Out in the open

Last sunny Saturday saw the second Trans Pride and first ever Trans* Pride parade held in Brighton and attended and enjoyed by many. I am delighted that the work we have been doing over the past year with the trans community is being recognised near and far, and I look forward to a meeting with the new Chief Executive of Stonewall, Ruth Hunt, to talk particularly about trans issues early in the autumn. 

Spectators watching the Trans* Pride photo Sharon@alonglines

Stormy Weather

As we all know, the weekend’s glorious, hot, bright weather gave way to the most extraordinary local storm early on Monday morning. Kings House was struck by lightning and the basement was flooded.  





Phil Slydel



Mike De Freitas



Erdvilius Latvaitis

The water came within millimetres of putting out all our electrics. As it was, our fire alarm system is completely kaput and we have put in a temporary solution whilst replacement parts are sourced. 

 

As ever, in a crisis colleagues rallied brilliantly well and with effective leadership and the support of our Civil Contingencies team we managed to sustain services and temporarily rehome Kings House staff. Thanks to everybody who responded so magnificently. When I went down to the basement to inspect the damage and witness the clear up I met Phil Slydel and Mike De Freitas, both electricians in our facilities team, supported by Erdbilius Latvaitis. They and their pumps prevented the damage being much worse and I am grateful to them and Martin Hedgecock for their quick and effective action in unpleasant circumstances.

Opening the Seafront Arches

By Tuesday, the weather had taken a turn for the brilliant and therefore our celebration of the opening of the seafront arches and the start of the building of the i360 was a blisteringly sunny event.  

Mayor, Councillor Brian Fitch opening the arches

 



Project Manager Leon Bellis

The seafront arches have been restored to a very high standard and it was a pleasure to meet the project manager, Leon Bellis at the opening undertaken by the Mayor, Councillor Brian Fitch. An enthusiastic gathering of local people as well as those directly involved in these two major regeneration projects shared the sunshine and optimism on the day and we all look forward to seeing the i360 take shape over the coming couple of years and the next phase of arches restoration get underway.

Our happiness

On Tuesday evening the Health and Wellbeing Board met and appproved two important documents. Firstly, Happiness: Brighton & Hove Mental Health Wellbeing Strategy and secondly the Director of Public Health's annual report. The Happiness strategy is a direct result of last year’s annual public health report and focuses on the importance of improving resilience and mental wellbeing and preventing mental ill health as well as ensuring responsive and high quality services. It builds on the national “Five Ways to Wellbeing: Connect, Be Active, Take Notice, Keep Learning, Give.” It introduces champions for mental health and wellbeing and an action plan. 

 

Tom Scanlon’s annual report, this year entitled 2024 is focused on taking available data and research and painting a picture of where Brighton & Hove may be by 2024.

 

The purpose of this is to engage us all in activities that might address the key public health issues over the next 10 years and prevent the worst aspects of them coming to fruition.  This creative approach to focusing on public health follows in a good tradition of creative and effective public health reports and again I hope that you will take time to look at it.

Storm recovery

On Wednesday we realised that the thunder and lightning on Monday had actually caused a good deal of damage to our IT equipment and capability in the council and particularly in Kings House. I am sorry for this and can only commend the hard work of the ICT team in working to restore connectivity and reliability of service. Please be patient with them. 

Open budget

Also this week we have published and updated budget briefing explaining the cost of services provided by Brighton & Hove City Council this year, where the money comes from, the size of our budget challenge over the next five years and answering a number of questions about the approach we’re taking to addressing the budget challenge. More information will be coming out over the next weeks and months and we look forward to engaging with staff and trade unions about the opportunities and well as the challenges of doing better and differently with less.

Open council

This week we have received the report from the CorporatePeer Challenge that was undertaken in June. Again, the report is being published in full and is a helpful and fair document which acknowledges the energy we are committing to making progress, it also pulls no punches in highlighting the scale of our challenges. These include ICT infrastructure and the budget, both of which have already been mentioned. I hope that everybody will read the review and I can assure you that it is contributing to our thinking and planning for the Corporate Plan and budget.

Open CEO

 

Finally, as they prepare for their 40^th birthday celebrations, Brighton Women’s Centre invited me to participate in a photo project they’re running. Here is my photo contribution, describing why I’m proud to be a woman today. I wish them well for their celebrations, I thank them for their contribution to Brighton & Hove and look forward to working with them over the coming years. 

I sign off looking forward to a weekend of Pride and hoping that the weather holds and that we all enjoy ourselves out in the open.

Best wishes,

Penny