Seven candidates are standing for two seats in Queen’s Park on Brighton and Hove City Council in the local elections next month. They answered questions sent in by the public via social media.
Why do you want to be a councillor?
Brighton and Hove Independents candidate Adrian Hart, 62, is a video editor and writer. He is on Twitter @AdrianHartQuPk.
He said: “I am proud to be part of a new movement of Independents. As your Independent councillor, I will be free from the control of national party machines.
“I will exclusively focus on constituents and the task of restoring good governance to Brighton and Hove.
“If elected, I hope to raise at committee level neighbourhood concerns built up over recent years.
“The housing crisis is one. We have residents in private accommodation facing exorbitant rents and young people unable to live in the city in which they were born.
“It is a national scandal. Brighton and Hove City Council should be on the forefront of demanding change.
“I have lived on Carlton Hill for 20 years. In 2018, alongside many local residents, I opposed the ‘Edward Street Quarter’ overdevelopment.
“Despite the lack of affordable housing, Labour, Green and Tory councillors ensured the scheme was approved.
“In 2019, I helped establish Amex Area Neighbourhood Forum which secured the lease for our thriving White Street Community Garden in Edward Street. Local ward councillors had told us it wasn’t possible.
“I stood as an Independent for Queen’s Park in 2019. I remain convinced that our Green, Labour and Tory ward councillors fail electors by prioritising the needs of party.
“The council need to get back to basics and provide efficient well-run services for the ward.
“Removing the Aquarium roundabout will cause congestion and air pollution in our area, as will plans for an LTN (low-traffic neighbourhood). Local businesses and residents will suffer but too often their objections are ignored.
“Let’s have ward councillors who listen to residents. Like so much of the city, the ward looks dirty and run down.
“The proliferation of spray-can tagging, the failure to deal with drug dealing, overflowing bins, proliferating weeds symbolise a ‘no one cares, no one’s in charge’ environment and will simply invoke more of the same.”
Conservative candidate Martin Kenig, 75, is a retired medical writer. Dr Kenig said: “It is noticeable that the appearance of the city has deteriorated over recent years.
“Uncollected rubbish and items for recycling spill out of the bins – and weeds are left uncut. There are issues with anti-social behaviour and graffiti.
“I want to see improvements and better value for money from a council with a relatively high tax burden on its residents.
“I would use my scientific background to contribute to initiatives, ie, health. I am interested in the city’s heritage – I have published a book on Brighton history – and would want to be engaged in heritage and tourism issues.
“The heritage of Queen’s Park is important to me, with the conservation area as well as the many grade II listed properties in the ward.
“I would work to ensure that the ward looks at its best and its historic buildings and monuments respected. I would emphasise the importance of community safety and good street lighting.
“As a resident with no car, I often depend on the reliability of the city’s bus services and I would work to make sure standards were maintained for the residents of Queen’s Park and the wider city.
“The transformation of family homes to flats and student HMOs is a key issue. This change in demographics results in families moving out and a reduction in the school population and school entry places being cut.
“The council tax base is smaller. The Conservatives proposed an amendment (voted against by Labour and Greens) to protect more family homes by raising the floor area threshold by which they could be converted to flats.
“There are issues relating to graffiti, vandalism and drug use that need to be addressed. Speeding above 20mph limits is another problem that is a danger to residents.”
Green candidate Clare Rainey, 50, is a graphic designer who is seeking re-election to the council. She said: “I have been a councillor in Queen’s Park ward for the last four years and have worked hard for Queen’s Park residents.
“I find it very rewarding to be able to make a positive difference to people’s lives by helping them with their problems and concerns, such as with housing, schools, discrimination, anti-social behaviour and outside spaces to name a few.
“Protecting the environment and addressing climate change are priorities for me and as a councillor. I can play a part in developing policies which help to achieve these goals.
“I have lived in Queen’s Park ward since I moved to Brighton in 2002 and have brought up my children here. I have in-depth knowledge of the area and an excellent understanding of the issues which affect local residents.
“I am very well connected with residents, community groups, businesses, nurseries and schools in the ward and would like to continue to build on these relationships.
“Although I have achieved a lot in the last four years there is still a lot more to do in the ward.”
Green candidate Mark Strong, 61, is a transport planning consultant. He is on Twitter @markstrongqp.
He said: “I’ve been active in local community groups for 30 years and have extensive experience of working with councils across the UK on transport and planning (two of Brighton and Hove City Council’s core activities).
“My professional and voluntary experience could improve how the council delivers and explains much-needed changes in our city.
“As a Jewish person and son of a refugee, I am very aware of issues faced by minority ethnic people in the city and want to help make a difference on these.
“Finally, as someone running a small business, I’d like to improve links with this important sector of the local economy.
