full assurance.”

 

(c)  Cycling Infrastructure

 

54.11      Councillor Phillips asked the following question, “Deaths from air pollution would be cut if England has walking and cycling targets. In Brighton & Hove there are hundreds deaths each year associated with poor air quality. Now the Council has deemed itself to have a cycling strategy what low level infrastructure structures, such as cycle parking, does it propose to increase especially in high traffic areas in the city centre such as outside Waitrose on Western Road and outside Hove Town Hall.”

 

54.12      Councillor Mitchell replied, “Councillor Phillips is quite right and the administration are preparing a Walking and Cycling Strategy that will be coming forward to ETS Committee in due course. Unfortunately we were not successful when we bid for some national funding to enable this to take place but we are determined to still see this through. I'm afraid I didn't quite hear the reference to cycling facilities in the vicinity of Waitrose on Western Road but I’m happy to take that forward with Councillor Phillips if she’d like to drop me an email if that's more convenient for her.”

 

54.13      Councillor Phillips asked the following supplementary question, “During our administration before with a grant of millions of pounds, which allowed us to improve Seven Dials, Old Shoreham Road.  As well as this we also funded the bike share scheme, introduced 20 mph speed limits and on-street parking things that caused controversy, I could go on. The Labour administration has not done anything much since and has recently failed as Councillor Mitchell said in a bid for Government funding from the cycling walking infrastructure strategy. What plans do they have to secure outside funding as we did so that we can have proper cycle lanes and so that the City’s cyclists can cycle safely?”

 

54.14      Councillor Mitchell replied, “I fully recognise initiatives and estimates that the previous administration made towards improving facilities for cyclists. This is being continued, via our usual funding streams, by the Local Transport Plan and we will continue to bid for any external funding that is available in order to further this agenda.”

 

(d)  Dog Faeces

 

54.15      Councillor Barnett asked the following question, “I have always tried to make sure my residents can enjoy public spaces without antisocial behaviour ruining in it. Dog mess being left in our public spaces is getting worse and worse. Will Councillor Mitchell please use Public Spaces Protection Orders to help stop this horrible mess getting worse?”

 

54.16      Councillor Mitchell replied, “Actually you have asked the question of the wrong Councillor PSPOs now fall within the remit of my colleague, Councillor Daniel. All I can say is that there is no consideration at the moment of extending PSPOs but we will bear that in mind, thank you for your suggestion.”

 

54.17      Councillor Barnett asked the following supplementary question, “It’s important that our parks and open spaces remain safe, accessible and available to all our residents to enjoy. On 1 June 2007 Councillor Mitchell said dogs mess on pavements was getting worse and, since she has been in a position to do something about it, things have got worse. On 22 June 2016 Councillors Hill and Penn publicly expressed concerns over the numbers of dogs being walked together. Animal welfare and clearing up of dogs mess is bad when too many dogs are taken out by one person. What has happened since these Labour Councillors made these statements, what actions have these Labour Councillors taken to sort this problem?  It has got worse, not better, so how will you get results for our residents.”

 

54.18      Councillor Mitchell replied, “We do continue to tackle the dog fouling across the city and to target the behaviour of some dog owners who do not take responsibility for their pets. This has been done with poster campaigns on streets and some residents have put posters up in their windows in their particular neighbourhoods where there is a problem. We also use pavement stencils. However enforcement for dog fouling is very difficult as the issuing of a fixed penalty notice is dependent on catching the offending owners in the act of leaving the fouling without clearing it up or to have witnesses available to identify those owners. We will continue to try to bear down on this problem and to continue to put into place our enforcement and education campaigns to warn people that this is not acceptable.”

 

(e)  Public Lavatories

 

54.19      Councillor Deane asked the following question, “During our meeting outside of the Pavilion Gardens toilet facilities last week we were witness to a lot of anti-social behaviour; a street drinker had set up site outside the ladies lavatory, men were going in and out of the facility throughout that time, there were numerous dogs and a dog fight within two feet of where we were standing. So my question is: will Councillor Mitchell work with the relevant Lead Member to combat the ever worsening effects of anti-social behaviour in the centre of our city, bearing in mind that our public facilities are acting as a magnet to such behaviour?”

 

54.20      Councillor Mitchell replied, “Thank you for referring to the answer to the written question which stated that three additional hours of cleaning are now being carried out at that particular location. I just wish that we were dealing with quite simply the matter of cleaning public toilets but we're not. As you quite rightly point out we are dealing with anti-social behaviour. Behaviour that is extremely difficult and challenging to deal with and we will be working with all of the other agencies to try to get some action in relation to this and it can't be just an issue of moving this behaviour from area to area place to place. It is very difficult to tackle but I will definitely be working with the Lead Member, Councillor Emma Daniel, on this particular issue.”

 

54.21      Councillor Deane asked the following supplementary question, “My supplementary question relates to a trilogy of mini documentaries by the BBC, available on YouTube, called ‘Women and Rough Sleeping in Brighton’ and in that documentary it is very apparent that these particular lavatories and, I imagine, facilities throughout the city are something of a lifeline to the ever increasing number of homeless women in our city to wash and keep healthy and hygienic. I would ask that therefore this is treated sympathetically by the attendants when they are working in the lavatory.”

 

54.22      Councillor Mitchell replied, “We will certainly have those discussions with Healthmatic. I believe that the staff, employed by Healthmatic, are trained to deal with this type of issue but we will check that this has been dealt with sympathetically.”

