Protecting the environment, our citizens, our history and our streets

We're all responsible
As I walked to work on Monday morning I was infuriated to find seagull strewn litter just feet away from two substantial and empty bins and I tweeted about this. I was trying to make the point that while we have got to have good and effective street cleaning, refuse and recycling provision, there is also a real need to engage visitors and citizens of our fantastic city. We need a shared commitment to protecting our city, keeping it clean and sparkling.

  

Rubbish around the bin

Big bin nearby with rubbish in the background

Armed Forces week
The theme of protection continued with a ceremony on Monday to mark the start of Armed Forces week. Flags were raised at the Sussex County Cricket ground and an array of old soldiers, councillors and interested public met together at a flag raising overseen by the Lord Lieutenant and the High Sheriff. It was a poignant event where, under a blazing sun, smartly turned out marching cadets were warmly greeted and we remembered the protection that our armed forces afford or have afforded us over the last century.

Celebrating our biosphere
On Monday evening there was a reception to celebrate the designation of the wider Brighton area as the first UN biosphere in the UK in more than 40 years. A biosphere is an area internationally recognised by UNESCO as a leader in balancing conservation and development. Our Brighton and Lewes Downs biosphere is a block of land and sea between the River Adur at Shoreham in the West and the River Ouse at Newhaven in the East. Our bid could not have been successful without the support and work of more than 30 partners including other councils, the RSPB, the National Trust, the South Downs National park, universities, schools and businesses. Our Downs/ City/Coast host environment provides a wonderful habitat for many species of wildlife including a rare orchid and butterfly and we need to work together to ensure we continue to sustainably care for and develop it.

Protecting our children
Later in the week I met with our designated doctor for child protection, Dr Jamie Carter. Child protection is something that has been close to my professional heart for almost 40 years. On top of his day job as a paediatrician, he works for the CCG as the medical specialist lead for safeguarding children and contributes to our local safeguarding board arrangements. He works closely with colleagues in the council led by Pinaki Ghoshal as executive director of Children Services and also with the police and all our other agencies whose shared purpose is keeping the children of Brighton & Hove safe. His knowledge, commitment and team playing were all evident from our conversation and I congratulate him on taking on these responsibilities.

New developments
On Tuesday, Geoff Raw executive director of Environment, Development and Housing took me on a walking tour to examine progress with the Brighton Station gateway and New England Quarter. It was encouraging to see the pavement widening and planting on Queen’s Road and to see the developments at the station including the new café, The Cyclist Brighton, being run by Ed Johnstone which opened this week. 

The Cyclist cafe at Brighton station

I very much liked the design of the bar supported by suitcases and if the food and drink matched the interior design then it will be a really great addition to Brighton station. We also looked at the housing being developed by Hyde in the New England Quarter and walked through the Open Market which is already springing into life with new occupants joining every day in anticipation of a formal opening before long.

Geoff Raw, executive director EDH and Ed from The Cyclist cafe

A city of volunteers
At Brighton and Hove Connected, where community, voluntary, public service and business organisations come together to make real the commitments in the community strategy, we met this week to discuss the role of the community and voluntary sector and our aspirations for improving the life chances of children – two big issues. We learnt that the community and voluntary sector has grown to 2300 organisations in the city (a significant growth since over the last seven years) employing 6900 people with almost 28000 volunteers. This is a large contribution to the life of the city by anyone’s standards. Work will soon be underway to develop a new volunteering strategy for the city. There was a quiet consensus that we must ensure the best possible deployment of our volunteers to support, sustain and improve Brighton & Hove as a fantastic place. We need to tackle the very real inequalities that exist, even in an area as culturally and environmentally rich as ours. Our discussion led to the consensus that our city should be an “everybody friendly” city, which is in line with our council priorities.

To the cells
In a visit to the police cells in Brighton Town Hall, Paula Murray, assistant chief executive and myself, were given a tour by Pat Drake, its tireless supporter and curator. 