“I’ve lived in Queen’s Park for nearly 20 years – and before that in Hanover. Both my children went to school here.
“Walking to work through the ward daily, I have personal knowledge of issues concerning residents like litter, lighting, potholes and damaged pavements.
“While living locally, I’ve been involved with many community groups including chairing the local action team and being on the committee of Friends of Queen’s Park.
“I have good links with local businesses as well as bodies such as Sussex Police. I’m keen to build on these as a councillor to help people across the whole ward.”
Clare Rainey and Mark Strong said that the key issues in the ward were
- Maintaining and improving open spaces, particularly Queen’s Park itself but also Whitehawk Hill, Tarner Park, Upper Bedford Street and White Street community gardens
- Housing, in particular, issues with shared houses (HMOs), social housing and affordable housing schemes
- Road danger from traffic, eg, speeding in Freshfield Road, Queen’s Park Road and Carlton Hill as well as lack of safe crossings
- Anti-social behaviour and drug use, particularly in Queen’s Park
- Upkeep of facilities in social housing including council housing
- Insufficient communal recycling facilities and missed or not frequent enough collections
- Low level of street lighting in some areas
Labour candidate Tristram Burden, 43, is an adult social care service development worker. He is on Twitter @Tristramburden.
He said: “I’m standing as a councillor because I want to improve lives across the city, particularly the vulnerable and disadvantaged, with Labour values of equality, fairness and social justice.
“We have a diverse city, with a thriving tourist and creative economy, and I want to preserve and enhance these vital assets.
“As a proud trade union member, I’d align my councillor work with the vital interests of all workers who strive and toil to keep our great city safe, clean and help create and maintain a national centre of high-quality education, wellbeing, inclusion and flourishing culture.
“For the three years I’ve lived in Brighton, Queen’s Park is where I’ve called home.
“From issues with street lighting, a neglected park and insufficient local consultation on key changes to the area, I want to champion local voices and ensure the community is always brought along with developments and changes to the ward.
“We have so many valuable cultural assets, from our grade II listed buildings to our nurseries, schools and faith centres.
“It’s a unique and beautiful ward with a range of communities and spaces. I want to make a demonstrable positive difference to them.
“Our ward has been suffering from neglect. From delays to the installation of our new play park to a lack of action getting the bin services and recycling sorted, the wear and tear of the ward is too visible.
“Where residents and the community come together to keep their streets clean, you can see the difference it makes. But we pay our council tax to get vital public services and too often these services just aren’t visible.
“From graffiti to broken streetlighting and potholes to slow action on speeding in Freshfield Road, the council looks absent.”
Labour candidate Chandni Mistry, 19, is a volunteer. She said: “In line with the core principles of Labour of inclusivity and openness, I wish to represent the local community and be accountable for the real change the community is looking for.
“I was brought up in Queen’s Park and am very proud to live here and excited about the prospect of representing my local community.
“I love that Queen’s Park is so diverse and has lots of facilities for families although our play park has been sadly neglected and that is something I want to fix.
“I will be pushing for cleaner streets and improved rubbish and recycling collections and getting graffiti cleaned off to keep Queen’s Park looking nice for residents. I want to tackle the living crisis with my ward and homelessness.
“Our ward is suffering from neglect. From delays in installation of our new playpark to lack of action getting bin services and recycling sorted, the wear and tear is too visible.
“Where residents come together to keep their streets clean, you see the difference it makes. But we pay our council tax for vital public services and too often these services just aren’t visible.
“From graffiti to broken streetlighting and potholes to slow action on speeding in Freshfield Road, the council looks absent.
“Too often, the Green council puts more resources into their own wards and Queen’s Park misses out.”
The Liberal Democrats are also fielding a candidate – Thomas Osborne.
What will you do to make the area safer for people with protected characteristics (eg, LGB, trans, non-binary and intersex)?
Adrian Hart said: “Residents repeatedly raised safety issues with police and local councillors. I’ll endeavour to demand improved public safety for everyone – better street lighting, ‘bobby’s on the beat’, action on assaults.
“In September, we attended a rally and were horrified that police stood by watching women being verbally abused by mobs of masked men.
“Drowned out by chants of ‘No TERFs on our turf’, women held firm as they attempted to address the rally despite smoke bombs thrown at them.
“Holding gender-critical beliefs is a protected characteristic yet our council leaders seem to agree with the ‘No TERFS’ chant. It’s called misogyny. Shameful.”
Martin Kenig said: “Thankfully, Brighton is one of the most LGBTQIA+ places in the country but the possibility of homophobic and transphobic attacks still exists.
“To counter such attacks, and to aid prosecution where they occur, we support the installation of CCTV.”
Clare Rainey and Mark Strong said: “We were proud to adopt the anti-racism strategy in March and are developing an accessible city strategy.
