Who said what at the Brighton and Hove council tax meeting

Raucous exchanges and protesters’ chants and heckling made for a lively meeting of Brighton and Hove City Council yesterday afternoon and last night.

Many of the 53 current councillors contributed to the debate as they prepared to set the council tax and agree a budget for the financial year starting in April.

Here’s what they had to say.

The Conservative leader of the council, Councillor Mary Mears (Rottingdean Coastal), said of the proposed cuts to council tax and residents’ parking charges: “We are putting £1.5 million of real money back into the city’s economy.

“We should only take what we absolutely need to.”

She criticised Labour for more than doubling council tax from 1997 to 2007, when the bill for a Band D property rose from £599 to £1,342.

She said that a lot of scare stories had been doing the rounds but added: “We will not be closing any libraries or reducing their hours.”

She said that the council would not be shutting any Sure Start services or public toilets either – or switching bin collections to fortnightly.

She taunted her opponents and said: “The Greens have lost the courage of their convictions now we’re coming up to an election.

“They’ve dropped their talk of congestion charges and residents’ parking permits for family cars.

“There has been a lot of talk about raiding the reserves to fund this budget.

“But last year Councillor Mitchell called on the administration to use reserves.

“Now she and the Greens seem to be saying we shouldn’t make use of reserves to protect services.

“It’s a coalition of convenience.”

The convenor of the Green group, Councillor Bill Randall (Hanover and Elm Group), proposed the joint Green and Labour amendments.

Among other things, these restored £150,000 to the budget for the Community Safety Team and Partnership and the Drug and Alcohol Action Team.

In making the case for the amendment, Councillor Randall said: “Forty five per cent of all crime in the city is fuelled by alcohol and another 45 per cent is acquisitive crime, much of it fuelled by drugs.

“Ninety per cent of children in care are there because of their parents’ addiction to either drugs or alcohol.”

He praised plans to build council houses and flats but raised concerns that existing flats might be demolished although some tenants had exercised their right to buy and become leaseholders.

With a Dickensian flourish he said: “This budget that the Tories have given us is a budget of great expectations but it will lead to hard times.”

Councillor Maria Caulfield (Conservative, Moulsecoomb and Bevendean) scotched the rumours of the impending demolition of any flats, saying: “We aren’t about to knock those blocks of flats down.”

Councillor Caulfield, who is the council’s cabinet member for housing, added: “We currently have plans to build over 600 homes for low-paid and hard-working people.

“As for the fairy tales about knocking down blocks, that is scandalous if you are putting these rumours around the estates.”

The Labour group leader, Councillor Gill Mitchell, said: “I seek to put money into essential services rather than squandering it on scrapping a cycle lane just to satisfy this Tory administration’s prejudices.”

She accused the Conservatives of hitting the poorest hardest and, by frontloading cuts, going too far fast in the quest to save money.

She said that she was concerned that the budget contained six pages of warnings about the financial risks, adding: “This is a budget built on hope and crossed fingers.

“This budget is not fair, it’s not stable and it’s not sustainable.

“It’s a desperate gamble from a dying Tory administration before electoral defeat.”

Councillor Les Hamilton (Labour, South Portslade) highlighted one of the financial risks mentioned in the budget papers – the risk presented by inflation.

He said: “This budget is built on a 2 per cent rate of inflation. Do we believe that? It’s running at 4 per cent already!”

He mocked the Tories’ claims to have protected frontline services, saying: “A frontline service is any service that the Tories haven’t cut.”

And he dismissed the proposed cut in parking permit prices by saying that they had gone up 30 per cent to £104 since the Conservatives took over the council in 2007.

Even with a 5 per cent cut this year, he said, they would still cost 28 per cent more than just four years ago.

Councillor Warren Morgan (Labour, East Brighton) urged the council to spend money improving the seafront to the east of the Palace Pier.

He wanted improved lighting, benches to be repaired and the railings to be repainted.

He criticised the Conservatives as an “opposition in waiting”.

Councillor Jason Kitcat (Green, Regency) said: “These nationally imposed cuts are wrong and make no sense.”

He added: “It’s the most secretive budget possible.”

In particular he criticised the late release of the budget papers – as did Conservative councillor Garry Peltzer Dunn at a previous meeting.

Both men wanted a reasonable amount of time for everyone to examine the detail although the council blamed the lateness on government departments.

When Councillor Kitcat called on colleagues to scrap the £26,000 item for refreshments at council meetings, protesters in the public gallery chanted: “No free lunches!”

The Greens tried to do away with the refreshment spending but were outvoted by a rare combination of Labour and the Conservatives.

Councillor Paul Elgood (Liberal Democrat, Brunswick and Adelaide) said that £72,000 was being cut from the licensing team when more should be spent on it.

He said that his ward was affected by a rising number of applications for late and all-night licences.

