A new council

Hello everybody

If this week’s blog is rather full of flowers, fauna, seascapes and references to the Festival, don’t be under any illusion, I have been at work! However, much of my working time has been taken up in confidential meetings with politicians and senior officers.
There is nothing unusual in this. With a new incoming Administration there is a great deal of handover discussion to take place, and that’s what has been happening. Now that we have had Annual Council and positions have been formally approved I will be able to talk more about business again.

I’d like to start by congratulating Councillor Warren Morgan on being leader of the council. I also want to welcome all of the Chairs and Members of Committees into their roles and reiterate my complete commitment to the provision of good support and advice from officers for all 54 councillors and each of the three Leaders of the political groups on the council.

Flowers and festivals

Sunday seems a long time ago, but it was a lovely day and my partner and I discovered the beautiful gardens of Highdown in Worthing, kept up by Worthing Borough Council. What a delight!

Visiting Highdown gardens before a busy week of meetings 

Beautiful flowers at Highdown - well worth a visit!

In the evening I had the pleasure of attending a Festival event at All Saints, Hove where we heard the “BBC’s Ten Pieces” played by Brighton & Hackney youth orchestras.  What a glorious event that was. 

The glorious Brighton & Hackney youth orchestras

After that and in some contrast we were able to hear a Brighton Fringe event which was the wonderful Edana Minghella, a Brighton resident and jazz singer, giving us her rendition of many Billie Holliday songs and telling the story of Billie Holiday, that fantastic American jazz singer. 

The wonderful Edana Mingella

Appreciating our seafront

Many of my meetings this week have been in Kings House and have concentrated on the establishment of the new administration. We won’t be based here forever. The refurbishment of Hove Town Hall will allow us to downsize council offices, sell Kings House and reduce running costs.

Kings House

So those of us who work at Kings House must continue to appreciate the seafront location while we have it. After long and concentrated discussions it was a delight on Wednesday evening to enjoy a walk at low tide and to even see sand!

An evening stroll on the seafront after work

One voice

Just before Annual Council I was proud to attend the One Voice event down at the Open Market. One Voice is a group of citizens of all faiths united in their determination to prevent radicalisation taking a hold, particularly of their young people and I was proud that as a council we have played our part in facilitating the development of this communities group.

With Asmat Roe at the One Voice event

One Voice promoting the work of an orphanage in Sierra Leone

Speakers at One Voice alongside Dr Tom Scanlon

As Asmat, from the Brighton & Hove Womens Muslim Forum said “One Voice is everybody feeling happy and valued; we are all humans; we must value everyone in the community; and the most important thing is love for everyone”. The event was addressed by leaders of all three political groups on the council who fully endorsed the aspirations of One Voice.

Annual Council

From One Voice in the Open Market, I dashed to Annual Council where, by acclamation, the new Civic Mayor, Lynda Hyde was sworn in.

Lynda Hyde sworn in as Mayor

Pinaki, Paula, Geoff, Denise and Rachel from ELT at the Annual Council 

The outgoing Mayor, Brian Fitch was thanked for his service over the year and for almost 40 years in the council. There was an air of civic pride and celebration to the proceedings in the chamber and the reception at the Royal Pavilion afterwards.

Procession of the Mayor and Deputy Mayor

Katherine’s positive personal impact

On my walk into work this morning I was caught up and stopped by Katherine Eastland who works in our schools data team. She ensures that our information on children and their performance is accurate and complete. She is part of Hilary Ferris’s performance unit and a proud and committed member of Children’s Services.

Her enthusiasm, knowledge and positive personal impact glowed as she told me about her work, her colleagues and their passion for what they do. This is public service at its best; often unseen and undervalued. Thank you Katherine and all those others I don’t see on the way into work!

Katherine Eastland from Children's Services

A fantastic place to live, work and visit

So let me end by saying that now we have a new council for four years with a very challenging set of circumstances in which to play out their ambitious agenda. The administration’s aim is to tackle inequality and unfairness, grow the economy and make real our core purpose of improving wellbeing and aspiration. This will ensure that Brighton & Hove remains a fantastic place to live, work and visit.

As ever we will all continue to work hard, living our values every day and working with partners across sectors, to achieve excellent outcomes for everyone.


Thank you and enjoy the Bank Holiday weekend.