Pat Drake and Paula Murray, ACE

We saw protection of society in evidence in different ways. The museum provides not only a history of the police, but also a perspective on the history of Brighton & Hove, as it grew from fishing villages to a city punching its weight on the world’s stage.

Pat and me at the cells

So a theme of protection has been woven throughout my week encompassing the environment, our citizens (particularly the vulnerable ones), our history and our streets.

Let me end by recognising the achievement of those at the City College City Achievers Awards held at Brighton University last night. I accepted an award on behalf of the council as the 2014 winners of City College Brighton & Hove’s Outstanding Employer Contribution Award in recognition our support for apprenticeships with the College.  

All the winners

I attended with Carla Butler, our apprenticeship coordinator and Rachel Maddison, procurement apprentice with the council.  

Rachel Maddison and Carla Butler

Rachel is one of the council’s six new ‘Apprentice Ambassadors’ who will be visiting schools to tell them about apprenticeships.  Well done to everyone involved.

Have a good weekend.
Penny

Passionate about our city

Celebrating at the Level
The formal opening of the Level last Saturday was a happy, vibrant affair. When my partner and I arrived later in the afternoon, there was an absolute buzz about the place and a thoroughly good tea to be had at the WI stall. The skate park was feverishly busy as ever. We were really struck by well how the planting has settled and what a beautiful display there is. This photo barely does justice, but I would like to congratulate our park colleagues for their imagination and creativity in the sustainable gardens that they have produced. It is great to celebrate this renewed, safe and happy part of our city.

Planting on the Level

Celebrations on the Level

Banyan Tree Theatre group by Hannah Brackenbury

Keeping our citizens safe
I chair the Safe in the City partnership, which brings together the council, police, courts, community and voluntary sector and probation. We all work hard together to ensure that we reduce crime and keep our city and citizens safe. One issue on our agenda this week was the Syrian crisis and the concerns surrounding a small number of young people who are being persuaded that they should consider going over to Syria. Sadly one Brighton young person has already died in that conflict. All of the city’s public organisations and our Muslim community leaders share our common cause in wanting to prevent the radicalisation and death of any more young people. I hope that positive engagement and understanding will lead to a peaceful outcome for those young people for whom we have concern, and I am grateful for the enormous amount of work going to this end.

Happy news
The pursuit of happiness is an important aim and was the subject of last year’s annual report by Tom Scanlon our director of Public Health. This week we learnt that it had won the national prize for public health report of the year. I am immensely proud and delighted that Tom, his team and our graphic design team have been recognised for the work they have done. Colleagues at Public Health England informed me earlier in the year that the report had gone viral in their circles.

Our award winning report

Passionate about equalities
As I hope you know, I am passionate about promoting and championing the equalities agenda in the council and the city. We recently had a peer review of our progress against the local government equality standard and the results were encouraging; although we have no room for complacency. Clearly I can and must be an effective champion for the LGBT community. I don’t make an awful lot of noise about my gender or sexuality, but do hope that I am not only a role model, but also create the conditions for all protected groups in the council to flourish, be respected and to feel valued.

Our new LGBT workers forum logo

Out with our Cityclean crews
Finally this week, I would like to thank Doug, James and Craig the refuse crew, who allowed me to join them at 7am yesterday morning to do part of their round including Dyke Road Avenue, Chalfont Drive and Tongdean Avenue. I wanted to see at first hand the challenges of working on refuse and recycling and I certainly did that. On this particular round there is an awful lot of walking to do for a relatively small amount of refuse collected. Incidentally, we spotted a Jay and a Woodpecker along the way which was a lovely bonus. 

In the cab with Doug, Craig and James

Craig and James hard at work

 After my time with the refuse crew, I joined a recycling crew led by Steve Parsons and accompanied by another Steve and Dave and we were collecting recycling north of Hove Park. Again, I was struck by the challenges of doing the work. The team were flexible in their response to residents’ different approaches to putting out their recycling and I was really impressed with the quality of customer focus. By break time I was quite exhausted and I returned to normal duties, exhilarated by the conversations and the hard work of the morning. Many thanks to both crews and the managers who made the arrangements.

