The council wants the volunteer organisers of the main Remembrance parade and service in Hove to pay for lost parking income.
Brighton and Hove City Council used to organise the annual events in Brighton, Hove and Portslade to honour the fallen but three years ago pulled the plug.
Instead, politicians agreed that volunteers, including vicars and military veterans, should take over the task, and allocated £400 to cover all the costs.
To add insult to injury, this year the council’s parking services team told those volunteers that they would have to pay £180 because 10 parking bays would be out of action for three hours.
Yesterday (Thursday 9 November) the Archdeacon of Brighton and Lewes came cap in hand to councillors with a humble prayer of supplication.
The Venerable Martin Lloyd Williams, flanked by Air Vice Marshal Peter Millar, led a deputation to the council’s Culture, Heritage, Sport, Tourism and Economic Development Committee at Hove Town Hall.
The archdeacon said: “Costs incurred by All Saints Hove have not been taken into account to date.”
And the entire £400 budget is used up each year organising the Remembrance ceremony at the Old Steine War Memorial, in Brighton.
The archdeacon told councillors: “This year we were also asked if we would fund the cost of the suspension of 10 parking bays near All Saints Church Hove by Parking Services – 10 bays at £18 each.
“In the end, having appealed, we were told that we would not be expected to pay for the suspension of those parking bays this year but we would be expected to cover that cost in the coming year.”
Labour councillor Alan Robins, who chairs the committee, said: “This is an issue the council has struggled with for some time in the context of decreasing resources
“I cannot promise that we will be able to increase the funding in the way requested for the memorial services given the current extremely challenging financial climate.
“We will, however, review this budget in the context of the overall budget planning and (budget) setting process to be determined in February.”
Green councillor Raphael Hill and Conservative councillor Anne Meadows were keen for an official report to explore the options but, as they were up against eight Labour councillors, they were never going to win a vote.
Instead, the volunteers were left with the hope that their modest request might be given a sympathetic hearing as part of the budget-setting process.
Outside the meeting, one observer said: “It beggars belief. The council seems to know the price of everything but the value of nothing.
“Having dumped their civic duty on a band of volunteers, they not only expect them to pay for the privilege, they now want to tax them on top.
“We want to honour the fallen but they give the impression of wanting to price out remembrance.”
You couldn’t make it up. And we thought the Greens were avaricious and out of touch with local residents needs. Now it seems Labour are worse. They should be hanging their heads in shame.
The Greens were a minority Council, you sound surprised that their main partner and the facilitator if not the instigator of many of the contentious decisions over the years is worse….
Garbage. They led a (secret) Green/Labour coalition and were it was their decisions and policies that have taken the city to the brink of bankruptcy.
Totally agree. Disgusting.
Don’t vote them in they have no heart but I expect they will still collect their allowances
OMG. This is unbelieveable.
Labour Council truly has no respect.
The Greens are starting to look more human by the day.
Nah not really. That’s a stretch of the imagination
The millions made on parking and fines and they are quibbling over £180. Really???? Absolutely disgusting.
They have shifted the work onto others, perhaps the volunteers need to bill the council for their time and use of resources.
Exactly. 🤬
The Labour Party are a national and local disgrace. They have no respect for the men and women who gave their lives for this country.
Absolutely disgusting,, perhaps the council should remember that they would not be here without the ultimate sacrifice of the people we are trying to pay homage to. I wonder if they would charge Muslim ceremonies,,, probably not as they are scared to be caught out over racism.
Shame on you again
Why muslim only why not Muslim, Jewish, Christian,pride, bhf, and everytime time they close our city roads for whoever the organisation. No discrimination.
Perhaps next year we can save the council some money on their expenditure by not having any council representatives participate in the ceremony.
I can’t even find words to describe how messed up it is to even think that this would go by unchecked or unchallenged. This is a very important event for people for a variety of reasons, to mess with that is very dishonourable.
Indeed. Whoever thought this was ok to issue and whoever authorised this, should be sacked, it’s absolutely odious this is.
