Five candidates are standing in a by-election in Queen’s Park for a seat on Brighton and Hove City Council on Thursday 2 May.
The seat became vacant when Chandni Mistry resigned. She was elected for Labour last May but expelled from the party in December. She then sat as an independent but resigned in March.
The five candidates are Sunny Choudhury (Conservative), Milla Gauge (Labour), Dominique Hall (Liberal Democrat), Adrian Hart (Brighton and Hove Independent) and Luke Walker (Green).
Each candidate received questions about local issues submitted by the public and was asked why they wanted to represent the ward.
Below are the responses from Milla Gauge, 47, an NHS assistant director of programmes, deputy chair of the Grace Eyre Foundation, co-opted governor Elm Grove Primary School and justice of the peace on the Sussex Adult Crime Bench. She tweets as @MillaGauge.
Do you live in the ward and why do you want to represent Queen’s Park?
I live just across Queen’s Park’s boundary – some of my daughter’s early years education was in the ward and we continue to make good use of the park and other facilities.
Alongside my on-the-ground knowledge, the insight from my local roles as a disabilities charity trustee, primary school governor and magistrate are helpful in understanding the complexity and context of challenges facing our community and I think I can make the difference in finding solutions to fit us.
How were you selected to stand for election?
Queen’s Park Labour Party branch held a selection hustings, with local party members deciding who would be the Labour candidate for the by-election.
I made a speech and took questions from members about my background and their priorities, as did the other four hopeful candidates.
This was followed by a vote by secret ballot and I was privileged to be selected by Queen’s Park branch members as their candidate.
What are your views on St Luke’s school appealing against the council’s decision to reduce admissions by a whole class of 30 four-year-olds?
I’ve been a primary school governor in a neighbouring ward for over two years so I understand the challenges involved.
A school’s governing body is best placed to know what they want for their school and I’ll support St Luke’s to make its voice heard in the council.
That said, across Brighton and Hove we have a huge predicted surplus of school places and we must take action to make sure our primary sector is sustainable and funded properly.
Freshfield Road constantly has cars speeding along it. What will you do to bring speed cameras and crossing places?
We’ve campaigned hard for crossings and traffic calming measures in Freshfield Road.
To prevent more tragic pet deaths and ensure residents and their children feel safe, we’ve made it a priority.
Historically though we’ve been thwarted by the citywide approach to prioritising crossings.
So we’re looking carefully at how we can change that prioritisation which means a clear path to getting a crossing and more traffic calming measures in Freshfield Road could be within our sights soon.
How would you tackle the weeds on the streets without reintroducing glyphosate spraying?
We know residents are concerned about herbicides despite controlled droplet application and targeted use to mitigate the impact.
While the problem in some parts of the city is severe after five years of unchecked growth, weeds have never been a major issue in Queen’s Park.
Manual clearing still works in most cases and some residents already do their own pathway. Glyphosate won’t need to be used in much of Queen’s Park and in due course we’ll pursue an opt-out scheme.
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Polling stations in Queen’s Park are due to open at 7am on Thursday 2 May and close at 10pm. Photo ID is required for those voting in person.
There is a question missing.
Bearing in mind that there shouldn’t be a by election at all if Labour had done proper due diligence, why should we vote for another dodgy ‘shoe in’ that may well not live in Leicester but does not live in the ward and to be perfectly honest seems to sound a bit ‘corporate’?
Due Diligence is a lesson learnt from Labour methinks.
I’ve said it elsewhere, but living next to the Ward is perfectly reasonable, heck, I’d go as far as to say if they work in the ward is perfectly reasonable. The point is lost on a lot of people, local knowledge doesn’t stop at a boundary. It diminishes with distance, sure, but not when it’s effectively next door – to assert that it does is silly, in my opinion.
If that’s the only criticism, then there are far worse choices in this by-election. Being Labour does mean joining the majority, so there’s a good chance she’ll be able to do what she says she wants to do and avoid the need to fight the council “bare-knuckled” as some of the candidates have expressed.
The problem with having a live in the ward / constituency policy is that every now and then boundary changes come along and through no fault of their own suddenly find that they no longer live in the ward / constituency they currently represent.
Is if acceptable to expect people to move house?
We may find we lose a lot of good councillors and MPs that way. Which is why there is no legal requirement for it here. In some parts of the US there is a law where elected officials do have to live in their districts and that results in politicsl shenanigans to redistrict out a political opponent.
And what do you do if the only candidate who lives in your ward is an absolute anathma to your own views or is a thorougghly reprehensible person? Do you still vote for them because they are ‘local’?
An excellent point Chris. We should deprive ourselves of a suitable candidate because of a slight geographical difference. Sure, one can take it as a consideration of local knowledge and their dedication to a particular area, and that’s reasonable, but purely their location is silly.
I noted quite a few candidates are trying to use that as ammunition against the other candidates. Weak arguments, in my opinion.
I know for a fact that Brighton & Hove Independent candidates do NOT propose a ‘live in the ward policy’ that would make this an electoral requirement (its just a value they adhere to in the group). The point above about knowledge not stopping at a boundary is right. That said, I’ve lived in Queen’s park for over 20 years and you just do get connected with the area through its schools, its park/playgrounds, the campaigns we get dragged in to (eg more genuinely affordable housing/better design at the Edward St Quarter). For me the sense of neighbourhood does cross the border into the Kemptown ward.
The fact that Adrian Hart and Gary Farmer emphasise that they too are voters in their ward (live and work in their ward for decades – a lifetime in Gary’s case) and have close-up knowledge is another ways of saying that they think it matters. Many residents are relaxed about this issue which is fine. Surely, though, it would not have been beyond the ability of Labour and Greens to find someone to run out of 7,000 plus residents of which hundreds are party members? Why would they not do that?
I may be wrong but at last year’s Queen’s Park hustings I don’t remember seeing Milla or Luke? If its the case that they are intimately connected with this area, they would have been present at the 2023 hustings to support Chandni/Tristram/Mark/Clare? (although Chandni and Clare were not there either!)
I do feel that these parties confect their connections with the ward but if they were able to be honest they would tell us that Labour select on the basis of who they’d like to fast-track into the council. They are gaming it – moving their troops around the city map. Labour’s Cllr Evans (QP councillor 2019 to 2023) lived the whole time in Saltdean and has now been shuffled off to be a councillor in Moulscombe whereas our current Labour councillor in QP lives in Moulscombe. Labour, Green, Tory, Lib Dem, they all operate according to their political party needs. If voters ae okay with that then fine! (I’m not) Here’s a fact people don’t necessarily know… less than half of our councillors live in their ward. Again, in a city of 300,000 would it have killed the parties to select a neighbourhood candidate?
Queen’s Park Hustings filmed by Latest TV here: https://youtu.be/M8qDXRRBGpU
and what really happened:
https://www.adrianhart.com/the-elephant-in-the-room-roars-bev-barstow-reports-back-from-brighton-queens-park-hustings/