I want to start this week by wishing everyone a safe and happy festive period, to those celebrating Christmas, or just the chance to see friends and family over the bank holidays. We in the council’s Labour group wish you all the very best and a happy new year.
2021 has been another incredibly challenging year for everyone in our city owing to the ongoing covid-19 pandemic.
But it’s been a real positive to see our communities coming together to support one another through these difficult times.
On the council, as Labour councillors, we have done our best to provide a constructive and responsible opposition, working with the administration where possible in the best interests of residents and holding them to account when they’ve got things wrong too.
We delivered some big wins for the city at this year’s Budget Council. We secured funds to help people on low incomes by expanding the Council Tax Reduction Scheme, invest in improving bus services particularly on the outskirts of the city, set up a city-wide Drug Summit, support disadvantaged families struggling through the pandemic, invest in our seafront infrastructure, set up an incentive scheme towards carbon net zero, reverse proposed cuts to school standards and more.
In July, we won backing and funding for plans that included exploring a park and ride scheme, an electric vehicle car share scheme, cutting back the weeds that are suffocating the city, clearing up litter and graffiti, improving our parks, reviewing women’s safety, a co-operative care model, closing the attainment gap in education, a 20mph city and more.
As we look towards 2022, and the council’s budget-setting process in February, we want to work cross-party to build on these wins for residents and focus on delivering an economic recovery built on sustainability and fairness.
We want to see local businesses at the heart of a local economy that builds community wealth.
We want to see the money spent in the city, stay in the city to benefit our local businesses and residents.
Fostering a circular local economy also has countless benefits for the environment and our plans to become a carbon-neutral city by 2030.
We hope 2022 will be a safer, healthier and happier year for all our residents.
Councillor Carmen Appich is the joint leader of the Labour opposition on Brighton and Hove City Council.
And last but not least, ripped up the cycle lane on OSR increasing pollution and losing valuable funding for future cycling projects.
Happy Christmas!
I think you’ll find the laughingly underused OSR cycle lanes caused more congestion and pollution. But don’t let facts get in the way of dogma. Those officers and councillors who deliberately falsified usage figures are the people you should blame for any future loss of funding. . . and Bricycles/Sustrans of course.
David, what a load of rubbish, the only thing that reduced was it’s usage. Funny how less people used the cycle lane when an F.O.I was filed. Get over it and stop sulking.
Well done! I’m glad it’s gone. I always try to cycle along a flatter route, unless it’s unavoidable. It was just a way of artificially engineering traffic jams, probably to try to justify congestion charging or something like that. A smart move from Labour!
And the Greens.
Are you and the talentless LP cllrs stepping down? A true xmas miracle!