A Manifesto that CAN be implemented

On first reading, there are two things that struck me about the Green Party manifesto for the local elections. The first is this comment in the introduction:

"We realise many of our Manifesto plans cannot be implemented immediately because the city is starved of cash. But we will not abandon our aspirations, because they offer practical solutions to the challenges the city faces."

This suggests that little attention has been paid to whether or not the ideas in the manifesto could actually be carried out, even if the Green Party were to control the Council. This makes little sense to me. Why produce a manifesto you freely admit you wouldn't be able to put into practice, even if you did gain control? What value does it have, other than simply as a wish list?

Labour's manifesto has been costed out, based on what we know we have in the next budget year, and what we think we will have after that. We're proposing genuine options for the future, and are ready to deliver.

From a ward perspective, the other thing that strikes me is how little is said about one of the biggest issues in Hanover and Elm Grove, the growing numbers of student households. Mention is made of the council enquiry which produced a number of recommendations in 2009. But the picture I have got from talking to residents is that those measures are simply not going to be adequate to deal with the problem, and we must look towards legislation to give communities some control.

Of course there is a need for student housing in the city, as it's a great benefit that we have two large universities. I haven't spoken to anyone I would describe as anti-student. But there are people who are concerned about the concentration of student housing in small areas, and the fact that it changes the local community and creates other issues.

The Labour manifesto contains a commitment to campaign for the reinstatement of planning permission for conversion to HMO's, and to using the existing HMO licensing legislation to introduce tougher controls. This seems to me to speak much more to the immediate and pressing concerns in the neighbourhood - and are specific, practical things that can actually be done.


Tracey Hill

Varndean parents against Academy move

At a meeting last night at the Hanover pub, over 20 Varndean parents gathered to start a campaign opposing any move for Varndean towards academy status. The idea was discussed at a Governing Body meeting, but clearly it was controversial and not all the details have been released.


It was Labour which introduced the idea of Academies and it has always been controversial, particularly the involvement of private finance and the option of opting out of local authority control. However, Labour's legislation was only ever targeted at schools which were struggling under the existing system. Widening the legislation to include schools which are rated as good or outstanding is an attack on the system itself, and moves us ever further away from being able to offer a good education to every child.

Varndean is the latest school in Brighton and Hove to express an interest in academy status since the coalition government introduced its new legislation, and in my view is a negative step which will adversely affect education in the city.

Tracey Hill

Marching for the Alternative

What a great atmosphere on the march today - people from all corners of the country, all ages, united against what the coalition government is doing to our public services. It was great to be a part of it.

We must keep exposing the government's argument that these cuts are necessary. They are not: they are too deep and too fast, and motivated by ideology not economic necessity. The economy was improving already under Labour, but now we are facing increasing living costs and youth unemployment. The damage proposed to the NHS and our education system is long term and not easily undone. We must keep marching!

Labour's Manifesto

Our manifesto is now on our website. We have plenty of positive ideas for the city despite the economic difficulties. Do take a look!

We gathered to launch the manifesto yesterday on Brighton beach: here's a picture of different generations of the Fitch family, Harris and Brian, both candidates in the upcoming elections.

Talking Waste

I went along to a Community Waste Forum this evening, organised by the Council and CityClean and chaired by the University of Brighton. Waste may not be an exciting topic to many, but this was actually a really interesting couple of hours.

The purpose of the group is to allow communities more input into how we deal with waste in the city. This includes refuse, recycling and composting as well as initiatives to reduce waste in the first place.

We reviewed a list of eleven possible ideas for community projects which had come out of the previous meeting and been reviewed. CityClean is proposing moving the majority of them forward. They include amongst others a community composting proposal from residents of Beaufort Terrace which CityClean will help with in terms of trying to identify a site, and places for the compost to be used. The residents' job would be to manage the composting area and get people using it right.

Many people came along with plenty of ideas already which came out in the subsequent discussion. I like the idea of dealing with student end-of-term detritus in a constructive way. Apparently duvets often get thrown out at the end of the academic year. One suggestion was to see if there was any interest from dogs' homes for these. One person's junk may be of value somewhere else, and forums like this help to make these connections.

Tracey Hill

The Level: I chose Option One

I've just completed the Council's consultation on the Level. They are asking for public views on two different options. The main difference is the location of the planned new skatepark. In Option One, it's roughly where it is now. In Option Two, it would be moved north of Rose Walk and would occupy one of the grassy quadrants in the north part.

Many people, including almost everyone at the Friends of the Level meeting I attended last month, say that they are against losing any of the grassy space at the northern end, as they really value this open space. Having looked at the plans, I agree: it's great to have an open area where people can just sit and relax, especially right in the middle of the city, and the proposed new location of the skatepark would eat into that area quite substantially.

