This week I will let you have some insights into my postbag.
This extract from an email I received this week illustrates very well the frustrations of a group of residents who are, sadly, by no means alone.
The email said: “For months now, the collection of waste and recyclables has been unpredictable, with overflowing bins of decaying food waste and rubbish left on the streets as easy picking for urban foxes, with litter consequently scattered to the four winds.
“Undoubtedly, there is an associated health hazard. Elderly and frail residents are having to cart their bins to the larger bins in frustration. There is simmering frustration among residents at this complete breakdown of service.
“The second issue relates to absence of any perceptible or meaningful effort to clean the streets’ gutters or weed the pavements.
“Weeds have taken over and leaves and litter block the road gullies. On many pavements these are now so large as to constitute trip hazards. Why has this been allowed to happen? Does anyone care?
“The council should be embarrassed and ashamed. Where is the pride in our city?”
This hits the nail on the head exactly. Where, indeed, is the pride, when this Green administration can’t even get the basics right?
I have today raised this (again) at the most senior level in the council and I hope that this, combined with the promise of residents to send emails every week the problem persist, will put enough pressure on to ensure we can finally get something done.
As councillors, we all understand that councils are underfunded and understaffed. However, residents are right to expect us to at least deliver basic services effectively and efficiently.
It is not right to expect ratepaying residents to watch their bins go unemptied and their streets go uncleaned.
Our residents deserve a better delivery of these services and a better level of communication whenever issues arise.
Elsewhere in the mailbag this week, I have also heard about people using tealights and camping gas to light their homes at night and cook meals.
Please be careful. If you are concerned about a friend or a neighbour, please refer them for a home safety visit from our East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service who can offer free smoke alarms and visits to eligible households across the city.
For further information or to arrange a visit, please contact their Community Safety Team free of charge on 0800 1777069 or make a request online by completing a Home Safety Visit Request form.
Councillor Carmen Appich is the joint Labour opposition leader on Brighton and Hove City Council.
In 2015 labour came to power under the guise of getting the basics right
The question is not why aren’t the greens
The question is why did labour fail to do it so spectacularly in 2015 and continually for 5 years and then fall apart so impressively the greens must pick up the pieces
Pretty bizarre from a councillor whose party was running the council for 5 years until they fell apart because they couldn’t keep their racism to themselves.
Didn’t you introduce the ban on weedkiller with no plan in place to deal with weeds? Haven’t you “salami sliced” the waste service for years. It’s unsurprising therefore that you passed on a mess to others to deal with. Pretty much what Labour does – create a mess and then blame everyone except themselves.
Actually, the question is quite clearly, ‘Why are the Greens not sorting out the basics?’ They are supposedly running the council and have been for a number of years. It’s an easy narrative to say you inherited this.
Residents want these issues sorted out now. They are tired of Green Party vanity projects like cycle lanes and low-traffic neighbourhoods, when they can’t get their bins emptied or pick up a parking permit. Afraid to walk down weed-strewn streets and embarrassed by the state Brighton and Hove has become.
This is on the Green’s watch.
Could start with Labour (Momentum) stopping supporting the Greens
I’ve never seen Brighton and Hove in such a mess.
All the lads have had a nice big (totally undeserved) payrise and yet they still can’t be bothered to empty our communal bins.
Whatever it is they think they are doing to clear the pavements of weeds they are going to have to think again. If the people they have employed to go around with a hoe and a bin are their solution then, please, stop now and spend the money on something or someone else.
A person with a hoe and a bin has been along our road and might as well not have bothered. To say that they have done half a job would be excessively kind. Lazy and less than half-hearted would be a fair assessment.
Pointless!
I know a turning area in a dead-end street that’s been neglected for so many years that it looks more like a jungle, including a self-seeded TREE that’s now about TEN FEET TALL, surrounded by ivy and other vegetation that’s attacking people’s garden fences.
Will the council pay for these fences to be repaired or replaced?
Will they heck as like, as our Northern friends might say.
Minor roads are full of potholes. Too many pavements are nearly impassable, especially for disabled people such as myself. Council tax increases every year, but where does all that extra money go? It’s certainly not being used to maintain the area as most would expect.
Extorting money under false pretences used to be illegal.
All of Brighton and Hove has been neglected for years; the place is an absolute tip.
Well the 2 labour councilors for Hove don’t even reply to emails and on top of that they regularly help the green party push through stupid ideas so my choice next election is simple.
Labour for national elections (Peter Kyle).
Conservative or independent for local elections.(anyone other than greens or lazy local labour momentum, aka nut jobs)
I have voted Labour in the past but never again. Not after the way Labour councillors regularly side with the Greens; yet are supposed to be the ‘opposition’
And nationally; I really cannot see how someone with a Knighthood would be any better than Liz Truss’ Government….
And because the Greens are so desperate for power; they are in a power-sharing agreement with the SNP in Scotland; which will ultimately oversee the break-up of the United Kingdom.
This will be like another Brexit; another disaster.
They will spend ten years trying to make it happen; and then another ten years trying to make it work; then tell us how marvellous it all is…..
Sound familiar?