Councillor Trevor Alford (Conservative, North Portslade) said that the budget represented value for money and savings for the benefit of all.

He said: “We inherited a lack of proper records, where we were paying people who didn’t work for the council and we had no proper record of the council’s assets.

“When Labour were last in power they were going to flog off all the council houses.

“They had been left to deteriorate for many years which is why they were going to flog them off.

“Instead, we have invested in council housing.

“All political groups have their good points,” he said. “We are a very caring group.”

He touched on plans to emulate the mayor of London’s cheap and plentiful rented bike scheme, known as “Boris’s bikes”, in Brighton and Hove.

Despite the heated debate over the cycle lane and echoes of former Tory cabinet minister Norman Tebbit, Councillor Alford said: “Let’s get people on their cycles. This administration can do it.”

Councillor Garry Peltzer Dunn (Conservative, Wish) responded to opposition criticism about the use of the council’s financial reserves – or savings – to reduce the effects of spending cuts.

He said that even though the Tories were using this money, there would still be £2 million more in the reserves than when Labour ran the council.

Councillor Geoffrey Theobald (Conservative, Patcham) justified the need for spending cuts, saying: “This country is bust and it’s broke.”

He criticised the Green and Labour amendments for cutting the budget for mowing grass verges.

Councillor Theobald said: “Let the grass grow and it will be a danger to motorists and pedestrians.”

He also criticised the unsuccessful Labour call for more money to be spent on the seafront east of the Palace Pier.

He said: “Last year when we put in extra money for railings and lighting on the seafront, they didn’t support us.”

Councillor Ayas Fallon-Khan (Conservative, Goldsmid) said: “In 2007 we were haemorrhaging money out of this organisation.

“We were a two-star authority. Now we’re four stars out of four.

“We’ve managed to save £30 million to £35 million a year.

“We’ve improved services and we’ve reduced costs and now we’ve managed to cut the council tax.”

He was speaking before the council tax cut was overturned.

He added: “People in the gallery are talking about jobs. It’s all about jobs.

“We’ve got an outstanding record of inward investment.

“We want university students to come to this city and stay in this city.”
He praised the contribution that they made to Brighton and Hove’s thriving digital, creative and sustainable industries.

He said that spending public money was a great responsibility as was setting the council tax, adding: “People deserve a bit of a break at this time.”

Councillor Jan Young (Conservative, Central Hove) is the Conservative cabinet member for finance.

She also responded to the fears expressed about job losses by councillors and protesters, saying: “The council has 204 vacant posts which would cost £4.6 million to fill.

“We have been doing things differently and thinking outside the box.”

Councillor Paul Steedman (Green, Queen’s Park) called for investment in solar panels across the city to generate revenue from the “feed-in tariff”. This would earn the council money from any surplus electricity that it generated.

Instead, he said: “It’s a budget that offers no jam today and even less jam tomorrow.”

Councillor Juliet McCaffery (Labour, Preston Park) called it an immoral budget that would hurt the most vulnerable.

And she warned of the risk of a tragedy in the event of a child failing to be protected because of the resulting pressure on social workers.

Councillor Brian Oxley (Conservative, Westbourne) said that the council was increasing its budget for children’s services, a point echoed by Councillor Vanessa Brown (Conservative, Hove Park).

Councillor Oxley said: “We’ve introduced tight financial control and, if we hadn’t, they (the opposition) wouldn’t have that money to spend on their amendments.

“What the left coalition believe is that you can’t have better services unless you tax people more.

“We want to leave more money in people’s pockets.

“The left coalition is so left that they’ve left Brighton and Hove.”

Councillor Dawn Barnett (Conservative, Hangleton and Knoll) called for every third number 5 bus to be routed along Hangleton Valley Drive.

She also responded to the opposition proposal to cut grass verges less frequently by saying: “Grass cutting may not affect city centre wards but it is one of the biggest issues in Hangleton and Knoll.”

Councillor Rachel Fryer (Green, Queen’s Park) criticised Labour as well as the Tories for promoting academy schools.

She criticised the cost of the academy at Falmer and the proposed Portslade academy.

Councillor Kevin Allen defended the music service in the face of a budget cut of tens of thousands of pounds.

He said: “We want to put £50,000 back. Thirty per cent in one go is too much.

“It’s a mean and philistine little cut.

“It’s a small service in budgetary terms.”

He said that the Conservative proposals would mean fees for musical instrument lessons rising for hard-pressed parents, adding: “For some parents who are already feeling the pinch this will be the last straw. Children will suffer.”

Councillor Ben Duncan (Green, Queen’s Park) said: “Band G council tax payers will benefit most.

“Car drivers will benefit most.

“Jeremy Clarkson would absolutely love this budget.”

At a tense meeting, this jibe raised one of the only laughs all evening.