Community Not Cuts – UNISON Rally
Thurs 30th Jan, 3:30pm, Hove Town Hall
Event link: https://fb.me/e/2vbwUy9H8

“More cuts. More job losses. fewer services. without a people’s budget, more decline is on the way for Brighton and Hove.”

A Labour Council, and a Labour government – yet Brighton & Hove UNISON’s warning about what’s to come for our city is simple. Unless Labour support a true people’s budget, vital public services will continue to collapse. Our schools, our communities can’t take anymore cuts. Labour were elected promising change – so far all they’ve offered is more of the same.

This Thursday, Brighton & Hove Greens will be bringing a motion to Full Council supporting UNISON’s campaign to #BringItBack and reverse over a decade of austerity measures in which the national government has taken £110 million that could have gone towards our transport, schools, parks, communities, and care. Local government services continue to be squeezed by rising costs and central government’s refusal to provide the necessary funding. If Labour want growth, they must recognise that public investment, not cuts, are the only answer.

Before the meeting, Brighton & Hove UNISON, Brighton Hove and District Trades Union Council, and Collective Action will be rallying for Community, Not Cuts – supporting of the Green motion, and calling on Brighton & Hove City Council to stand up to central government, and stand up for Brighton & Hove.

Join us tomorrow, Thursday 30th January at 3:30pm outside Hove Town Hall, and join us in saying enough is enough. Brighton & Hove needs a people’s budget.

Find out more about the rally here: https://fb.me/e/2vbwUy9H8

The post #BringItBack – Greens support UNISON in calling for a People’s Budget for Brighton & Hove appeared first on Brighton & Hove Green Party.

Reacting to the King’s Speech, Adrian Ramsay MP said: “Labour promised change but it has fallen short of the urgent transformative programme we need, and which the Government has the power to deliver.  

“Our four Green MPs, and the nearly two million people who voted Green in the election, want to see a bolder Labour Government that will invest in ambitious change, including to restore our essential public services and tackle the climate and nature emergencies.    

“This is what a genuinely ambitious programme would look like, rather than a fixation on growth for growth’s sake which fails to recognise the big challenges.”

“We welcome the Prime Minister resetting the tone of politics as being about public service and there were some welcome announcements in the King’s Speech, but Labour’s ambition will sadly be hampered for as long as they handcuff themselves with the Conservatives’ fiscal rules.   

“Greens want action to clean up our rivers and seas by ending the failed experiment of water privatisation, the immediate scrapping of the cruel two-child benefit cap, no climate-wrecking oil and gas extraction from Rosebank, and local authorities to be given the powers to introduce controls on private rent levels.

“This is what a genuinely ambitious programme would look like, rather than a fixation on growth for growth’s sake which fails to recognise the big challenges.”

“This is what a genuinely ambitious programme would look like, rather than a fixation on growth for growth’s sake which fails to recognise the big challenges.”

ends

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Elaine Hills, the Green MP candidate for Brighton Kemptown & Peacehaven, noted on X/Twitter the absence of the all six (overall total) Tory and Labour city MP candidates at a key local election hustings for the city on Thursday 20 June. 

Green Party candidate for Brighton Kemptown and Peacehaven, Elaine Hills, said, “Greens will always find time to discuss issues that affect workers.”

Attendance at Workers Question Time for Brighton and Hove election candidates, organised by Brighton & Hove Trades Union Council, Unite and UNISON:

• Greens 3
• Lib Dems 1
• Independents 1
• Labour 0
• Tories 0

All three of the city’s Green Party MP candidates attended the hustings: Sianberry (Brighton Pavilion), Elaine Hills (Brighton Kemptown & Peacehaven) and Sophie Broadbent (Hove & Portslade).

Brighton & Hove Trades Union Council using @BrightonHoveTUC tweeted, “We can confirm that the three Labour candidates were sent the same invitation to Workers Question Time as everyone else. Peter Kyle said he would not be in the constituency. Tom Gray and Chris Ward never responded at all.” 

Green Party candidate for Brighton Kemptown and Peacehaven, Elaine Hills, said, “Greens will always find time to discuss issues that affect workers. This non-attendance clearly shows that Greens care a lot more about working people.”

Green Party candidate for Brighton Kemptown and Peacehaven, Elaine Hills, said, “Greens will always find time to discuss issues that affect workers. This non-attendance clearly shows that Greens care a lot more about working people than Labour and the Tories.

“It’s sad to see that Labour who are directly funded by two unions that organised the event, Unite and UNISON, failing to honour local working people and unions with the courtesy of an in-person opportunity to question their MP candidates. The Greens in contrast show real, practical, policy interest in workers’ rights, pay and conditions.

“It gave Greens an opportunity to talk about our manifesto promises for workers: to repeal anti-trade union legislation and make it a legal obligation for all employers to recognise trade unions and give all workers a right to strike.”

