Most of our time on the council at the moment is taken up with the budget-setting process as we move towards the main meeting next week.
The city – like the country more widely – is in the worst financial position in living memory.
Between them, three ingredients have come together to cause a perfect storm in the council’s finances, creating a £14 million black hole to be filled.
We have had 13 successive years of crippling cuts in government funding and, now, the “cost of living crisis” which has meant that this year’s services have cost the council millions of pounds more than expected.
And then there are the monumentally expensive vanity projects of both this and the previous Green administrations such as the i360.
Although we have a budget gap of £14 million between the income we can expect to receive and the amount we expect to spend, we are far from the only council feeling this pain, of course.
It is not helped by a government that wastes billions of pounds of public money lining the pockets of friends and donors for unusable PPE (personal protective equipment), private healthcare, transport and Royal Mail profiteers.
Now, to recover their losses, they are squeezing the public and councils too until the pips squeak.
And – unlike the government – councils are required by law to set a legal budget, however many cuts to much-needed services they have to make to fit the shrinking amount of money.
Having said all that, our current administration is very much part of the problem and there are proposals in the draft budget that Labour councillors will be trying our best to amend.
We’re delighted, of course, to have already forced the Greens into a U-turn on public toilet provision and we would like to thank every single one of the thousands of members of the public who brought deputations, protested, signed petitions, etc, on this subject over the past few weeks.
But there are other suggested savings that are deeply concerning.
Some of those still causing me sleepless nights include a large cut proposed to the “supported employment” service that provides such essential help to some of our most vulnerable residents – and the return of library fines for children.
Other short-sighted proposals include cuts to the tourist services that help to keep our visitor economy strong.
One thing we can’t amend, though, is the £2 million-plus that is in this year’s budget for the cost to the council of the i360.
The money is to cover the loan that the council ill-advisedly took out under the previous Green administration – with Conservative support but none from Labour – to lend onwards to build this vertical folly.
Councillor Amanda Evans is the deputy leader of the Labour opposition on Brighton and Hove City Council.
we have bigger fish to fry are you aware they plan to hit the public with a 40 percent energy price hike on april 1st and no its not an april fools joke….however theres a petition on the 38 degrees petition page aimed at stopping it it can also be found on facebook…..cancel the 1st april energy price hike…..if you do sign it? be sure to reshare it widely all over the uk
Ah yes – the i360! The Green Gift that keeps giving!
Labour gift
Your nose must be growing at a prolific rate
Hopefully the Greens will get a good shoeing in the May elections. Time to reclaim Brighton from the loonies.
So lets get this clear. Labour who handed power to the Greens in a secret power sharing deal as too many of their members were anti-semitic and so needed to stand down are now slagging off the Greens. Labour got us into this mess.
I agree with the other comments. The i360 was never going to reach the assumed footfall required to make it viable. My wife and are both OAP’s and in band E for our council tax with no wiggle room for reducing our costs.
I don’t like the 1360 but the seafront had been left a decrepit mess by Labour.
If you look at all the major changes in B&H. Valley Gardens , North Street, 7 dials. The seafront, OSR and The Drive bike lanes. The West Hove levelling up project. Moving council offices to Hove Town Hall.
It’s all been done under the few years The Greens have been in power.
The decades of Labour & Tories ? They did nothing for Madeira Terraces etc.
If you want more bike lanes you vote Green that’s democracy
Well said, although i360 was Labour too.
For those who don’t know: I360 was a Labour project and Amanda is a Labour councillor.
Nice try Amanda..
This is very typical of modern Labour, they don’t believe in anything other than power and will change their views moment to moment to get it.
Perfectly highlighted by the fact they approved the i360 but were already flip-flopping when it came to funding it.
In response to our chief Green cheerleader, I think we need to clarify the i360 financing here.
When the West Pier finally burnt down the Lottery money already promised to rebuild it was then cancelled. That left a headache for the council, and private investment brought to the table by the i360 company was thought to be a much-needed long term solution for that run-down section of the seafront.
It’s key to remember that the ‘West Pier problem’ had spanned several decades already.
The i360 plans were put before the council and, despite several design changes along the way, all parties were enthusiastic until it became clear that no bank would finance the build – because the projected visitor figures didn’t stack up.
One suggestion was that the council could itself finance the build with a loan – the same loan we are now saddled with.
When it came to voting on the loan, Labour voted against it and it was the Greens and Tories who colluded to vote it through.
That i360 loan, with the unpaid debt now accruing interest, is adding millions to the current council budget shortfall.
Labour – stop moaning and suggest some actual ways to raise revenue.
Conservatives – same as above.
Greens – stop spending money you don’t have on needless nonsense. (This list is almost Endless)
Whoever wins the next election needs to take a chunk of the transport budget (raised by car drivers) and plow it into re tarmacing every single road in the city. Cars, busses bikes scooters whatever the road user is those roads are a disgusting joke.
A big reason I currently drive and don’t cycle is because it’s to dangerous to cycle on the pot hole infested roads, has nothing to do with cycle lanes. £20 mil budget, employ a road crew to work full time rather than farming it out to expensive contractors. A good starting point would be Preston drove…
Don’t forget until very recently (with council elections nearing) Labour supported all of the Greens’ loopy vanity schemes.