There ARE no words to describe this abomination!!! I grew up in Hove and have lived in the America for some time. Still, as a British Citizen I am appalled at this horrendous state of affairs. I wonder just how many council members would be willing to sacrifice their own lives or those of their children for the sake of the
Country as did these brave and unselfish heroes whom we seek to honour.
Typical Labour.
The shape of things to come.
Look forward to more of this next year, when the Knighted Champagne Socialist gets in to No10.
Never
I can remember Cllr Mears being outraged about the state of the war memorials in Old Steine, which weren’t kept clean and tidy, and I think she did shame the council into cleaning them up just before a Remembrance ceremony, but it was a struggle.
However, this extreme disrespect and pettiness is beyond the pale. They seem to be picking on anyone they can think of (special needs parents, beach hut owners), for what is not much money at all, given the large scale of the deficit they are trying to reduce. This is beyond the pale, though, and they should be ashamed. Perhaps the councillors who agreed to this might like to have a whip-round from their personal bank accounts to cover the extra cost? It isn’t that much money, after all, but there is a rather large principle here. I thought better of Mr Robins I, really did, but it seems I was wrong.
All the appalled commentors should ask themselves, who shrunk the council’s budget?
The shrunken budget is somewhat of a myth. They seem to have plenty of money when it comes to altering and widening pavements to take away parking spaces, a rain garden for a 100,000 when they could just unblock the drains, hundreds of metal 20/30 mile discs suddenly appearing EVERYWHERE— why, more cameras everywhere but they simply cannot invest in people! Furthermore, they have implemented a punitive app based parking system which does not work and consequently loses them revenue together with the ridiculous cycle lanes.
I hope people give them a blasting for this.
Disgusting behaviour by the council scraping the barrel yet again
If only they would do that with the I360 payments, but no doubt some brown envelops on the golf course kept that going
Petty, penny pinching and racist. Do you ever see a traffic warden down Bedford Place on a Friday when the Mosque is full? Never. Cars parked everywhere and impassable. Are they asked to cover the cost? Rather than cow towing to certain groups, remember who actually pays their council tax.
10 bays, £180 for 3 lost hours of revenue? we used to shop in Brighton most weeks, my wife and I used to wander around the Lanes buying clothes and anything else we liked but the cost of parking and the difficulty in paying to perk put a stop to that, I undestand they need revenue but £6 per hour? when all the shops have gone and everybody buys online they will be asking what went wrong but too late! and to even suggest charging the volenteers that are doing the job for them free beggars belief.
My uncle Reg died fighting totalitarianism, to preserve democracy and the decent values of a civilised society. He would be utterly shocked and dismayed by the behaviour of this broken council that represents the citizens of Brighton and Hove.
Shame on you Brighton and Hove council.
This article has really hit home for me, in the last election a labour candidate stood on my doorstep and told me how different she was? How labour cared about the people of Brighton and Hove, How they would change things, she didn’t mention it would be changed for the worse. Service for the elderly, disabled and children in our city have been targeted, and our schools are closing, our city is plagued by vermin over grown pavements and holes in the road! and now this! An insult to injury. In a little while I will be getting ready to honour the fallen, my partner will need my support to honour his fallen brothers and sisters, it’s not only the 1st and second world war veterans, the council are ignoring the sacrifice of every soldier, in every theater around the world. Sitting in their safe offices, living in Thier big houses, spending Thier non minimum wage all at the public’s expense. How dare they do this in the knowledge that without the men and women of our military they would not live this life of freedom.
And did the organisers of Pride have to pay for lost parking income? And what about all the other events where roads have been closed off throughout the year, such as those at Marine Drive, or the marathons and bike rides? Did their organisers have to pay?
I suggest the organisers fire off some freedom of information requests and find out what other groups have been charged for lost parking revenue. I suspect they will find not many. Events such as Pride, street closures/parties for coronation, local street closures for fairs/events, school streets, events in Stanmer/Preston Park etc etc. Lots of groups close roads with paid parking and parks with paid parking. I’ve never heard of any of them having to pay. Do schools really have to pay for parking loss to close school streets?
