An Independent candidate is to stand in the Westbourne and Poets Corner by-election for a seat on Brighton and Hove City Council.
The by-election has been called for Thursday 1 May after Labour councillor Leslie Pumm resigned, citing health grounds.
Brighton-born Keith Jago, 75, a former engineer and project manager, said: “I am retired and now disabled and seriously concerned about how seniors and disabled people’s needs are not being adequately addressed in our city.”
Mr Jago, who took part in the first London Marathon in 1981, was a keen runner for many years.
He said: “Sadly, all the miles clocked up marathon-running led to hip problems and I am disabled with a blue badge while awaiting operations on both hips.”
He added: “Always run on soft ground!”
Mr Jago said: “Seniors and disabled people get a raw deal and much improvement is needed to enrich their lives. This is why I have taken the difficult decision to stand as Independent in this election.
“I lack the finance for glossy election addresses and have few helpers but I stand for what I firmly believe – seniors and disabled people deserve much better than they currently receive.
“The strategy of Brighton and Hove library service is to make changes very rapidly this summer that will diminish certain library facilities for seniors and disabled residents and other groups too, such as young people.
“Following public consultation to come, three local libraries will have to close and others face opening hours cuts.
“These changes will save little money while impacting significantly on seniors and disabled people.
“In the overall financial picture, this saves peanuts for the council while hitting seniors and disabled people hard.
“I also realise and appreciate the many shortcomings in council services more generally.”
He has highlighted the problems caused by potholes locally on a number of occasions.
The married father of two worked as a university researcher, a software engineer at British Telecom’s Research Centre, in Ipswich, a development and test engineer for the System X digital exchange and as a database designer.
He returned to Brighton in 1986 when he became marketing and project manager with Ericsson Telecommunications before retiring.
When he worked as a researcher at Loughborough University, his report on international car seat-belt findings was sent to every MP.
It was a key document in the drive to make wearing a seat belt compulsory in Britain in the early 1980s – and the change continues to save lives every day.
Mr Jago also taught IT and mathematics at a local school, lectured at university and college level and taught English as a foreign language.
He was a governor at two Brighton schools as well as a director and company secretary at Hollingdean Community Association Ltd.
“He said that his personal experience of disability had raised his awareness of the sorts of difficulties faced by disabled people in our city.
“For example, there are insufficient disabled parking bays given the rising number of disabled people of Brighton and Hove – and access to buildings and buses can be a nightmare with limited mobility.
He said: “I never expected to be disabled myself as I was fit and it came as a massive shock when, in 2019, I suddenly could not walk properly.
“This has worsened until now when I am desperate for both hips to be replaced. I now realise ageing brings health issues you never anticipate when you are young.
“What we see happening to seniors now might happen to you later in life.
“As an Independent Councillor for Westbourne and Poets Corner, I will work for seniors in our city, for disabled people and for the wider population. There is much work to do.
“Please think of voting for me. Traditional political parties have failed us. More Independent councillors are being elected across Brighton for that reason.
“Rachel Reeves’s further attack on benefits shows Labour to be little better than the Conservatives with their austerity cuts that got the UK into the present financial mess.”
I been to Japan a few times where alot of libraries are run by volunteers and they are the hub of the community.why do they need 4/6 paid staff ? People keep them clean stocked up ( people in Japan can donate good quality books ) and there are lovely sitting areas and a cafe run by volunteers .where community groups can meet for free .why is everything so hard in this country .
Maybe an unpaid volunteer could take your job. How would you like that?
I am writing to raise my concerns about the extra cost of disability.
Scope’s new Price Tag report shows, on average, disabled households need an additional £1,010 a month to have the same standard of living as non-disabled households. After housing costs, this equates to 67% of household income.
Disabled people have to spend more on a range of things. For example, higher prices of specialist food, paying for taxis due to a lack of accessible public transport options, or increased energy usage to charge vital equipment.
THE COST OF BASIC FOOD, IN WHICH I HAD TO CUT BACK ON FOOD, AS I AM UNABLE TO COOK BECAUSE OF MY DISABILITIES. THE COST OF MEDICAL CARE. THE COST OF ADULT SOCIAL CARE. THE COST OF BILLS (GAS, ELECTRIC, WATER, RENT, COUNCIL TAX). VERY DIFFICULT TO BUDGET.