Steve Parsons and Sean South

And overnight you may have heard a couple of things; that Council Leader Jason Kitcat has announced that he will not be standing in the next local elections in 2015 following discussion with his family. Jason will continue to lead the council until May 2015.  And also that we were highly commended in UK Digital City category at last night's MJ Awards 2014 so well done to us!

Have a good weekend.

Penny

Improving our local environment

Remembering
For those of us born after the Second World War it’s particularly powerful to recognise and remember those who fought in that conflict to provide us with a safe, secure and democratic society.  Last Friday’s remembrance ceremony in Brighton with the Lord Lieutenant, High Sheriff and Mayor, as well as many other councillors and members of the public was a fitting commemoration of D-Day. Held under a blazing sun, it was a day in stark contrast to the cold November remembrance days that we are all used to.

Remembrance ceremony

At the Chattri

This was followed on Sunday afternoon by another sunny ceremony, this time at the Chattri up at the Downs.  It was to remember and honour the many Indian soldiers who lost their lives fighting for this country in the First World War, again in pursuit of a safe and peaceful world. Many of these were wounded and cared for in Brighton & Hove, including in the Pavilion which acted as a hospital in the first years of the war. A substantial crowd at the ceremony was addressed movingly by the Indian High Commissioner who looked over the Downs and reflected on the Memorial as being set in a little piece of India. This was a moving annual event.

Celebrations
Talking of the wonderful Downs, I am delighted that the partnership bid led by Brighton & Hove City Council to become a UNESCO World Biosphere site has paid off. So now we become part of an international family of areas that are leading the way in bringing the needs of people and nature closer together. It’s great that our efforts to look after and improve our local environment will move now to take its place on the world’s stage. A highly motivated team of colleagues have driven the achievement of this award and biosphere designation and I am really grateful to them. 

Biosphere Celebrations

While I am celebrating awards, I am also delighted that this week we received an award from the Centre for Public Scrutiny for the trans equality work that has been led by our Trans and Equalities teams. The award was for achievement, insight and impact, and I can certainly testify that members of the trans community that I have met with have told me how much this work has meant to them. Already I see our awareness increasing and the respect, care and learning for and from this community being demonstrated. Only yesterday I spoke at a school where I was able to raise some trans awareness in answer to a question I had posed to young people about if there are any jobs that women cannot fulfil.  

Our universities
I’ll be surprised if the Waste House now opened at Brighton University’s arts campus doesn’t win awards. It was wonderful to be shown around by Duncan Baker-Brown, its architect, and lecturer at the University of Brighton. As the picture shows our own Chief Superintendent Nev Kemp enjoyed the tour too. Hanging in the Waste House was a lovely wooden sustrans bike made by Rowan Tindale from reclaimed wood from one of the old groins salvaged by the wood store. This was exhibited as part of the university’s fantastic annual degree show and was part of a showcase of wonderful art produced by the final year art students.

Chief Superintendent Nev Kemp with Duncan Baker-Brown

Our universities make such a fine contribution to our city and its economy and this exhibition gave just a glimpse of that creativity and energy. When we visited, there were many residents, proud parents and councillors all enjoying the show.

Wooden sustrans bike made by Rowan Tindale 

A brilliant job
I’ve said before that I’m often struck by the enthusiasm and commitment of our staff. This was certainly the case when I met Mark Bonner last Saturday when he was lifeguarding for our seafront services.

Mark Bonner, lifeguard

He referred to his as a brilliant job where he sees himself as a tourist guide and city ambassador as well as a life saver. He told me a couple of scary stories from the last week, and demonstrated that his skilled presence was certainly saving lives. He ended on a note of appreciating the values that we are driving in the council.

He told me that the camaraderie that he is experiencing in the seafront services outshines that which he has experienced before, even in that height of camaraderie organisations, the armed services. So on that happy note and with his smiling picture and a waving flag I wish you a sunny weekend. 