The key problem here is the council has become addicted to parking revenues. The excess (profit) is around £20m a year. The council has increased some resident permits by breathtaking amounts, particularly for those with older cars or second vehicles. The council is seeing diminishing returns, people are avoiding paying (well, many can’t pay at these levels). But scrambling around for a couple of hundred pounds on Remembrance Sunday is obscene. Did councillors really go into politics to defend this?
Now I’ve looked up the committee paper, the deputation re remembrance was just asking for the allowance to be increased to a measly £1500 a year (from £400 a year I think) – that’s going to make a massive dent in the deficit, I’m sure.
I also see that Councillor Grimshaw BEM (note the BEM) is on the relevant committee. I don’t know if she was at this latest meeting or not but she is apparently a particular supporter of veterans and interested in WW1, amongst other things. Whether she was at the meeting or not, perhaps she might like to have a word with her Labour colleagues on the committee to tell them just how stupid and disrespectful it is to get a lot of people very upset for the sake of ‘saving’ a piddling sum like this.
So they charge people that want to remember the fallen which should be covered by the council anyway. Yet I bet they don’t charge the pride event when they shut down most of brighton. It’s disgusting they should be ashamed of themselves. They should cover all the expenses for remembrance day
In view of the truth – that Brighton and Hove has never made more profit on parking and parking permits and has just ramped them up yet again – I think we should all be demanding Councillor Alan Robin’s resignation from the council over this with immediate effect.
https://www.theargus.co.uk/news/23259560.brighton-hove-city-council-makes-20m-surplus-parking/
They should be ashamed of themselves. Money means more than remembrance. Hang your heads in shame
£30.000.000.00 plus profit from parking tax and these clowns who in no way represent the tax payers what to dishonor our remembrance day.
Shameful, I bet this spineless clowncil wouldn’t attempt this with other groups
This appeared on the Council’s website just 3 days ago. As I said, Cllr Grimshaw is on the relevant council committee. Are Ms Sankey, Mr Robins et al planning to attend any of the remembrance events? If they are, then they ought to rectify the massive mistake re the funding or it will look like total hypocrisy.
Newsroom Latest news from Brighton & Hove City Council
8 November 2023
Community and equalities, Transport and roads
Brighton & Hove Remembrance events 2023
Services are being held across the city to mark this year’s Remembrance Day attended by civic leaders. The services begin on Thursday and continue over the weekend.
Councillor Amanda Grimshaw, the council’s Armed Forces Champion, said: “Remembrance Day is an important opportunity for all the city’s diverse communities to come together to remember and honour the sacrifice of all those who have lost their lives because of conflict.
“It’s a time to remember that the ripples of conflict spread far and wide and each person remembered also had families that were affected often for generations. We also remember the innocent lives lost because of conflict.
“We’re very pleased and proud to announce that we’ll now be marking the anniversary of the Battle of the Boar’s Head on 30 June as a part the city’s civic calendar.
“The Royal Sussex Regiment evokes strong connections in the mindset of those residents whose forbears were in the battalions that took part in the attack and others lost whilst serving in other battles.
“Three battalions of the Royal Sussex Regiment took part in what was supposed be a diversionary attack on 30 June 1916. In the space of about 3 hours, 366 men lost their lives and a further 1,000 were wounded or captured.
“Sixty-two men from the city died in the battle – the city’s greatest loss of life in one day and scarcely a town or village in Sussex did not have men who were affected.
“As a consequence, it’s known in regimental history as ‘The Day that Sussex died’.
“I’m very pleased we will be able to continue the commemoration of this important anniversary which is a day to remember.
“The next few days will see multiple commemoration services which also acknowledge that Armistice Day signalled a much longed for peace and end of conflict.”
Maybe the organisers of the remembrance should charge local councillors an attendance fee. Idk, how about double what they want for parking.
Absolute scum behaviour
Re Adam’s comment above – it doesn’t matter who shrunk the council’s budget. The Government has just given B&H nearly £400k to improve the city’s swimming facilities. Cllr Robins was all gush and gratitude over that.
