This week Brighton and Hove City Council held its annual meeting to determine the roles of all councillors and this is my first column as the newly elected leader of the official opposition.
I was immensely proud to officially welcome my 12 new Green councillor colleagues to Brighton Town Hall.
With our city facing the triple challenge of a climate emergency, the homelessness crisis and the fallout from a decade of brutal Conservative government cuts, our Green team of 19 councillors are determined, more than ever, to deliver positive change for our city.
As the council elections made clear, residents support many of the bold ideas in our Green manifesto.
With Labour running the council and Greens as the official opposition, as in the past four years, we will continue to scrutinise and hold the Labour council to the high standards our city deserves.
Our city’s housing crisis continues unabated and we want to see action to deliver new council homes as well as investment in homeless schemes that work, like Housing First, and we will work with Labour where we can to do just that.
We welcome the opportunity to work with Labour councillors on our shared vision of a citizen’s assembly on the climate crisis while Greens continue to push for our city to have a zero carbon footprint by 2030.
To achieve truly transformative politics, we also need to involve our diverse communities in the conversation about how to tackle these issues.
Our city is inclusive and welcoming, it’s bursting with positive ideas and – with two universities, small businesses and a raffish spirit that stems back to the Prince Regent – we have the creativity and zest to tackle the challenges ahead.
That’s why last week we unveiled our pledge to residents in our city: that we will work with our community and voluntary sector, our small businesses as well as the other political parties to deliver urgent action on the key issues facing our city.
Being elected as a councillor in the best city in the country is a privilege. Now the real work continues: representing you.
Councillor Phélim Mac Cafferty is the convenor of the opposition Green group on Brighton and Hove City Council.
I love the enthusiasm and good intentions. But there is no money, as a result of Tory government cuts. So can you energetic councillors please concentrate on the basics, like getting our bins emptied and sorting out graffiti and general maintenance across the city?
I’d love new cycle lanes, but first can we have the roads sorted so that commuter traffic runs freely, and so that the bus services run from a to b without it being quicker to walk.
I’d also like to be able to recycle more, and the bins near me are full of dumped rubbish that was uncollected, and their faded labelling means no-one knows what items to put in which bins in the first place.
The concept of Brighton and Hove being a ‘city of sanctuary’ is all very lovely in this hostile world. But get the basics right before ideology and fantasy politics please.