Five senior councillors have been handed the job of steering economic and financial recovery in Brighton and Hove as the covid-19 coronavirus lockdown restrictions are eased.
But the Policy and Resources Recovery Sub-Committee was slated before it could even meet for the first time.
And the knock-on effects on Brighton and Hove City Council’s working arrangements also led to criticism from the Conservatives who said that the changes were undemocratic.
Labour council leader Nancy Platts will chair the Recovery Sub-Committee and her predecessor, Labour councillor Daniel Yates, who speaks on finance for the administration, will join her.
The Green opposition leader Phélim Mac Cafferty and his party’s finance lead, Councillor David Gibson, will also sit on the sub-committee, with Tory finance lead Councillor Joe Miller.
At the Annual Council meeting yesterday (Thursday 14 May) Independent councillor Bridget Fishleigh said that she had no confidence in the “skills, experience, knowledge and abilities” of the five members.
Councillor Fishleigh said: “I’m being blunt but if you don’t know what a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) test is or a cost-benefit analysis, if you don’t know how to read a financial spreadsheet or write a business plan, then I don’t think you should be on any strategic committee.
“The Labour Party has been in power in our city for five years now. Few would disagree that the city continues to be an unwieldy mess – a place where vanity projects are pushed along despite the protests of residents from across the city.
“And when we beg the council to focus on basic services, such as Cityclean, there are still no visible improvements.”
Councillor Fishleigh, who represents Rottingdean Coastal ward, initially voted against the new arrangements before the prospect of hours of separate votes persuaded her to accept the changes.
After the meeting she said: “Life is definitely too short for that.”
The Recovery Sub-Committee – and its membership – was just one of several committees, sub-committees, boards, panels and working groups that were the subject of a formal agreement at the Annual Council meeting.
Annual Council yesterday was held as a “virtual” meeting for the first time, with members using Skype to take part.
The new mayor, Labour councillor Alan Robins, was sworn in on a day when party political wrangling is usually set aside and the ceremonial is given precedence.
But the committee changes – including the allocation of seats to each party – left the Tories feeling short-changed.
Conservative leader Steve Bell unsuccessfully called for a fresh look at the balance of seats.
He said that his party “fully supported” the creation of the Recovery Sub-Committee as it would mean that important decisions were made in public.
Councillor Platts said: “We hope that the committee will be temporary and only short term but lifting the lockdown in other towns and cities abroad has resulted in outbreaks of the virus.
“So this may mean the committee is with us for the whole year. These are the uncertainties that we are all dealing with right now.
“The choice of either a working group or formal sub-committee was offered in good faith to both opposition parties and their input and preference welcomed and accepted.
“This was done without the knowledge of any impact on seats. That said, we have a constitution, and the Labour group accepts that we should abide by that – and it means we lose a seat on one committee.”
Councillor Mac Cafferty said: “I’ve seen this policy work both for and against the Green group of councillors. But I’ve never tried to challenge it.
“It is really quite unprecedented. There never appears to have been a challenge to this in the past.”
The new sub-committee is due to hold its first meeting next Tuesday (19 May).
Bridget is a very dedicated councillor who has the towns interests at heart.
Well said independent Councillor Bridget Fishleigh! Whilst politics operates its vital counterweight against the rule of unelected officers you’d hope that a committee such as this would be of the highest calibre. Moreover, a diversity of economic savvy (necessarily there are differing philosophies of course) makes for good scrutiny and planning. My fear is the committee will be dominated by officer advice which, in Brighton, is at an all time low ebb (its bloody awful). Worse still, the party political group-think of essentially anti-growth councillors renders ‘economics’ as though it were the inconsequential hobby of the right (like golf) where jobs and public services become something that drops from the sky. A headstrong, old-school workhorse like Cllr Gibson might be equal to the task (what he doesn’t know he’ll aim to find out) but even with this hope in-mind, well, lets just say a lot of us are very (I mean extremely) worried.
Cllr Fishleigh is a serious asset on financial & planning matters who demonstrated her strength & savvy as part of the team that restored the Saltdean Lido & brought it back to life and commercially viable use.
Party politics annoys me. And the Recovery Cttee should have a full complement of cllrs – not just these 5!
Bridget is right and few cllrs can match & effectively challenge finance officers due to lack of ANY relevant expertise.
The concept of a recovery team is good but I have to agree with Councillor Fishleigh’s point around the committee lacking business experience. COVID is an unprecedented situation which requires solid strategic and business knowledge to ensure Brighton & Hove is on track for recovery speedily and importantly it is undertaken in the right way. I have little confidence in the team appointed.
I have been disappointed time and time again at the lack of business case analysis, creativity and the continued haphazard nature in really grasping business finances. Not to mention the snail’s pace that the council move at. Business and organisational transformation will be pivotal to the success of this committee with a private sector and entrepreneurial mindset being critical. It can’t be the normal attitude of ‘we can’t because this is the way we do it.’
I would suggest that this recovery team draft in as soon as possible a strategic advisory committee made up of people who actually work in the real world and can bring their expertise and experience to help benefit the city to ensure we are ready and open for business for both local residents and visitors.