Labour has selected charity director and human rights campaigner Bella Sankey to be the party’s candidate in the by-election for a seat on Brighton and Hove City Council.
The by-election, on Thursday 8 December, was called after the death of Conservative councillor Garry Peltzer Dunn who was first elected more than 50 years ago.
Councillor Peltzer Dunn represented Wish ward in Hove – and Labour was most recently represented there by Councillor Anne Pissaridou from 2011-15.
Bella Sankey, 39, was born and raised in Brighton and Hove and studied law at Cambridge University.
She went on to work at Liberty – formerly known as the National Council for Civil Liberties – for eight years where was the policy director.
She has spent the past four years as the director of Detention Action, campaigning against the costly detention of migrants in inhumane conditions.
Hove and Portslade Labour Party said: “She now lives in Hove with her husband, Alex, a primary school teacher at a Portslade school, and their two toddlers.
“Bella is a qualified lawyer and the director of an award-winning national charity (Detention Action).
“Over a 17-year career, she has fought and won many campaigns for justice and equality from leading the successful campaign to criminalise modern-day slavery to stopping the Human Rights Act from being repealed by successive Tory-led governments.”
She said that she was thrilled to have been selected and added: “Wish ward is a fantastic area – from the Lagoon to the Ingram Estate, it is filled with character and heritage.
“Together, with the residents, I want to maintain and regenerate this special place, clear the weeds, sort out the recycling and rubbish collections and speak out against the overdevelopment of flats.
“I will speak for residents struggling with the costs of living, from rising food and energy prices to costly childcare, bus fares and mounting mortgage payments.”
Peter Kyle, the Labour MP for Hove, said: “Bella is a fantastic person to represent Wish ward.
“I hope she gets elected so I can work closely with her on the issues we are all facing, from getting more regeneration of our seafront to keeping our streets safe and helping people meet the challenge of rising bills.”
The co-leaders of the council’s Labour opposition group, Councillor John Allcock and Councillor Carmen Appich, said: “We are thrilled that Bella has been selected as the Labour candidate for Wish ward.
“Bella has been working closely with the Labour group for some time and brings lots of valuable experience, skills and knowledge.
We are delighted to announce our candidate @BellaSankey for the Byelection to be held on *Thursday 8th December*
Here she is out on the doorsteps of Wish already. We hope you vote Bella for Wish for Labour on the 8th. Stay tuned for campaing launch details on Saturday. pic.twitter.com/CyCKYS6P7g— WishBella4Labour (@Wish4Labour) October 26, 2022
“If elected, we know that Bella will be a great asset for Wish and the Labour group and will represent residents with energy and integrity.”
Well if you are campaigning for the residents, working on weeds, rubbish/recycling, cost of living, overdevelopments etc, you may well be too busy to sort out the illegal immigrant issues facing the country. I am not sure what you can do about interest rates or global inflation. Or would you (like some of the incumbents) use your position as a councillor to pontificate about national and global issues that you have no mandate or ability to change ? Or you could stand as an MP in the next General Election, thereby earning that right.
And perhaps Bella can do something about the appalling lack of public toilets in Brighton & Hove. The few that remain are either now closed or in a very pestilential state. B&H council are blaming lack of funds. But the council have no problem when it comes to raising money for anything involving cycling (including unneccesary doubling of cycle lanes on the seafront), as well as confusing traffic arrangements, clearly designed to catch, and heavily fine, unwary motorists, and ill conceived vanity projects that serve no purpose.
The toilets at Pavilion Gardens, part of the “Cultural Centre” are now closed permanently, and the nearest ones (if you can call that near) are in Brighton Library, which are very small, or Churchill Square, which is a bus ride away, and is often closed anyway. The council blames drug taking and anti-social behaviour, yet are bent on inviting anyone and everyone to this “City of Sanctuary” regardless of where they are from. If small towns like Seaford and Lewes can provide sufficient toilets, why is a city(?) like Brighton and Hove, so appallingly lacking in them?
As someone who was born here and lived here all my life, I find this to be the most incompetent and backward council I have ever come across. Even Hitler did not manage to do so much damage to the place as this bunch of clowns has managed to achieve.
Perhaps Bella might do something about it. One lives in hope.
Is she running for UKIP? “Born and raised in Brighton and Hove”, de-naturalize people living here as outsiders. Being born in the city has nothing to do with your ability to do the job. Every city is a hybrid community. Didn’t she run for parliament in Arundel? Oh, Power!
“I will speak for residents struggling with the costs of living, from rising food and energy prices to costly childcare, bus fares and mounting mortgage payments” -if they are Born and raised in Brighton and Hove or it doesn’t matter?
I wish they would find someone that has had a real job in the private sector. We don’t need a woke charity worker on the council we need someone prepared to make tough decisions to help the local economy thrive. Woke charity workers and students running the council means Brighton now looks like a tip and is losing its tourism business.