“As part of the updated community safety strategy, we will continue partnership working with Sussex Police and increase awareness on reporting hate incidents and crime (via the council or other portals), making sure it is taken seriously and addressed from a ‘believing the victim’ perspective.
“All tenancy agreements, business licences, etc, must be very clear that there must be no discrimination or abuse towards neighbours, staff or customers with protected characteristics. We will support places used by groups representing people with protected characteristics.”
Tristram Burden and Chandni Mistry said: “Core Labour values are equality and fairness for all. In that spirit, a majority Labour administration will protect the city’s LGBTQ+ venues.
“We’ll build on Labour’s gender equality campaign and work hard to improve night-time safety, particularly for women, black, Asian and minority ethnic residents and the LGBTQ+ community.
“Brighton and Hove is an anti-racist ‘City of Sanctuary’ – we’ll develop the council’s accessible city strategy, champion those with caring responsibilities or chronic conditions and foster in-depth scrutiny of current mental health services.”
Too many drivers ignore double yellow lines, creating a parking free-for-all. How will you deal with this?
Adrian Hart said: “I’d seek to assess the extent of this problem in our ward and find out why enforcement officers are not tackling this (though it’s right to allow delivery drivers a few minutes to go about their work).
“We need more (not less) parking spaces and to charge residents, visitors and commercial vehicles less. No spaces mean care workers and other services forced to risk parking on yellow lines.
“Flagrant yellow line abuses ignored by enforcement flag up a general failure at council level that relates to the topic of tagger vandals identified to council officers who take no action.”
Martin Kenig said: “The answer would be to increase warden patrols and to make sure that wardens are being deployed in the right areas.
“On the subject of parking, it is noted that the cost of residential parking permits has been increased by the current administration, above that recommended by council officers.”
Clare Rainey and Mark Strong said: “This is mainly an issue in the parts of Queen’s Park near the city centre, by Valley Gardens.
“We will continue to support both regular reactive and proactive parking enforcement and let residents know how to report anti-social parking, including on pavements. We will also use the council’s powers to increase camera enforcement of problem parking.
“Elsewhere in the ward, this is mainly a problem at peak hours, especially around schools, eg, Brighton College.
“We will continue to introduce School Streets to make it safer for children and also work to spread the message that parking should respect people.”
Tristram Burden and Chandni Mistry said: “Brighton and Hove traffic wardens have a reputation as being some of the most ruthless in the country so this question did surprise us.
“We need to ensure they’re in the right place at the right time. Where this isn’t currently happening, it’s evidence that we need to improve our reporting systems.
“We want to provide more accessible and responsive services. Where drivers are routinely ignoring double yellows, we need wardens targeting those areas at those times it’s occurring to ensure a crackdown.”
What will you do to reduce vandalism and graffiti?
Adrian Hart said: “Along with fellow residents, I’ve taken action on one prolific tagger who promotes his brand both on social media and the walls, post-boxes and shopfronts he vandalises.
“The council and local media discovered this tagger hiding in plain sight only when @BHIndies pointed it out. Our investigation uncovered the extraordinary indifference of council and police enforcement.
“They seem to tolerate talentless ‘tagging’ while bluntly threatening shopkeepers with penalties if tags are not removed. Independent councillors will expose this failure, relentlessly demanding competent and co-ordinated police and council action.
“So abjectly let down by our salaried officials, businesses and residents have organised city-wide community resistance (brat.org.uk).”
Martin Kenig said: “The council allowed the city’s ‘public space protection orders’ to expire in 2019 and has since declined an invitation from the police and crime commissioner to apply for funding for CCTV to cover such areas.
“The Conservatives aim to implement the first and apply for the second.”
Clare Rainey and Mark Strong said: “We will improve ways to report all forms of anti-social behaviour to the council and Sussex Police, such as “Fix My Street” for graffiti and litter.
“We will work hard to increase awareness of these options, increase awareness of how frequently regular clean-up services take place and aim to reduce response times for reactive action.
“We will encourage residents to form street and community groups to increase pride in local areas, including reviving Queen’s Park LAT, and work with community groups such as Good Gym to run community action to remove graffiti – as is done by Greens in Hanover.”
Tristram Burden and Chandni Mistry said: “This got much worse during lockdown and there’s a backlog. But we can change it by working harder. We need to be more responsive. The council can see what is happening on our streets.
“They know where there’s a broken window on a bus shelter or where graffiti tags are overrunning a grade II listed building.
“Labour will explore more efficient ways of sharing this information with relevant departments, including the police, so that action can be taken quicker. Joined up and more responsive working will be part of the training for our valuable council workers.”
Polling day is Thursday 4 May. Photo ID is required for those voting in person.
