Seven candidates are standing in a by-election in South Portslade for a seat on Brighton and Hove City Council next Thursday (11 January).
The seat became vacant when long-serving Labour councillor Les Hamilton resigned.
The seven candidates are Danny John Booth (Green), Benjamin James Franks (Conservative), Jamie Rutherford Gillespie (Independent), Josh Guilmant (Labour), David Timothy Maples (Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition), Georgia Arabella McKinley Fitch (Democratic Liberation Party) and Kenneth Lloyd Rist (Liberal Democrats).
Each candidate received questions about local issues submitted by the public and were asked why they wanted to represent the ward. Below are the responses from Green Party candidate Danny Booth.
Why do you want to be a councillor?
I’ve always wanted to play a role in supporting the community. As an elected councillor, you are the voice of your local area.
This is a very responsible position which I would love to do. I also enjoy finding ways around problems.
As a councillor, I could be helping people with issues related to housing, planning, benefits or dealing with council services. I’d like to help make community-wide improvements too to make Portslade quieter, greener and safer.
Why do you want to stand in this ward?
South Portslade is my home. I care deeply about my local community and feel the need to stand up for the people who live here.
It’s particularly important at the moment as the voices of people in South Portslade seem to be being ignored by the Labour council.
What are the key issues specific to this ward?
The closure of St Peter’s Primary is number one. It’s vastly damaging and unnecessary.
The Greens kept their promise to stop any school closures when they were in charge.
Labour said the same but six months later went back on their word.
With the main shopping area and the seafront in the ward, people are also affected by noise and pollution from the busy roads.
We need to take a greener “people first” approach to improving the local street environment.
Will you toe the party line or go with what the community wants?
Greens don’t force their councillors to vote in a certain way, unlike Labour and most other parties.
So I would have the freedom to stand up for the needs of local people, reflect what the community are saying and push for the changes that residents want to see.
Will you follow council officers’ advice over the demands of voters?
Remember, we will have a Labour-run council for the next three and a half years so whoever is elected in this by-election won’t be able to change policy affecting local people on their own.
But the best way to get the council to change their minds is to vote Green on 11 January to send a clear message to the council and to Labour that the whole community opposes the closure of St Peter’s School.
How will you make South Portslade a better place?
It’s a great place to live already. Locals are proud of Portslade’s unique identity. But we need to bring services closer to the people, attract more independent shops and sort out traffic problems.
As a councillor, I would “bang heads together” to get the various parts of the council and other influential players to work together to move Portslade ahead.
The last thing we need is to close our schools as they are a key part of our community.
How will you deal with residents’ problems with missed rubbish and recycling collections?
Residents rely on regular collections and I would push for this to be an absolute priority.
Some of the problems with the service have been caused by low morale and workplace bullying at Cityclean.
The council needs to deal with this urgently and I would press them on resolving these issues so we can get services working effectively for residents.
Meanwhile, I would also ensure that all complaints are investigated and press for answers from Cityclean.
What are your plans to engage with the community if elected?
I would regularly attend meetings with all community groups in the area to increase my awareness of the priorities of the different communities here.
Based on this, I’d consider how to best support the people of this area and work hard to make South Portslade the best it can be.
I plan to hold a regular “meet your councillor” surgery and ensure people can get hold of me when they need support.
What are your views on the proposed closure of St Peter’s Community Primary School?
Greens would have stopped any talk of closing the school. Under the previous Green-led council, schools were safe – but not under Labour.
Labour promised to do all they could to keep all schools open in their election manifesto so are going against their word.
There needs to be more creative thinking about how to keep local schools open, involving the community. If elected, I’d do all I can to find a way forward.
How will you ensure that the results of consultations about St Peter’s reflect the community’s will?
I see the role of a councillor as being to reinforce the community’s voice. Greens urge the Labour administration to listen to the people that really matter – South Portslade residents.
The council will decide whether or not to keep the school open, not local councillors, unfortunately.
But if elected, I would stand up for residents and work hard to persuade Labour to reverse its plans to close our much-loved community school.
The people of Portslade deserve better.
Polling stations in South Portslade are due to open at 7am next Thursday and close at 10pm. Photo ID is required for those voting in person.
This one openly admits he doesn’t know the issues of the area and would only start to do so when he’s elected.
Really scraping the bottom of the barrel with this candidate. He doesn’t even know or give a monkeys about South Portslade and its issues.
This is just pointless bile. The answers this candidate gives are perfectly reasonable.
Oh they are reasonable, they are just not very good and quite generic portraying a lack of insight into the area suggesting they would be a poor choice for the electorate.