You can read other pertinent comments on the event from influencers and candidates in the absence of the two parties from Brighton Hove Greens using the @bhgreens handle on X/Twitter which has retweeted posts about the issue.

Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza

A large part of the discussion involved the Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza and the Greens made very clear their call for the following:

• A secure release of hostages acknowledging suffering on both sides
• An end to occupation of Palestinian land (Gaza and West Bank)
• Upholding self-determination and international law
• A bilateral ceasefire
• An end to arms sales to Israel.

You can read the relevant national Green Party manifesto pledges to the conflict at https://greenparty.org.uk/about/our-manifesto/a-fairer-greener-world/.

The full manifesto is published online at https://greenparty.org.uk/about/our-manifesto/ and there are downloadable options including an easy read accessible version.

Notes 

Visit the #VoteGreen24 X/Twitter handle to learn the latest on the national Green manifesto promises and perspectives.

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The results, which were announced Sunday afternoon, showed a drop in support for Labour and an increase in support for the Greens. There was a 8.5% swing from Labour to the Greens in Queen’s Park, with Labour’s vote dropping by 14%.

Luke Walker, the Green candidate in Queen’s Park, said “These by-elections were unnecessary and caused by Labour’s failure to vet their own candidates properly, but voters have selected Labour to represent them again and I wish the new councillors well.

“I had a great response on the doorsteps in Queen’s Park and will do my best to make sure that the new councillor delivers for local people.”

Ricky Perrin, the Green candidate in Kemptown, said “Well done to the new Labour councillor, but I hope this time they do the work that the people here need. And that means getting on top of missed rubbish and recycling collections, increased litter, potholes, blocked pavements, drug dealers, dog poo, graffiti, street safety and anti-social behaviour. So far, Labour’s performance on these issues has been very poor. I hope the new councillor can do a lot better.”

Green Council Group convenor Cllr Steve Davis commented, “We are only one year into this Labour administration and we are already seeing their support drop substantially. If this result were replicated across the city, Labour would lose five of its current councillors to the Greens.”

“This was an increase in support for Brighton & Hove Green Party and shows that local people are looking for better than what Labour are offering.

“Our candidates showed how passionate local Greens are about improving our neighbourhoods and city, and we want to thank them for their great work in both wards.”

Cllr Davis added, “We congratulate the new Labour councillors on their election and we will make sure they deliver on the promises they have made to voters.”

Notes

Full results from Brighton & Hove City Council

The post Thank you to all who voted Green on Thursday 2 May in Brighton council by-elections caused by Labour’s mishandled candidate selection appeared first on Brighton & Hove Green Party.

Councillor Leo Littman

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We can all do our bit to reduce litter: take our rubbish home, or even better, don’t take rubbish with us in the first place. However, it is the Council’s responsibility to keep our green spaces clean and tidy, and this early May bank holiday they failed horribly.

30,000 visitors flocked to the city and tourists and residents were drawn into parks and open spaces by the sunshine. Yet instead of being a reminder of the Brighton Fringe & Festival’s fantastic cultural and arts offer, the bank holiday also became a reminder of the Council’s failure to deal with waste. 20 tonnes of it was left behind on Brighton beach alone.

Any influx of visitors in Brighton and Hove can cause a surge in litter. With good weather forecast at the start of May, it should have been clear that extra resources to manage waste collection would be needed.

Yet Councillor Gill Mitchell, the Labour lead on Environment, said that ‘extra staff resources would be in place by the end of May and beginning of June.’ Talk about shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted!

The bank holiday litter issue belies a much bigger problem. This is not the fault of City Clean and City Parks workers, who spend hours painstakingly picking up rubbish overflowing from inadequate bins; it’s the Council’s Labour administration who cut their budgets too hard.

Complaints from residents about litter, bins and fly tipping problems now appear in my inbox on almost a daily basis. They eclipse practically all other complaints received by myself and my fellow Green Councillors.

Residents are clearly frustrated with overflowing bins and months of delayed bin collections. They have raised concerns about the impact of rubbish on our environment and our tourist economy. On top of the rising number of unsightly graffiti ‘tags’ that now cover buildings across the city, it is easy to see why residents and conservation societies are increasingly fed up.

There is no doubt that hardworking and committed staff – like so many public service workers hit hard by ruthless austerity cuts – are being asked to do more with fewer resources. Last autumn we heard that refuse collection trucks were available in the depot but with no staff to drive them. Cuts to the dedicated City Clean team by the Labour Council have gone too far, too fast and the service is struggling to keep up with demand.

Rubbish recycling figures

The solution to some of this does not rest solely on providing more bins. Councils in England spend around £852m per year on waste collection. As recent documentary Blue Planet made clear, we all need to reduce our waste at the source, dispose of it responsibly – and be helped to recycle. 35% of fish caught off the British coast have plastic in their gut and 80% of the ocean plastic comes from the land.