As my MP, your support in raising awareness of the extra cost of disability is really important to me. I want to see the Government take steps to tackle the extra cost of disability. Scope recommends reform to the benefits system and targeted action to reduce the cost of energy for disabled households.
To find out more about the extra cost of disability, please read Scope’s Disability Price Tag briefing (DOC 86KB). Scope have also written some suggested Parliamentary questions. To meet with them, please email publicaffairs@scope.org.uk
I am keen to hear what steps you will be taking to support disabled people in Brighton Kemptown and Peacehaven with extra costs.
First of all should he be elected he would be a councillor for a single ward on B&H City Council and not an MP.
Also this ward is in the Hove & Portslade constituency not Brighton Kemptown & Peacehaven.
He admits his disabilty is caused by his own foolish behaviour running marathons. I hope some of the runners in the upcoming Brighton Marathon take note.
Having written that, and then actually posting it for everyone to see, I think you’re heaving some very heavy stones in a very delicate glasshouse when talking about “foolish behaviour”.
Yes I utterly support this as the person who has learned the hard way that pounding hard surfaces creates forces that are just not experienced on soft, forgiving ground – like grass surfaces in parks, like our wonderful South Downs.
Rather like smoking in the sense that one cigarette does not immediately impact health, over a life time your health deteriorates and you risk COPD, lung cancer, heart disease, stroke and a reduced life span. Just as my Dad did as a life-long smoker (from Whitehawk). This is exactly why I took to running, not realising until it was too late that pounding pavements insidiously, slowly and unknowingly damages joints – hips and knees especially.
As I have said widely – don’t run on the hard surfaces like Brighton and Hove Seafront, the Undercliff Walk nor normal pavements. Walking is far safer on your body.
Ironically I write this on 6th April 2025 – Brighton Marathon Day when thousands of runners will make the very same mistake as I did – mile after mile on surfaces that destroy surfaces in your crucial joints such as knees and hips.
DON’T DO IT or you risk the agonies I have suffered over the past 5 years – severe hip pain, sleepless night through pain in bed when you simply cannot escape the pain and too many pain killing drugs that are unhealthy in the long term.
Fair play to him for standing. Running independent has to be a lot harder without the backing of a party. I hope that energy is continued after the election.
Good luck to him. I hope he tackles the council’s extreme digital discrimination in trying to force everyone including those with learning disabilities and dementia to not only possess and afford the correct digital equipment at their own expense but try and access all council services online and refusal to accept legal tender.
Utterly disgusting discrimination.
They have also been removing disabled parking spaces on Western Road as part of their multi-million pound dis-provements. The government only provided £1.5m so where did the rest come from? And the area is already in a bad state again with cracked paving and poor road surfaces, so all that money wasted.
Oh, the legal tender cash argument has been proven in case law to not being a thing, Mike. Councils generally don’t have to accept cash.
In the context of disability, reasonable adjustments.
Yes agreed Benjamin. The issue here is that it takes many years for this knowledge to become disseminated widely and for legal cases to be taken successfully. This will happen eventually but progress is so slow because our legal system relies in individuals taking legal action and risking massive court costs if the case is not won and costs are awarded against you as initiator of the case. As example, I cite my experience of a local soccer ground where I was a season ticket holder who had to climb 156 stairs (yes) to reach my seat in the gods (with the best view in the ground I assure you.
I asked for reasonable adjustment as a disabled person to use a lift – and there 5 that would suit this purpose. Yet refusal was the response.
Instead I was offered a more expensive seat elsewhere in the ground. At least two apparent infringements of the Equality Act 2010.
When I took legal advice even though the case appeared clear cut I was warned off taking legal action because of the deep, deep pockets of the company responsible with the warning they could afford the very best legal representatives and if my legal action was unsuccessful and the company sought damages against me it could bankrupt us. Not fair on my wife and too much of a risk to undertake plus no help from the E&HR Commission.
Result ? Reasonable adjustment applied by the company allowed us to return our season tickets outside the closure window and we no longer have season tickets. QED.
Recall the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. Initially no impact. Gradually in the 50 years since as social awareness grows and cases go to court its impact grows and grows until now you would not be allowed on to a building site without safety kit while safety is vastly improved. ….but then there is corruption leading to Grenfell Tower disasters but this is an issue for another day.