The Conservatives have selected the party’s candidate for the forthcoming by-election in Westbourne and Poets Corner ward.
The party has chosen Anthony Meadows, widely known as Tony, a self-employed antique furniture restorer.
Mr Meadows was the mayor’s consort in 2011-12 when his wife Anne was the mayor of Brighton and Hove.
The party said: “Brighton and Hove Conservatives have selected Anthony (Tony) Meadows to be their candidate for the Westbourne and Poets Corner by-election on Thursday 1 May.
“Mr Meadows was endorsed by the party’s Executive Council yesterday evening (Monday 24 March).
“He was born in the city and has spent his whole life here. He is married to Anne Meadows who is a councillor for Patcham and Hollingbury. They have two children.
The by-election was called after Labour councillor Leslie Pumm, who won his seat at the local elections in May 2023, resigned earlier this month, citing health grounds.
As an antique furniture restorer, Mr Meadows said that he was appalled at the way Brighton and Hove’s heritage had been allowed to fall into disrepair.
He said: “It’s disgraceful the way our wonderful city has been allowed to deteriorate. I want to hold Labour and the Green Party to account for the damage they’ve done.
“Everywhere I look there are potholes, graffiti, weeds on the pavements and unreliable rubbish and recycling collections.”
The Conservatives said: “In addition to being a keen gardener, Mr Meadows cares deeply about the problems facing small businesses in the city. Since Labour came to power, 200,000 small businesses have folded across the country.
“Mr Meadows is passionate about helping our small shops and other businesses to survive so that we have a vibrant city to live in.
“Mr Meadows served as a school governor for many years. He is concerned about the state of education in the city.”
He said: “School deficits have never been higher. They are really struggling.”
Good luck Anthony. He’d be a brilliant councillor.
Called it. Anyway, we’ve established he has eyes and is a poor historian, ironically.
Waiting for the ‘nepotism” posts complaining his partner is also a sitting Tory councillor (just like the Green candidate).
I discussed it before this gentleman was announced. I do, however, think it’s a reasonable topic of debate. At what point does having multiple family members running a council become problematic?
Why is it a problem as long as there is full disclosure?
The electorate makes the final decision.
There are likely multiple family members on councils across the country
Some of whom will cross parties.
There are even related MPs. Husband and wives, parent and child, siblings and so on.
In the current government there are two sets of sisters who are ministers. One of whom is married to a member of the Lords (and who is a whip)
But my point is that people were against this sort of thing when it was the Green candidate but nada in this case.
Because one can argue there is an inherent perceived bias in any decision-making, groupthink, and in turn, a lack of diverse perspectives, and reduced scrutiny. Two voices effectively become one.
It can also put into question the legitimacy of democracy, the call for nepotism could undermine public trust at a time when it is already at an all time low.
MPs have a bit more spacing, not having a direct influence on each others constituency, so it’s mitigated a bit, although I would hold similar views.
For consistency, I agree it is the same here as with the Green candidate; although this gentlemen has little chance of winning realistically, so you might argue it is a moot point.
You cannot have a test that only applies to candidates with a perceived chance of wining and that is ignored for those where it is felt are unlikely to win.
There are elected representatives across the land who were elected despite it being though they had no realistic chance of winning. Ask Terry Jermy the current MP for South West Norfolk if he thought he had a chance of wining his seat last year – clue he didn’t and neither did his party who gave him no resources.
I bet there are even a few in the current Labour group on B&HCC in that situation at the moment.
I wonder what you would think of a party group on one council I am familar with that at one point had 5 brothers and 2 married couples in it.
This isn’t something you can legislate against because you are trampling on the rights of an individual to take part in the electoral process.
Indeed. Should be applied equally. Completely agree. Also completely agree that you can’t legislate against it, nor should you. However, it should be a topic of discussion when considering who you are going to vote for.
As for the council that you say is all couples and brothers, the evidence is there if it works or not, and I think there will always be a risk of groupthink deciding to go off and do whatever they want, because they have that consolidated power.
It’s a risk at the end of the day.
He sounds like he’ll be about as successful as all the other councillors at trying to push water uphill. Anyone with a vague awareness of macro economics and geopolitics would be able to see that the problems facing councils are not down to a lack of interest from councillors in potholes and weeds or a dislike for successful businesses, it’s down to our national finances being in a state because of 14 years of austerity and a lack of central funding. Over half the total budget of the council goes on education, adult social care, housing, housing benefit. Central government won’t allow council tax to go to keep space and they also won’t provide the central funding that’s required. The new government is also reluctant to tax the wealthiest so the problems are only going to get worse with more people seeing their paltry benefits being cut and so those people will increasingly need to call on their local council for support. Businesses are seeing their taxes going up thanks to the changes to NI and costs will continue to increase due to the new trade wars with the US.
If he thinks all of this is somehow down to Green and Labour councillors rather than 14 years of his own party screwing things up from the centre and now various macro factors that have nothing to do with the council then he’s going to be a complete waste of space, just spouting out blame rather than any solutions. His lack of any detail on what he proposes speaks volumes.
I’m sure the man has the best of intentions, but he seems remarkably unaware of where the division between the responsibilities of local and national government fall. If he is so concerned about school budget deficits, why is he a supporter of a party that consistently underfunded schools for 14 years and pushed them deliberately into those deficits, whilst stubbornly refusing to decrease the burden of their responsibilities to match the funds available to them? Why run for local office at all, since councillors have absolutely no power to remedy school budget crises except by taking money earmarked for other things to shore them up? That already happens – Brighton & Hove supplement the SEN funding deficit by around £2 million every year. As ‘a keen gardener’, does he perhaps have a magic money tree?
You do make a good point about where national policy affects local, and how local has limited control over these aspects, to the point where some topics are debatably irrelevant to the local agenda, since a Ward Councillor has little to no impact on them, yet people seem to think they do.
I hope he gets elected. He will be a great councillor and just what the City needs.
Is anyone going to take on Southern Water?
There was a Select Committee that was speaking to Martin Lewis about utilities. It was focused primarily on energy bills, but some of that translates well to water.
Councils and individual councils have no power to “take on” Southern Water.
They don’t have the power to take them to court for example.
They only have the power of the bully pulpit and that should be used sparingly.
I’d restore his antique furniture if you know what I mean PHWOAR
A man standing to be elected as local councillor who has worked in the city, run a local business, was born and bred here, raised a family here, has served as a local school governor and takes great pride in all that makes the city great…. what is the world coming to?
Standing for a political party who did so much damage nationally and locally that both are still recovering in a convalescence that will take several years.
As opposed to standing with ambitions based around national political agendas/ideology and with little or no genuine interest in local matters.
I have nothing really against this man, I don’t know him from Adam, but the party he’s choosing to represent is how many will define him, right?
That is the probably the case for idealists who have firmly entrenched, inflexible political views. Local politics would greatly benefit from the electorate judging candidates on an individual basis as opposed to voting for some Johnny-come-lately, parachuted in by their political party with no knowledge or genuine concern for pressing local matters. I would say the green party are far and away the worst offenders, but your cherished Labour party are running in a not too distant second place in this regard Benjamin.
I can’t argue against a meritocratic approach. Completely agree with you there.
I regularly worked with Mr. Meadows back in the day.
I, m not a tory but this guy is a genuine local who works hard like his wife for Brighton area..
Many councillors are underrated by their localconsituants. Look across the water and see real break down in democracy.. Ut mein got..
Why do you think they are underrated by their local constituents, Chas?