Yet despite being a coastal city, in Brighton and Hove only a small amount of plastic can be collected for recycling – not pots, tubs or trays, whereas other Councils manage to recycle so much more. These restrictions are the result of a 25-year long contract struck under a previous Labour administration with the waste company Veolia.

Residents want to recycle more – but Labour have failed to challenge this contract. With 17 years of it to go, their inaction means the city will continue to lag behind on recycling. Just this week the Environmental Services Association said that the UK will struggle to meet targets for household recycling ‘due to a historic lack of funding and policy support in England.’ We can’t afford waste – and we can’t afford to waste time.

Under the previous administration, recycling levels dropped due to missed collections during a strike sparked by the equalisation of gender pay. Five years on, recycling figures are still appalling. What is the current administration’s excuse?

Proposals put forward for a plastic-free city by the Greens last November are moving at a snail’s pace under Labour. The city will wait until at least July before news on important changes, such as prohibiting the use of single-use plastics at city events, or ending the practice of purchasing unnecessary plastics in the Council’s supply chain. Although 30% or more of the refuse collected and sent for incineration in Newhaven is food, Labour voted against using money Greens put back in to the budget to kick-start a food waste collection service.

Greens set out a budget plan for a cleaner, greener city that also included weekend, year-round emptying of bins in city centre parks. Again, Labour voted against these proposals in coalition with the Conservatives. Their other attempts to tackle the problem – such as the 3GS littering enforcement agents – have proven to be deeply unpopular, fining people for putting things in the wrong bin; and with no remit to deal with the vast amount of litter left on the beach.

A rubbish litter strategy

Help certainly won’t come from the Conservative Government – who published a ‘litter strategy’ that ultimately puts the responsibility for clean streets on seemingly endless volunteers, instead of using available powers to encourage big companies to stop creating useless packaging, or reversing years of cuts to Council budgets.

The city needs a stronger strategy for reducing waste. Greens have led the way on banning single-use plastics. We are calling for an Environmental Impact Charge – so that huge events pay back to our city and contribute to clear up the mess that the extra footfall often leaves behind. We want to see a timetable for action that sets out the options for retro-fitting our recycling facilities to take more plastics, something that other local councils and local companies have been doing for many years.

We live in a city full of people already taking the lead on this – our fantastic small businesses and local trailblazers – like the Food Partnership, Claire Potter Design, HiSbE, Surfers Against Sewage, the Tempest Inn and other local groups are already pioneering new and innovative ways to deal with waste.

It was a Labour Council which tied the city into a 25-year contract which handed control of what we as a city are allowed to recycle to a private multi-national company. It was another Labour Council which cut the budgets of CityClean and CityParks to the point where they can no longer keep the city or our parks clean. In between, Labour prevented the Greens from trialling food waste collection schemes.

Dan Yates, the new Labour Leader of the Council recently wrote: “Unfortunately it appears beaches do not keep themselves clean, nor do parks, or even our streets.” No, Dan; they don’t. That, as a basic public service, is your job, and you’ve failed.

One thing is clear; whether it’s allowing residents to recycle what they want to recycle (be that plastic not shaped into bottles; or their food waste), or keeping our streets and public spaces clean and tidy, Labour are simply not up to the job.

The post Labour failing to get a grip on bins and litter appeared first on Brighton & Hove Green Party.

Convenor of the Green Group of Councillors, Councillor Phélim Mac Cafferty, commented:

“Labour’s Council leader has been ousted by his own divided party. But look around the city and signs of Labour’s self-implosion are everywhere. Graffiti, grime and litter have spiralled out of control. Plans for the Royal Pavilion are in tatters. School catchments reversed after huge public outcry. Despite pledging to end rough sleeping, Labour has failed to get a grip on homelessness, as temperatures plummet.

“At last week’s budget Labour made a deal with the Tories to pass on £12m of cuts while hiking Council tax by 6%. Labour voted down Green proposals to reverse cuts and provide more emergency homeless accommodation.
Instead of opposing Conservative austerity, plots to boot out their leader have been given priority.

“Greens are focused on making Brighton and Hove a city fit for the future. Our concern, is as ever, for residents, who will continue to suffer the consequences of the Labour party’s incompetence.

“What should worry everyone is that the favourite to replace Warren, Dan Yates, as Labour’s lead on health has made no effort to oppose cuts and the privatisation of our precious NHS. Everyone who supports our health service will be alarmed to hear this. Tweedledum will be replaced by Tweedledee.”

 
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In a blog post on his resignation, Warren Morgan stated he “would have wished to lead the Labour group […] However, the local Labour Party and others have made it clear they do not want me to do so.“

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