At full council last week, Labour councillors tabled questions to hold the administration to account on issues such as food supplies, parking, educational outcomes, bin collections, rough sleeping, low traffic neighbourhoods and more.
I raised the scourge of drug abuse, drug dealing and drug-related abuse faced by tenants in the city.
I was pleased to secure support from the leader of the council to write to the police and crime commissioner and the government demanding more resources to tackle drug dealing in our city.
I also called on the council to appoint a dedicated officer to deal with these issues and invited the administration to work with me to set up a drugs summit to start this process.
I’m pleased Labour was able to gain support for the range of proposals we put forward at the meeting.
Our plans to combat evictions were backed. We asked officers to actively contact landlords, letting agencies and housing providers and urge them not to evict tenants for the duration of the pandemic.
We also asked the chief executive to press the government to urgently extend the current evictions ban for at least six months and to tackle discriminatory lettings policies.
On behalf of Labour, I put forward a joint proposal with the Greens on the wellbeing of future generations that I was pleased to see passed.
Essentially, it asked us to include the voices of young people in our discussions and decision-making as a council and ensure our actions meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
Young people have been hit hard by past decisions and it is our moral duty to protect their interests and safeguard their future.
I’m also proud we won support for our lobbying plans to save the Union Learning Fund, our joint proposals to bring in more road safety measures and a cross-party commitment to working towards equality and ensuring trans-inclusive practices are implemented across the council.
Your Labour councillors stood up for residents, held the administration to account and won backing for policies that will have a positive impact on the city. We will continue to do so.
Councillor Nancy Platts is the Labour opposition leader on Brighton and Hove City Council.
Labour in B&H aren’t in opposition to the greens, they are in an effective alliance as has been widely reported. They agree on many policy areas and vote together. Even when individual Labour councillors have concerns, they vote as a block to support the greens. You can clearly see this when you watch the committees
Is there anything wrong with this? Probably not – as Labour and green agree on many areas. However for Labour to describe themselves (and pay themselves) as the official opposition is wrong. Why not just be honest and say just as the greens helped Labour when they were in power, Labour now help the greens?
If we disagree with Labour or Greens we are really disagreeing with them both. The challenge is who else to vote for – I am hoping for many more true independents.
So why didn’t you do this whilst in Office?
Round objects!
Perhaps you could provide a copy of the coalition agreement that you signed between Labour and Greens that apparently says that the parties will secretly agree on many topics prior to committee discussions and then support each other?
Perhaps explain what happened with:
Cycle lanes
Pesticide Ban
Parking Charges
Valley Gardens
What did Labour promise the Greens to get them to sign the original agreement you avoid being a minority led council?
What value is Labour to really providing to the city?
Will Labour work with the Conservatives to halt the Greens obsessive expansion of barely used cycle lanes that just causes congestion and increased emissions?
Will you support Portslade’s 4 councillors who are against the expansion of the temporary A270 cycle lanes to the city boundary?
Nancy you are deluded, and the voters of Brighton and Hove see through this ‘sham’ opposition. Interesting to note that all 4 Labour councilors in Portslade are against the extension to the OSR Cycle lane, (and rightly so), will you back them get rid of the OSR cycle lane or will your coalition agreement prevent that. We will all be watching. As a Labour supporter I am totally dismayed by the local party who do so little for the city except rollover for the hugely unpopular Greens.
Tell you this much all Green party want to do to stay in power is to rely on the student proxy vote never mind about the B&H residents who have to suffer from the bad planned cycle lanes and yet they can’t see more traffic build up more pollution