Brighton and Hove City Council is due to send ministers its initial submission on local government reorganisation today (Friday 21 March).
The council’s cabinet formally agreed to propose keeping Brighton and Hove City Council within the same boundaries even though this would mean a smaller population than the 500,000 preferred by the government.
The council said: “We believe that our current council size is broadly set up appropriately for Brighton and Hove and we do not feel the need to pursue local government organisation arbitrarily.”
The council called for there to be “five unitary authorities across Sussex, with Brighton and Hove on our existing footprint or growing to form one of these new authorities”.
The council reached its view after a three-week consultation and is also backing the creation of a new elected mayor for Sussex from May next year.
The Labour leader of the council Bella Sankey told a cabinet meeting yesterday (Thursday 20 March) that having a mayor would mean more money for Sussex “flowing down the A23 from Westminster to Brighton and Hove”.
Councillor Sankey said: “We are suggesting to government that our region could operate with up to five unitary authorities of relatively equal size and all represented alongside a new mayor on our strategic authority.
“We will test our thinking against the data and evidence, work with neighbouring authorities and develop final plans ahead of September’s deadline.”
Bigger changes are afoot for East and West Sussex where there is a two-tier set up of county councils and district councils. Some districts are known as boroughs although they have the same duties.
A report to the Brighton and Hove cabinet said that while the borders would, ideally, as they were, the council was open to some changes.
It could, for instance, extend to Shoreham to the west and as far as Peacehaven to the east.
Labour councillor John Hewitt, the council’s cabinet adviser on devolution and local government reorganisation, said: “We are looking forward to the upcoming benefits this will bring to our region while still maintaining our city’s unique and distinct identity.
“Our government is ambitions about all areas of England to have equal opportunities for these devolved powers and that Brighton and Hove will benefit greatly from these powers, certainly around housing and transport in particular.”
Councillor Hewitt said that keeping the current “footprint” in the coming reorganisation of Sussex councils was an interim proposal.
Labour councillor Trevor Muten, the council’s cabinet member for transport, parking and the public realm, said that he had listened to students speaking at the Education and Buses Forum earlier in the week about the lack of connections across wider Sussex.
A student travelling into Brighton and Hove from Worthing or Eastbourne currently required two unizone tickets, with Councillor Muten calling for single tickets.
He said: “Such single-ticket approaches are well developed in Greater London, Greater Manchester and Liverpool city region. (They) consider the wider regional authority and are not restricted to single operators.
“A devolved strategic mayoral authority can develop an integrated and co-ordinated transport system, more accessible and much better than the sum of the parts presently.”
Labour councillor Jacob Allen, the council’s cabinet member for adult social care, public health and service transformation, said that he hoped devolution would improve responses around health emergencies such as pandemics.
Councillor Allen said: “Think about what we’ve got here in Sussex. We’ve got ports, we’ve got airports, we’ve got universities – all things that are really key to have a strategic oversight on in terms of a spread of contagion.
“At the time of covid-19, I was living in Surrey. When we went into lockdown, you had parishes, districts, boroughs, the county and the police and crime commissioner all doing different things to help residents during those early days and it was all a bit of a mess.”
Green councillor Raphael Hill said that the local government reorganisation had been a “top-down” process which had not engaged with ordinary people.
Councillor Hill said: “I do see the sense in unifying Saltdean but we shouldn’t assume that people in East Saltdean want to join our council and so local referendums should be used to give communities the ability to self-determine what council they are part of.
“That should apply for any area joining our council. If we expand to the point where a new authority is needed then I’m concerned that this would take away our unique character as a city and lead to higher council tax due to the higher rates in neighbouring areas.”
Councillor Hill said that East Sussex County Council and West Sussex County Council would lack a mandate, having cancelled the May elections because of the pending reorganisation.
There were also concerns about financial issues in merging the fire and rescue services for East and West Sussex under a new elected mayor.
Brighton and Hove City Council now intends to work with the councils in East and West Sussex and carry out further engagement and analysis before submitting final proposals in September.
Green councillor Raphael Hill said that the local government reorganisation had been a “top-down” process which had not engaged with ordinary people.
That’s a tad hypocritical from the Greens who never engaged with ordinary people during their tenure in Brighton.
Yes they had a habit of disregarding any consultation that dis not further their own agenda.
I think this was a reasonable choice here. Brighton is unique as a city compared to its rural neighbours, and trying to stick everyone together feels like trying to tape a large square to fit a circular hole. Discussions I’ve had with other people, as well as comments I’ve read on here, suggest that our neighbours also don’t feel Brighton would fit well with themselves either.
No need to complicate this, and even though there’s a recommended population amount, it is purely arbitrary, and I feel the logic of the city of Brighton should be managed independently of its neighbours as a unitary.
Falmer and Saltdean are split in half so bringing in East Saltdean the other side of Falmer into the city boundaries makes sense.
Just like the Sussex PCC Katie ‘Bourne’ Free post…. a waste of time and a waste of money !