As we approach the last week of this latest lockdown, I want to thank everyone in our city.
A few weeks ago I wrote about how we can pull together and stick together. Thanks to the fantastic local efforts, the figures shows some real improvement and tell us the number of confirmed covid-19 cases has recently gone down.
Context is important, as like everywhere in the country, the rate of infections in our city can change week to week.
To the businesses that have had their hearts broken and our residents who have lost loved ones, there are few words of comfort I can provide.
But the individual actions we are taking, together, are saving lives and protecting the NHS.
To every person who has stayed at home, made space for others, worn a mask, washed their hands, followed the guidelines – thank you for the sacrifices you’ve made and continue to make.
I would appeal to everyone to remember that we still have a long way to go until we have beaten this pandemic.
Under the pre-lockdown rules, we would have been in “tier 1” today. Instead, at the end of this lockdown, we will be placed in “tier 2” – with new rules.
Against these changes, I have approached the news of a relaxation in restrictions over the Christmas holiday period with caution.
Let’s not forget, even on the day the relaxed rules were announced, 180 people in our city had already died from the pandemic.
While I know we have long held out for the opportunity to meet friends and family, covid-19 is still with us and we still need to work together to avoid the worst.
There is little point in celebrating Christmas when it can mean that in January or February we add stress on our hospitals at the exact time they are usually full – or worse, we end up burying loved ones.
We all still have a part to play in driving down transmission – and protecting the vulnerable.
Whatever happens in the run up to the holiday season, a focus on our individual actions will be absolutely vital, so that when we do have the vaccine, we can ensure our city puts its best foot forward.
This is so our city can get back to doing what it does best. Our small businesses, hospitality, leisure and cultural sectors are still facing an uncertain future next year.
The council is now moving swiftly to distribute business grants, against a backdrop that means government initiatives – like a pause on evictions from business premises – will soon come to an end.
We urge businesses to check if they can claim the latest support grants and to apply. Councillors will be helping to get the information out in the neighbourhoods we represent.
And as before, we are continuing to make the case clear to government that our local businesses need a long-term settlement not only to survive the pandemic but to protect jobs, livelihoods and enable the local economy to recover.
And we need to make this case more loudly and clearly than ever before. Despite the immense challenge of recovery from the pandemic, the government’s spending announcement this week told us they sadly still don’t get it.
Local public services have been at the heart of the covid-19 response, distributing personal protective equipment (PPE), organising food parcels, providing care for children and adults and keeping key services open for those who need it.
Yet in the week the government had an opportunity to acknowledge the work of local public services, they failed again.
Yes, there is some welcome news: much-needed funding for social care and extra support for housing and homelessness, for instance, but it won’t tackle the housing crisis or support the rapidly rising need for care for our vulnerable adults.
And despite the huge crises ahead of us, the climate emergency barely received a mention. And perhaps worst of all – no new investment has been made in public health, in the middle of the worst health crisis many of us can remember.
Instead of rectifying the damage of 10 years of cuts, the Chancellor has instead chosen to shift responsibility to councils to raise council tax rather than fund us directly.
Our city deserves a brighter future. There are huge challenges ahead and we are looking hard at how the council’s budget can still support our communities.
As the pandemic stays with us, we are pushing hard to support those in need, support our local economy and bring down infections.
As we come to the end of lockdown, and especially in the run up to Christmas, I would ask you all to stay safe, to think of others and help all of us get back to what our city does best.
Councillor Phélim Mac Cafferty is the Green leader of Brighton and Hove City Council.
Thank you for trying to what you can. However, what we need most from our politicians is for you to lobby the Government to get us moved from Tier two to Tier One and to make sure Caroline Lucas does not vote for this new lockdown this week so this situation does not continue until Easter.
We don’t need handouts. We need jobs so people can support themselves and there will be huge unemployment with 15% of jobs dependant on the tourism industry. The infection rate is and has always been very low in Brighton and outside the student population 80/100,000 this week.
Voting on Parliament to remove people’s freedoms and livelihoods in the City until Easter next year will simply be an act of war against its citizens. We did not vote to have our freedom removed and to be put into poverty for a virus that for most people is mild.
SO Phelim, after all these years of hankering for power, you’ve finally landed the top job as ‘Leader’ of the Council—but just WHAT ‘leadership’ are you offering us?
All the available data shows that Brighton & Hove (NOT, by the way, a part of East Sussex, never mind WEST Sussex, but supposedly since 1997 a UNITARY AUTHORITY distinct from from both), has amongst the lowest level of Covid cases in the ENTIRE country and that furthermore, since Lockdown 1, our number of cases has HALVED—YES HALVED!!
And yet, despite your ‘apparantly’ pathological detestation of those ‘wicked’ Tories, it seems that you’re only too happy to jump into bed with them on this occasion by slavishly adhering—and WORSE STILL encouraging our citizens to adhere—to Boris Johnson’s diktat.
Please enlighten us all as to WHY you’ve not protested in the strongest possible means available to you, to this ‘LACK of GOVERNMENT’ regarding the peremptory down-grading of our Unitary Authority Status; this is an absolutely CRUCIAL point, Phelim, because save for this we would find ourselves in TIER 1, meaning that virtually ALL our businesses could re-open in this economically vital trading period (Particularly so in the case of the hospitality industry upon which so many residents depend for employment).
Enlighten us further, if you will, as to why Kent’s only Unitary Authority Medway has NOT been lumped in with the rest of that County—could it, I wonder, have anything to do with LEADERSHIP?
Has it escaped your attention that the ONLY politicians of any note who are defending the interests of their constituents and local businesses would appear to be the large numbers of CONSERVATIVE MPs (NOT, please note, to be confused with Johnsonite ‘Tory’ lickspittles), the latest being the principled Wealden, East Sussex’s Nusrat Ghani, who are threatening a revolt in the Commons next Wednesday against these preposterous proposals, despite Wealden being scheduled for TIER 3 measures as a result of presenting with the HIGHEST COVID FIGURES IN THE SOUTH-EAST!!! Now THAT’S what I call LEADERSHIP!
I’m sorry to say, Phelim, that as the public face of this city when dealing with ‘Government’ negotiations, you portray a pretty plausible impersonation of poor, wretched Oliver Twist: “PLEASE SIR, CAN I HAVE SOME MORE?”
In tennis circles, the Umpire may well be heard to demand: “NEW BALLS PLEASE!”