The skatepark would be the same size in either of the two options, and my understanding is that while some skaters would prefer the new park to be moved, more are either happy with it where it is, or don't have a strong view about the location as long as it's at least an equivalent size to what they have currently.

Option Two does provide more space for the childrens' play area in the southern end, but I believe Option One is more acceptable to the broad range of users of the space, so that is the Option I chose.

To have your say on the consultation, visit the Council's website .

Tracey Hill

The City's Budget for next year has been finalised

Next year’s budget for the city will be £2.5m more generous thanks to opposition amendments which were approved at the Council’s budget meeting last week.

The additional money comes from the reversal of the minority Tory Council’s proposal to reduce Council tax by 1%. Instead, Council tax next year will be frozen, providing over £1m in additional funding. The Conservatives have also agreed not to go ahead with scrapping a cycle lane in Hove, which would have cost £1.1m.

The additional funds will be used for:

• drug and alcohol abuse prevention work, youth offending - keeping more young people out of the criminal justice system
• older people's personal care
• community development and support that will benefit 24 separate neighbourhoods across the city
• more money for school budgets
• additional money for the Connexions careers advice and guidance service
• maintaining the anti-bulling and equality work with schools that focuses on discrimination
• funding to keep subsidized bus routes going for another year
• running a food waste collection pilot
• preventing the 30% cut to the council's music service
• funding for a citywide debt advice, anti-loan shark financial inclusion strategy that includes additional support for the Credit Union and existing money advice services.

And we also put money back into reserves, giving us more options for future years.

The amendments, which took over five hours to be passed, were finalized when the Conservatives voted in favour of the amended budget and Labour abstained. The Greens voted against the budget, which means that they voted against all the above amendments as well, many of which were jointly proposed by them. If all opposition parties had voted against, all the amendments would have been lost and we would have been left with no budget and only a week to go before the deadine by which Councils are legally required to pass a budget.

Cuts to local government funding - imposed nationally by the coalition government -means that the city will face difficult times next year. But Labour Councillors will continue to work hard to minimize the effects of these cuts on the city and on the most vulnerable people. The budget amendments are an example of this in practice.

Our thoughts on Studentification

(Photo: some of the hazards of high concentrations of multi-occupancy households)

Many people we have spoken to over the past few months have mentioned issues caused by rising numbers of multi-occupancy households.

The majority of such households provide accommodation for students, and the positive contribution of our two thriving universities to the city is often mentioned. Access to higher education expanded under the previous Labour government, giving many more people the valuable opportunity to go to university.

However, it does also need to be recognised that large numbers of multiple occupancy households do put a strain on a neighbourhood, if they are clustered together into a small area. Parking space, rubbish collection and noise at night were the three issues most often mentioned.

The Council issued a scrutiny report on the subject in 2009, with actions covering those three issues. However, from talking to residents we get the impression that we are yet to see positive results. We think that more needs to be done, and that the causes need to be addressed as well as the symptoms.

The Labour Government introduced changes to planning law requiring a conversion to multi-occupancy houses (HMOs) to be granted planning permission. This would have allowed the local community some say in whether a conversion should be allowed. Unfortunately, the Coalition government has already overturned that change within six months of gaining power.

Labour also brought in legislation which strengthened the requirement for HMOs to be licensed, and gave local councils more control over HMO licensing. In parts of central Brighton and Hove including this ward, the council is consulting on extending the type of house requiring a licence to include smaller houses of two storeys or more, with three or more occupants.

Licensing and planning is not the whole answer, but we would support tighter controls on HMOs so that local areas can have some influence on the balance of accommodation, and to protect occupants by ensuring conversions are carried out to sufficiently high quality. We would campaign for this if elected as Councillors.

It is important to work with universities, and ensure that they recognise the role that they can play in contributing positively to the community, and that those small numbers of students who are persistently anti-social are held to account. In the longer term, the city needs to take responsibility for ensuring that there is adequate accommodation for students, and that this is factored into our long term planning.

Other towns and cities, for example Leeds, Nottingham, Loughborough and many more, have similar issues with growing numbers of HMOs, and have put in place different measures. We would look outward at other places to see what we can learn from them, and what new ideas we can bring to our city. We would also work closely with the whole community to ensure that everyone’s voice is heard.

We feel that this is one of the biggest issues facing the ward at the moment. It is very important to manage change so that Hanover and Elm Grove remains a pleasant and welcoming place for people of all ages and lifestyles who want to live here.