Agenda item - Items referred from Full Council

To receive the following items referred from the meeting of Full Council held on 31 January 2019:

(a)          Petitions

(i)            Make Brighton & Hove Events Plastic Free

(ii)          Stop Zippos Circus

(A)         PETITIONS

(i)           Make Brighton & Hove Events Plastic Free

71.1      The Committee considered a petition signed by 3500 people and referred from the Full Council meeting of 31 January 2019 requesting the council and organisers and sponsors of the city’s biggest events committee to eliminating the use of single-use plastics by 2020 at the latest.

71.2      The Chair provided the following response:

“At the Policy, Resources & Growth Committee on the 12th July 2018 members approved the recommendation that reporting on the progress towards phasing out single use plastics would be brought to the Environment, Transport and Sustainability Committee on an annual basis. This would include an action plan detailing the timeframe for achieving the goals set out in the policy, until such time that the committee is confident that the city council has done all it can to reduce and eliminate SUPs use in the city. This annual report to the ET&S committee would include progress on the reduction of single use plastics at event. Therefore, it would be appropriate for future reports on this issue to be considered by the ET&S committee.

The Outdoor Events Strategy is on the agenda for this meeting, and within the Strategy there is an on-going objective to work with event organisers to improve the sustainability of events including the reduction of single use plastics.  There is also an amendment that is being proposed in relation to this Strategy that if agreed, would mean that an annual report would come to this committee detailing compliance against the Charter and on how the use of single use plastics is being reduced across our event programme”.

71.3      RESOLVED- That the Committee note the petition.

(ii)          Zippos Circus

71.4      The Committee considered a petition signed by 5900 people and referred from the Full Council meeting of 31 January 2019 requesting the council stop Zippos Circus being held in Brighton & Hove due to concerns regarding animal exploitation for entertainment purposes.

71.5      The Chair provided the following response:

“Thank your petition and congratulations on the number of signatures obtained and I note that Zippos decided against the use of animals in its circus tour this year”.

71.6      RESOLVED- That the Committee note the petition.