Nancy was swift to act when contacted by concerned residents of the St Peter’s and North Laine area, about mature plane trees being cut down. She sent a letter to the Brighton and Hove City Council, and last Fridayshe led a team to Clyde Road to speak with residents and gather support for a petition. Nancy’s letter asked residents whether they had been consulted and whether they wanted “the plane trees to be managed and not cut down”.

Keen to appear on the new Argus online candidate map, Nancy ‘Tweeted’ her location. This is clearly monitored by the “powers that be”, as no sooner than the last door had been knocked, council representatives appeared with a letter admitting they had been hasty: “it is possible in hindsight that shorter term and less drastic options could have also been contained in the letter, originally meant as a start to continued consultation..”

Nancy said “I am pleased that the Council are having a rethink, as most of the residents I spoke to were unhappy about the proposal to cut the trees down, and said they had not been consulted. I think this has got to be the speediest resolution to a campaign I have ever had, the Argus online candidate map clearly has influence!”

There is a “drop in” session at the Calvary Church in nearby Viaduct Road on Wednesday, February 24th between 6pm and 8pm where residents can speak to council officers about concerns.

Whilst everyone else recognises the vital role public transport has to play in improving air quality in Brighton, improving the independence of older people and young people, as well as cutting carbon emissions to tackle climate change. It seems the Tories don't.

I’m opposed to these cuts to public transport, as are my Labour colleagues on the City Council.

Here we go again, same old Tory cuts. Just think what they’d be cutting if they were in government.

Pavements have been treacherous and many residential side streets have not been gritted. It’s a disgrace. Of course, that’s not a reflection of the very hard working council workers who have getting out there and clearing snow and gritting. They’ve been doing their best in adverse conditions.

That’s why it’s great that so many people have taken the time to clear the patch outside their homes or businesses. Hats off to everyone who has done that: it’s made getting about much safer.

Some people have asked whether clearing the paths makes the person who cleared the snow and ice liable should someone hurt themselves. I’m pleased that the council has provided some guidance on that. The good news is, you don’t need to worry and can get clearing!

The council website says:

http://www.brighton-hove.gov.uk/index.cfm?request=b1157184

Advice for residents clearing pavements

While we cannot give categorical legal advice for residents wishing to clear the pavements in their streets, we can say that it is unlikely to give rise to legal liability. Following any accidents, the claimant would need to show that:
1. the way the householder tried to clear the ice created or made the situation worse
2. the injury sustained is the result of the actions of the householder and not just snow/ice
3. the actions of the householder were not what one would expect a reasonable householder to have done
4. it was reasonably foreseeable that their action would cause damage or injury to passers by

It is therefore unlikely that any such claims would succeed.

Crime and the fear of crime are often high on peoples’ list of concerns about their local community and recent high profile homophobic hate crimes, including the horrific murder of Andrea Waddell in Brighton, have created a sense urgency to take action here at home.

We talked about a variety of ideas and approaches. I thought the idea that LGBT groups (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) link up with the Black and Minority Ethnic communities to explore the similarities in their experience was a good one. Minority groups have plenty of experiences to share and it is only by standing together and sharing understanding as one community that we can successfully tackle hate crime.

No decent society can accept acts of violence or bigotry and we must never tolerate those who would have us live in fear of walking down the street or speaking out against abuse. But I also don’t want LGBT and minority ethnic issues to be niches or distant from other groups in our community. I want to explore how we bring a broader section of our community in to tackle these problems.

In Brighton especially we shouldn’t be thinking about an LGBT community separate from everyone else. In particular, I’d like to see other community groups (regardless of sexuality or background) getting involved and helping out. I’d love to hear your ideas on how we might make that happen.

Leadership is also essential. I know that Spectrum will do its best to support any new initiative but they are not funded by the Police or Partnership Community Safety Team and the Council is cutting their funding by a quarter from April. I’ll be asking Labour colleagues on the City Council about what can be done about that.
Since this meeting, I have arranged to meet the Police to discuss how crimes and ‘incidents’ are being recorded as this was clearly a major issue for people at the meeting and plenty of them, including me, wanted better answers.

It’s important to be optimistic. We have amazing people in this City and no problem is insurmountable, we have to believe we can create positive change within our communities. But it will take time, effort and energy to make progress. Like many others at the meeting, I’m personally willing to make that commitment. I hope that many other citizens in our city will too.

After six months of talks the Conservative Council is proposing cuts to pay of up to £8,000. It is nothing short of disgraceful that cuts on this scale could be proposed as a means to resolve the equal pay dispute. Many refuse collectors would be faced with the prospect of earning less than half the average salary in Brighton. In the circumstances it is not surprising that there was a 94% vote for strike action.

I wrote to the Council on their behalf, held a residents meeting and organised a petition. Over fifty residents signed the letter to Brighton and Hove City Council asking them to take action to sort out speeding traffic and stop 38-tonne lorries using the street as a short cut to get to the new industrial estate at the bottom of Freshfield Road.

By July 2009, frustrated residents were threatening a sit-down protest and despite this being reported in The Argus, unbelievably we still had no action from Brighton and Hove City Council and no interest from local Green Councillors! You may have read about it in the Argus.

I suggested the residents go to the full Council meeting because the response from the Council had been so poor. There was no way residents in Carlyle Street should have to put up with this noise pollution for years before action is taken. You can see the picture of the deputation arriving at the Council offices in Hove below.

Local resident Gerry Kassab, who has been a resident of Carlyle Street for 19 years said,

“We are under siege from the flow of traffic and we cannot open street facing windows. When we ask drivers to slow down we are meet with a barrage of abuse, the noise, vibration and pollution at peak times is unbearable. I am staggered at the size of vehicles trying to get up the street; they travel so close to our houses at such speeds, it makes our windows rattle!”

"It is becoming unbearable and today we want to let the Council know that we want action now. We can’t wait until 2011 before they even complete their review!"

Finally, the problem could be ignored no longer and the Council agreed to meet with the deputation and take action.

Thanks to The Argus for covering our story here.

If you have a problem like this in your street, let me know and let’s get some action!