Nearly every council is cash-strapped, some much worse than others. However, to keep this in proportion, we are talking just a few hundred pounds a year here for something that many volunteers work very hard on for nothing and which means a great deal to many residents – and even many councillors I daresay.
This council doesn’t speak on my behalf. They disgust me beyond words. No one is safe, whether you are a vulnerable child or family or have just fallen on hard times through no fault of your own. They will screw every penny out of you whilst wasting your money on their vanity projects and other nonsense.
And yet – the parking at Black Rock is closed again. One large storage container placed at the entrance to the car park and not at the other end with the other containers and diggers. Some 30 parking spaces unavailable. So therefore a loss of 30 x £18 per day.
I am deeply ashamed of our city council.
How dare they expect to make money out of and act of remembrance honoring those who DIED to protect our country.
They should hang their heads in shame a publicly apologise for causing such consternation.
I am deeply ashamed of our city council.
How dare they expect to make money out of and act of remembrance honoring those that DIED to protect our country.
They should hang their heads in shame a publicly apologise for causing such consternation.
I suggest that, if we can’t shame these councillors into coughing up this very paltry sum (in the overall context of budget cuts/constraints and so on) that somebody sets up a fund. I don’t know how to do that, but would if I could: however, I would be very willing to contribute. Even if enough people could contribute only a pound or two it would send a strong message to these councillors, hopefully.
My late dad fortunately survived WW2 OK but he and mum got married in 1940 because they knew he was about to be called up and he was, almost immediately afterwards. He spent the rest of WW2 abroad in Cyprus, Egypt and places, never came home on leave, whilst mum was coping with her own mother who had terminal cancer (she died aged only 56 in 1944, drugged to the eyeballs with morphine from the GP for the pain, as there was not much they could do back then – and no NHS of course). The front room of their rented house collapsed from a bomb blast across the road and it was very hard for all of them. Nobody of mine got killed in any war (I wasn’t even born until after WW2), but I do know what the living went through, so I cannot even imagine the effect on people if their loved ones never came home at all.
Brighton and its population caught a very fatal packet during WW2 (I’ve only been here for 20 years or so, but do know about local history) – just look up Brighton Blitz on the internet.
So all of this counts for nothing with B&H councillors – for the sake of a few hundred quid? You know, quite often some of us blame council officers for what goes on behind closed doors at Hove Town Hall or wherever they now are, and the waste of money that happens, but this one sits firmly at the door of councillors and they should be totally ashamed.
You do sometimes wonder how politicians get a job. It’s such an own goal. Only a moron would not suspend the parking for 1 day a year to remember our own dead of war. Regardless of which party they represent, this one is mind boggling stupid from a political representation side of things as litterly no 1 would agree it’s a good idea to do this.
People should be emailing their local council to express their disgust. Wonder how much the council saved when they withdrew from organising the event, guessing it was considerably more than the £400 they have allowed the charity groups to use.
You need to get a grip Labour, utterly disgusting that you want to charge for lost parking, (do we charge cyclists for the £30,000 lost annually on Madeira Drive because of the cycle lane?) Really surprised that Cllr Robins, (who usually displays common sense), would even let this be debated.
It’s worse than that.
The council have admitted they have lost £800,000 in parking revenue pa as a result of taking half the paid parking spaces out of Madeira Drive but now have plans to remove the rest.
Meantime they have removed hundreds of paid parking spaces throughout the city in pursuit of their warped carbon neutral agenda when there is only 0.04% CO2 in the entire environment and humans are said to responsible for less than a third of that 0.04% – the citizens of Brighton and Hove responsible for less than a pinprick of it in the grand scheme of things, yet our lives must be ruined and we citizens taxed to death, and now our war dead insulted.
How dare the council offload the responsibility of organising Remembrance Sunday to volunteers and then try and deprive the volunteers doing the work of basic funding to the point of penalising them for doing the work. You’d think our Council would need the glory of pretending to care themselves.
This council are despicable.