 

 

(f)   Elected Representation of Rough Sleepers

 

54.23      Councillor Miller asked the following question, “Does Councillor Moonan agree with me that clarity is needed potentially with a clear Council policy on elected representation of rough sleepers on the Council? Namely those rough sleepers who have a local connection are not found to be in priority need should have the right to or charity on their behalf contact a local Councillor to question, challenge or ask for more information on officer’s decisions on their assessments and the help the local authority are putting in place for them. Currently it's not clear; as rough sleepers are of no fixed abode and as such do not have a local councillor.”

 

54.24      Councillor Moonan replied, “If a homeless person wants to contact a councillor, or wants a councillor to represent them, then they are free to choose any of the 54 Brighton & Hove members. If they have been a city resident they may prefer to contact a councillor representing the ward in which they may have lived, but there is no obligation to do so. They may want to contact a member who is well placed to deal with their queries e.g. the Chair of the Housing Committee if their query was housing related but it's entirely up to them. People do not need a local connection to contact a councillor and request their help, although obviously they would need a local connection to access some of our specific services. I’d also draw your attention to all the work that we did earlier on this year in terms of voter registration for rough sleepers. We were successful in ensuring that 129 rough sleepers registered to vote and were able to exercise that democratic right. The information is communicated but potentially could be clearer, and that is something that we can certainly put into all of our information that we pass out to rough sleepers, so they know who and how they can contact, local connection or not.”

 

54.25      Councillor Miller thanked Councillor Moonan for her answer and asked that the information could be passed to local charities and included in the training for ward councillors in the future.

 

54.26      Councillor Moonan agreed.

 

(g)  Emergency Accommodation Provision for Homeless People

 

54.27      Councillor Gibson asked the following question, “Given that last year around £17 million of public money was used for the provision of temporary and emergency accommodation from the private sector and, given that if this accommodation were owned by the council this money would have come back to us. Can the Chair of Housing agree to support proposals for the council to use cheap borrowing, currently available, to buy these buildings bringing them into public ownership and therefore recycle large amounts of public money for the benefit of homeless people living in temporary accommodation instead of most of these funds, as currently happens, going to private landlords?”

 

54.28      Councillor Meadows replied, I am not quite sure where £17 million came from but yes as you know Councillor Gibson with your written question where you would have received some information and your Notice of Motion later on where you already know as part of a cross party working group we are already looking at purchasing and acquiring and refurbishing any kind of option to achieve and acquire our own accommodation for our homeless population.

 

54.29      Councillor Gibson stated that he did not have a supplementary question but would just draw Councillor Meadows’s attention to where £17 million comes from that is in the paperwork as the answer to a written question I asked at a previous Full Council Meeting.

 

54.30      Councillor Meadows noted the comment.

 

(h)  Health & Safety

 

54.31      Councillor Mears asked the following question, “As it is a statutory requirement the Housing Department to keep up-to-date records on asbestos and Legionella, can the Chair of Housing confirm this is the case and that the Housing Department's records are up to date?”

 

54.32      Councillor Meadows replied, “I can confirm that our legionella health and safety records are completely up-to-date and at the moment Housing have given reasonable assurance of Legionella compliance. As far as I am aware our other health and safety records are also up to date as they are usually done at the same time. I thought you'd be talking about legionella as it is something which comes up at Committee a lot. I can tell you that overall we have thirty high-rise blocks that are subject to current 6 monthly inspection regimes relating to either cold water storage tanks or cold water booster sets or both, and they are inspected on a regular basis and we have a 6 monthly regime set up on our twenty eight high rise council owned blocks which have communal old water storage tanks.”

 

54.33      Councillor Mears asked the following supplementary question, “Contractors have an obligation to keep records on asbestos for many years can the Chair of Housing confirm the Housing Department is not relying on contractors to update their records and can she ensure, as promised, in the previous Housing Committee a full report will come to the Housing Committee, although this was promised for the end of the year.”

 

54.34      Councillor Meadows replied, “Yes I can confirm that we will have an annual Health and Safety report to Housing & New Homes Committee where you will be able to look at the detailed information.”

 

 

 

(i)    Multiple Allowances for Elected Office

 

54.35      Councillor Page asked the following question, “Does the administration agree with me that trust in politicians is a challenging objective for us all and we must try and uphold the highest standards of conduct and that that is not helped by elected people claiming travel allowances to another place when they get a thirty six thousand pounds a year housing allowance as well.”

 

54.36      Councillor Morgan replied, “I am pleased to say that the figures in the recent City Tracker survey showed that trust and satisfaction in this administration has gone up since the previous administration. If the Councillor has any concerns about issues involving parliaments to take it up with the relevant authorities.”

 

54.37      Councillor Page asked the following supplementary question, “Why has it taken so long for the residents of East Brighton to have the opportunity to be represented by somebody who hasn't got another very demanding elected job?”

 

54.38      Councillor Morgan replied, “It's entirely up to Members of this Council when they choose to step down should they take up another role. I would direct Councillor Page to his colleague Sian Berry who sits both on the London Assembly and Camden Bough Council and has for some time. I would also direct him to Green Party Members of Lewes District Council who also serve on the Town Council, so it perfectly possible to do two jobs and to do them both well, which may be beyond him and his colleagues but will certainly not be beyond Labour.”