Me and Barry rarely agree on things, so it must be bad when we share the same viewpoint.
The reason that this school is having to close , is because the Green administration did nothing about the falling number of kids across the city. They should have been cutting classes in the big schools in the city , over a course of several years but instead they sat on their hands , as they didn’t want to upset their voters in the areas where some of the big popular schools are situated. So when Labour took over they found over 50 per cent of the city’s schools were in deficit, due to the large numbers of unfilled places. Labour are much better at management and knew they had to do something. Closing down the city’s two smallest schools isn’t something that Labour wanted to do , but sadly they have to do it. Last thing we want is to do nothing and then next year have an even bigger problem and then have to shut say 4 or more schools. The schools closing are both in deficit with lots of untalented places.
Also This candidate says that he wouldn’t be able to do anything anyway, as it’s a Labour administration, so he would be unable to bring in any new policies. Strange thing to say, as he is admitting that in order to get anything done , the residents need to vote for the Labour candidate. My pals in South Portslade will be voting Labour
I meant ‘empty places’ not ‘untalented places’
What are you even talking about? Lots of untalented people? Do you have kids at the school and nursery? Know anything about the terrible proposal that’s been put forward and is MISSING numbers from half of the school and completely excluded the nursery school?? Labour doesn’t know what they are doing and anyone close to this consultation knows that. Clearly, you don’t as you’ve made it very obvious that you don’t have a clue with what’s going on. Labour lies in their manifesto to get seats, whips them into line to get what they want, and completely ignores the truth of a half baked proposal when pulled up on it. Incompetence at best.
Also, I can see you have just corrected yourself. As it stands, it’s not the smallest school nor should you be making blanket assumptions that large schools are better school- that’s actually in breach of government policy. Go read it up on the DfE opening and closing schools policy.
The Green Party has my vote. They have been instrumental in supporting families of St Peter’s school and nursery and know how difficult Labour has been throughout the consultation. Whilst Labour has tried to deflect mistakes by playing party political games, they have given us the support to navigate through this. I’m sick and tired of hearing people think Labour is doing their best when they really don’t know what’s happening behind closed doors. Do you think it’s fair to exclude half the school from the numbers, forecasting, and budgets? Do you think it’s right to break DfE policy on closing schools? Do you think that it’s fair that this “genuine” consultation has been given a shorter time period that graffiti in the city? Do you think it’s fair that Labour try to duck from responsibility of breaking party pledges made only 6 months ago? I could go on, but it’s getting very tiring listening to Labour apologists having their heads up their bums and not listening objectively to what is happening on the ground. I guess unless it happens to you, most people are only interested in themselves.
The Green candidate is obviously just a paper candidate, as they don’t even have a photograph. I never said that bigger schools were better schools. I said there are big popular schools in the city that could have had a class cut in previous years, to save the small schools in the city. But the Greens sat on their hands and did nothing and now schools are in real trouble and are in debt because places have not been filled. The Greens did not cut classes from the big popular schools, like they should have done, because they didn’t want to upset their voters in those wards. Labour did not promise that they wouldn’t close any schools. This is a lie. Labour manifesto stated that they would protect schools where possible. I am surprised though that the Greens have only put up a paper candidate. I would have thought they must have at least one member who was keen to be a proper candidate.
I thought the Greens were serious in trying to take this ward but we don’t even get a photo of the candidate and the candidate seems to not know the issue of South Portslade, (except the closure of St Peters which the Greens knew was in the pipeline but did NOTHING whilst in administration to address).
Someone pointed out that the Green candidate stood in the local elections last May and never had a photograph then either. It’s really weird ! Can’t be a serious candidate. Must be a paper one. If you wish to stand for election , why on earth would you refuse to have your photo taken for the press ?
Unless they are literally trying to elect a signpost, which considering the Green’s track record in recent history, might be their best candidate yet!
He clearly knows nothing about the local area or being a councillor. Councillors do not help residents with benefits, only MPs can do that.
Sally Hastings is completely right – former Councillor Les Hamilton frequently warned that if class sizes weren’t reduced then a school would have to close eventually. Yet at every opportunity the Greens opposed this.
Many schools across the city have large deficits which the council is subsidising. Falling pupil numbers mean the central government grant has fallen and now these debts are unsustainable.
Perhaps Emily Brewer might like to go back to the Green Party and ask exactly how they will finance their plans and what they will cut from other schools to balance the budget. Perhaps then she will realise this is nothing more then the same short sighted political opportunism that caused this mess.