Best Wishes
Penny

A fantastic place

As I walked out last night to see the sunset over Hove Lagoon after what had been another long day, I really did reflect on what a fantastic place Brighton & Hove is to live work and visit.

Sunset at Hove Lagoon

This is the final line of our ambition for the city which was agreed with all our partners in Brighton & Hove Connected. And it formed the first line to our Peer Challenge team who have spent this week with us led by Adam Wilkinson, chief executive of Derby City Council. The team was a mix of political and managerial leaders supported by the Local Government Association who came to look and listen, particularly to listen, and to then give us feedback on how we are doing in working towards achieving our ambitions and rising to our challenges. We won’t receive their report for another few weeks but we got some headline feedback and received some encouraging messages about the journey of change and improvement that we have embarked upon. The team were universally positive about the passion and openness from staff and our partners and I am grateful to everyone who took the trouble to be involved – thank you.

We are unique

So while we wait for more detailed feedback we can crack on with delivering our plans for this year.  We are wrestling with the very real and difficult task of planning for the next and subsequent years, which will see us needing to make even bigger changes to adapt to reducing finances that we will have at our disposal. Our success in making reductions over the past years must not lull us into a false sense of security, as the review team confirmed, just doing more of the same is not going to achieve what we need to. So we are having to look radically at doing things, stopping some things and of course continuing to work hard to ensure the economy of the city thrives and we can maximise income from business rates.

i360 - just one of our solutions

Counting our lucky stars while addressing our city’s challenges was a theme of a conversation that I had with Nick Morrison, one of our road sweepers, when he was coming down Grand Avenue, very early on Tuesday morning. Nick enjoys his job working for us and also regularly volunteers at a nature reserve and was enthusiastic about that part of his life as well. He too reflected on how much we have to be appreciative of living in this city. Our street sweeping, refuse, recycling and seafront teams are a key part of the eyes and ears of the city helping to keep it both clean and also safe. 

Nick Morrison on Grand Avenue

At the moment we are at the start of a big programme of management development. Its purpose is to support us embedding our culture of high performance and improving our services to all the city’s residents and improve the experience of our staff within the council. The programme is titled living our values, every day and on Wednesday morning I went to open one of the groups in the programme which was starting this week.

Richard Dunston, programme facilitator

Each group is being introduced by a member of ELT so that we reinforce how important we see this programme as a development opportunity for every participant. This is also a key development opportunity for the whole of the council focussing on the performance of ourselves, others and service. Our behaviour must be guided by our values ensuring that we behave in a way that promotes and ensures respect, openness, creativity, customer focus, efficiency and collaboration. Already I am receiving positive feedback from participants in the programme and offers to get even more involved in the changes we are making within the council. This is really encouraging.

A group of our managers at the course

Another group at the course

Late on Wednesday, I was the lunch time speaker at Moulsecoomb Rectory, where Father John hosted local public servants and community workers to join him for lunch. I was asked to say a few words about myself and about the role of chief executive and my focus and purpose in that role. I talked about a long held ambition to make a difference through public service to motivate and inspire staff and to help make this a better place. Father John’s catering was superb, but I didn’t manage to take a photo!

I will end where I began which is with the Peer Challenge. What I gained from this week’s learning exercise is that we are set on a course  of improving our performance, deepening our partnership working and improving outcomes for all our citizens. In doing all of this we have got to become even bolder in our proposals to meet the financial challenges over the next few years and to have the courage  to contemplate doing some things very differently. We have got to be open with our citizens and communities about the scale of the financial challenge we face and fashion a response together.

This afternoon I will be laying a wreath as part of the memorial services for the 70th anniversary of the D-Day landings. I am sure it will be a poignant moment and it is always important to remember what those in previous generations did to ensure our safety and wellbeing. I salute their sacrifice. Lest we forget.

Enjoy your weekend and thanks for all that you do to keep our city a fantastic place to work, live and visit.

Penny