People living on a Brighton housing estate are considering taking action against the council as they feel abandoned after complaining about anti-social behaviour.
Craven Vale Community Association (CVCA) secretary Alan Cooke wrote to Brighton and Hove City Council leader Bella Sankey and chief executive Jess Gibbons on Monday (17 March).
The letter spoke about the “friction” between two respected members of the community affecting people and families living in 730 homes on the estate.
The community has rallied together over the past three years after drug dealers were housed on the estate and one nightmare neighbour threatened and shot at residents before eventually being evicted.
Mr Cooke wrote that two of the residents – highly respected in the community, having helped their neighbours tackle anti-social behaviour and having worked hard to improve the area – were now being treated as “persona non grata”.
Mr Cooke said: “Committee members are fully aware that the two individuals have done everything in their power to try to keep matters private and amicable. However, the CVCA committee feels that we have to step in at this point.
“Over the last two years we have watched how they have been ruthlessly targeted with shocking consequences for them both. It now seems that targeting these two individuals is not enough.
“The committee strongly feels that the whole of the estate and the wider area served by the association are being actively and deliberately punished because of the association with the two individuals through a withdrawal of co-operation, both by the two ward councillors representing the party in control in the city (the Labour Party) and by our community engagement officer.
“As a community we now know how they feel, having been targeted and ostracised too.
“These two individuals were the key players in uniting the community and bringing everyone together to fight the anti-social behaviour that plagued the estate back in 2022.”
Partly as a result of their efforts, a nightmare neighbour, Alex Holmgren, now 29, formerly of Craven Road, was jailed for 30 months just before Christmas 2023. His home was made the subject of a closure order. To read more, click here.
More recently, the Housing Ombudsman ruled against the council over its treatment of Craven Vale resident Lee Catt.
This followed a failure by the council to address anti-social behaviour, failing to clean his block and failing to make reasonable adjustments when communicating with him.
After submitting a subject access request to the council, Mr Catt learnt that council officials wanted to “push back” on complaints and regular communication with him even though he was a victim of anti-social behaviour.
Both his case and a neighbour’s are being reviewed to establish whether they were discriminated against. Both have protected characteristics under the 2010 Equality Act.
His neighbour, who is the other person referred to in Mr Cooke’s letter but has asked not to be identified, also made a subject access request.
It contained similar information to Mr Catt’s. The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) found a breach of data rights.
Mr Cooke’s letter also said: “We see no other explanation for the silence and withdrawal of co-operation from our two local councillors and our community engagement officer for a minimum of eight months.
“As a result, two major problems facing all of the Craven Vale Estate – and not just the committee members – are not being addressed by the council as we have no obvious route to request assistance in solving the problems.”
Association minutes for its Wednesday 12 March meeting include concerns about building work and social value after a contractor refurbishing properties on the estate was “relieved of their responsibility” in December, with another company taking on the remaining 36 properties.
For the two years when 130 properties were refurbished, the residents’ association met with the contractor but now promised social value work has not been carried out to “make good” a grass area damaged by the company’s storage containers and replace broken bollards.
The second issue is that, for eight years, the association has been discussing creating a community workshop in a disused storage unit on the estate and planning permission was granted in March 2023.
Now the residents are waiting for an update having heard nothing since the work was put out to tender in June 2024.
The minutes noted that the association was “hitting a wall of silence” from the council and wanted action from its councillors or the community engagement officer.
On Wednesday 19 March, ward councillor Tristram Burden contacted Mr Cooke to say the community were not abandoned and he had held ward surgeries in the estate’s community centre last month and in January.
Councillor Burden said that both he and his colleague, Councillor Milia Gauge, had raised the workshop issue with the chief executive in February.
He also apologised for missing community events.
Mr Cooke’s letter added: “Our association will not hesitate to put the interests of our residents first and hold the city council and any officers fully accountable for breach of policy, procedures, legislation and any other wrongdoing.
“We are aware the two residents have had successful rulings by the ICO and the Housing Ombudsman. As result we would be prepared to take out a ‘group action case’ with the Housing Ombudsman if necessary.
“We would also look into pursuing action collectively (on behalf of 730 households) through other avenues if needed.”
Before the 2023 council elections, Craven Vale was in the old East Brighton ward and represented by Labour councillor Gill Williams.
Councillor Williams responded as cabinet member for housing and new homes.
She said: “We’re very sorry that some residents are feeling abandoned by the council and would like to reassure them this is certainly not the case.
“We are aware of problems of anti-social behaviour on the estate and I have worked closely with the Craven Vale community to deal with these issues in the past.
“Queen’s Park ward councillors also hold regular surgeries to meet with local residents, with the most recent surgeries taking place on (Saturday) 11 January and (Saturday) 8 February.
“I’m keen to continue this work to investigate the community’s concerns and make sure all residents feel safe in their neighbourhood so I’ll be meeting with ward councillors and our community engagement team to progress this.
“The Housing Ombudsman has upheld aspects of Mr Catt’s complaint and has made orders for the council to put things right and these actions have been completed.
“We are committed to identifying and implementing learnings and recommendations from all ombudsman’s reports to prevent similar complaints in future and improve the service that all residents receive in Brighton and Hove.”
